Annapolis Capital Punishment

CP received the following letter came from Kelly Davis:

I’m responding to an article you posted April 24 to your blog about Alderman Shropshire’s legislation to ban plastic checkout bags. You say, “Besides that, the ban failed here because of Sam's inability to consider alternatives that might have been more effective and might have been passed by his colleagues.” I’m an environmental scientist and have been assisting Alderman Shropshire with the legislation since June 2007. I continue to work closely with Alderman Shropshire in reference to this and other important environmental issues.

In November 2007, exactly one week before the final vote on the bag ban legislation (O-27-07) there was a meeting sponsored by Alderman Shropshire, David Prosten of the Anne Arundel County Sierra Club and me. It was attended by four other aldermen and alderwomen. In that meeting we offered a compromise legislation that would have put a fee of 15 cents per plastic and paper checkout bag distributed by Annapolis retailers. We asked the alderman present who would support this compromise. We tallied the votes—there were five! But by the following Monday morning the money and work of lobbyist Bruce Bereano and the American Chemistry Council had taken its toll. The compromise was rejected and Alderman Shropshire’s legislation failed.

Had the compromise legislation passed that evening, Annapolis would have led the nation as the first city to encourage the use of reusable shopping bags.

Alderman Shropshire’s efforts, however, have not been in vain. The mayor’s weaker substitute legislation did include a required 40 percent reduction in the distribution of plastic checkout bags by major retailers by the end of June 2009. And Alderman Shropshire’s efforts received great press coverage around the world and throughout the US. Since then more than 70 US cities and counties have considered or passed legislation, and among those passing the legislation have been Los Angeles, Seattle and Maui County, Hawaii.

In addition, Alderman Shropshire has been working with the DC City Council and the Baltimore City Council to encourage legislation in those cities, as well as speaking in favor of the legislation recently considered by the Virginia and Maryland state governments. (Seventeen states are now considering some form of bag ban legislation.)

And Sam has encouraged the national legislation that Congressman Jim Moran introduced that will charge a five cent fee nationwide for the use of commercial checkout bags. (The funds raised will be applied to cleaning up American waterways and other environmental causes.)

Alderman Shropshire deserves great credit for his courage and leadership. His success in Annapolis may not have been with passage of the first municipal legislation; however, he has inspired thousands throughout the US and the world.

In regards to your question as to where Annapolis wastes goes—Alderman Shropshire has taken leaders from our city on a tour of the Elkridge Recycling Center—where Annapolis trash is recycled. It’s a very interesting tour. If anyone reading your blog would like to go on this tour, please contact Alderman Shropshire at friends@friendsofsam.com.

Sincerely,

Kelly Davis 

And CP responds:   Dear Ms. Davis. Thank you very much for your note. I am a lifelong environmental activist and  wrote a lengthy research article on the paper versus plastic issue while I was a journalism graduate student. I also have almost exclusively used reusable canvas bags for grocery shopping for a decade. I  met with Alderman Shropshire and attended one of his meetings on this issue. I personally urged him to rethink and refashion his bill from an edict into one of a win-win situation with community and public-private cooperation by having local non-profits sell canvas bags, perhaps with social-marketing themes at the grocery stores. He kept returning to the theme of "This will be a shot heard around the world" and appeared more interested in publicity and impact elsewhere. I suggested that other environmental issues were a more important priority locally. Sam would not budge although it was clear that council support was weak. If he
had been more practical and willing to compromise early on to achieve real results here, he might have been more successful. While his efforts here may very well have led to efforts elsewhere, we must remember two things. It is an alderman's job to pass legislation here and there have been bans and similar laws in place long before Alderman Shrophsire introduced his legislation.

He tried to do a similar thing with the misguided Bisphenyl-A bill to which I testified in opposition and he insulted and impugned the motives of lobbyist Bruce Bereano. I don't like deep-pockets Bereano or his deep-pockets clients either and I am glad Shropshire puts polluters on the offensive but berating a citizen who is testifying is a no-no. This business of him being a knight in shining green armor is a bit much. This is why I wrote he "never met an environmental regulation he did not like" and "what worries me is that he may be more interested 'in giving inspiration to our county, our state and the nation' than in achieving real results here and now." Shropshire is an ardent environmental activist, but being ardent does not necessarily equate to being verdant. 

Shropshire is deeply concerned about our environmental health and I applaud him for his willingness to think and talk and act about these tough issues. I believe I was fair in my lengthy and detailed response to his environmental policy statement.


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