Aye. Deputy Majority Whip Vanderblois. Aye. Councilwoman Anthony. Majority leader Espinal?
Aye. Aye. Senior deputy majority leader Gonzales? Aye. Councilwoman Graves?
Aye. Deputy majority leader Harris? Aye. Councilwoman Peterson is absent. Council president Pro Tempur Pichardo?
Councilwoman Ryan? Aye. Majority Whip Sanchez? Aye. Councilman Taylor.
Aye. Councilwoman Anna Vargas. Aye. Councilman Oscar Vargas. Aye.
You have 13 ayes, one abstention, one absent. The motion carries. The matter is passed for the second time on a
roll call vote. Thank you, madam clerk. Item five, please.
Majority leader. Motion to waive
the reading of item five and pass for the second time on a roll call vote.
Second that motion. We have a
motion and a second. Any discussion on item five? Hearing none, madam clerk, please call the roll. Council president Miller. Aye.
Deputy majority whip Anderbois. Aye. Councilwoman Anthony. Aye. Majority leader Espinal.
Senior deputy majority leader Gonsalves. Aye. Councilwoman Graves. Nay. Deputy majority leader Harris.
Aye. Councilwoman Peterson is absent. Council president Pro Tempur Pichardo. Aye. Councilor Royas?
Councilwoman Ryan? Aye. Majority Whip Sanchez? Aye. Councilman Taylor?
Councilwoman Anna Vargas. Councilman Oscar Vargas. Aye. You have 11 ayes, two nays, one abstention, one absent. The motion carries.
The matter is passed for the second time on a roll call vote.
Thank you, madam clerk. Item six, please.
I you to waive the reading of items six through 10.
Second, madam president. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion on items six, Madam president. Councilor Anderbaugh.
Thank you so much. I rise to talk briefly, I promise, about items seven and eight. Item seven, street, sidewalks, and public places. I just wanted to give you a little bit of background, but this will come up in committee. I'm just looking to address what seems to be a persistent issue that I know many of us have faced, that the gas utility will tear up our roads to upgrade the pipes underneath, but we get no notice.
Our constituents get almost no notice, and it disrupts our lives and the lives of our constituents. I know I've heard from many residents who've gotten maybe twelve hours notice and or have had the utility damage their property in the process of of dealing with the pipes. I've spoken with DPW, I've spoken with the utility, and I've spoken with the public utilities commission to better understand the current practice and what we're currently requiring and believe we need some changes. And as many of us know, the utility business model actually rewards utility for investments in its physical infrastructure, which can be great. It incentivizes them to actually take care of what they have, but also their rate of return is dependent on doing more and more of these upgrades to their investments.
They have an incentive to really maximize the amount of pipe that they're replacing. They don't really have an incentive to slow down or let us know what's happening. And so the city cannot prohibit expanding gas or anything like that and this 100% does not do that. It just ensures that there's a process for planning, there's transparency for us and our constituents, and that the utility is also sharing information with our constituents about other services they offer beyond the ones that just make them the highest return, things like energy efficiency and electrification as part of their process. I'll note that there is an exemption for emergencies.
So if there is some sort of emergency pipe replacement, like a true emergency, we're not trying to prevent that. And so I just wanna make sure that our residents aren't paying the price with shoddy roads and poor infrastructure so the utility can make more money. So I'd love to engage with you. Maybe what's in here isn't the exact right process, but it seems to be better than what we have now and would love to make sure we're working on this together. The second is the leaf blowers.
I know that this is gonna garner a lot of conversation and I'm excited for us to learn and make adjustments as it goes. Also a thank you to Councilwoman Ryan who's already sent in some really great edits that we'll certainly make. But what this does at its heart is really just addressing gas powered leaf blowers which are a huge, like actually quite a large source of carbon pollution and other forms of air pollution in our city. Cities across the country have also already begun limiting their use because of this pollution. Leaf blowers are also really terrible for the soil and for insects and pollinators.
Just like really, really bad, you guys. I'll be quick. I also really wanna give a shout to an intern I have, Juliana, with a group run on climate who helped with a lot of really great research from about 10 other municipalities and how they've handled this. But this is really a first, not a first, this is really an attempt to look at how we phase out gas powered leaf blowers. And so it's timed intentionally to be in line with the useful life of if someone were to buy a new gas powered leaf blower right now, we're not trying to make them switch it out before the useful life is over.
So it's really timed with that and also the state's renewable energy standard, like let's clean up the grid before we are having people switch to all electric. And we'll note two things. One, as really great timing, today the state office of energy released their, or announced launched their program to provide incentives for folks who are switching to electric leaf blowers that actually launched earlier today. So it's really great timing. And on December 11, we're gonna have an environment committee meeting where the Office of Energy is gonna present about that program.
And we're also gonna hear from parks and sustainability about the pilot program they've been doing in the parks. So I'm really looking forward to the full conversation. I know many around the table are interested in this. I know I've heard from my constituents so much about this. So I just wanted to explain what was in there and what's not.
But thank you all so much, and I look forward to more conversation.
Thank you, Councilor. Further discussion? Councilman Taylor.
Madam President, question for the sponsor, number eight. Is it gas powered leaf blowers, or because on here it says gas powered lawn equipment, which could be included in lawn mowers as well.
Oh, yeah. Right now, it's just leaf blowers. We can update that, yeah.
Okay. I just wanna make sure. Thank you. Councilman Gonshoff.
Thank you, madam president. I just wanna thank the sponsor for her leadership on this. A lot of us, particularly on the East Side, but I'm sure across the entire city, hear about the leaf blower challenges, specifically as it relates to the noise ordinance and how it undermines quality of life. So these are two ordinances that are a step in the right direction, and I'm proud to cosponsor these items. And I urge some of my colleagues to also join us in this effort.
I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of conversation during the committee process, and we look forward to those conversations. But I do ask that folks keep an open mind, and we do everything that we can to advance both of these ordinances forward as I think they're gonna have a tremendous impact on the city of Providence. Thank you, madam president.
Thank you, counselor. Further discussion on items six through 10? Councilmember Graves. Yes. Mine is the tenth.
Can you hear me now? Okay. Mine is is 10. The Camping Island Public Property. I know this is was supposed to be trying to show respect and and all that other stuff for for the homeless which I have no problem with.
But when I was reading it, it said it it includes the parks and which is the pox and the playgrounds, and that I have a problem with, and I hope that you guys will address that in in your committee. That's all.
Thank you, counselor. Further discussion on items six through 10? Councilman Sanchez.
Thank you, madam president. Yeah. There's gonna be place in in the committee to have more dialogue. What this essentially does is prohibit penalizing people that already having a a really hard time, our unhoused community here in Providence. I do wanna be clear that it doesn't prohibit our law enforcement or EMS from doing what they need to do in emergency and and other quality of life.
But what this would would do solely is prohibit giving folks tickets for sleeping camping on public property. But welcome any discussions in the committee, and feel free to reach out before to to have conversations around this.
Thank you. Excuse me. Further discussion on items six through 10?
Hearing none. Oh, madam president, I would like to be Councilman Taylor.
