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Blower Business
Legislative Conference Tackles Leaf Blowers and Other Equipment
ROWLAND HEIGHTS, CA

The Coalition for Fair Legislation and the California Landscape Contractors Association (CLCA) coordinated a conference on legislative strategy regarding leaf blowers and other lawn and garden equipment last November at the California Chamber of Commerce in Sacramento.

Among the speakers were legislators, key legislative staff members, lobbyists who worked on the 1998 leaf blower bills, Landscape Contractors, the Association of Latin American Gardeners, the Lawn and Garden Equipment Manufacturer Dealer Coalition, and distributors of lawn and garden equipment.

According to Barbara Alvarez, CLCA State Legislative Committee Chair, "Organizers hoped to arrive at a consensus on what can be learned from recent experiences, what is achievable this year, and what CLCA can contribute to the effort."

In the meantime, the City of Menlo Park initiative to ban leaf blowers-- which took the issue out of the hands of the City Council and put it before the voters-- was successfully rescinded in the November election.