Landscape workers in Sonoma, Calif., got a last-minute break when the city council voted 3-2 against a ban on the use of gas-powered leaf blowers within city limits. Mayor Ken Brown cast the deciding vote against the ordinance, despite initial support, after hearing from stakeholders that would have been impacted by the ban.

An ordinance prohibiting the use of gas-powered leaf blowers, expected to sail through the Sonoma, Calif., city council, was blocked when the city's mayor reversed positions and cast the deciding vote against the proposal.

"I'm firm in my conviction that I did the right thing," Mayor Ken Brown told the Press-Democrat Tuesday.

Sonoma currently restricts hours when leaf blowers can be used to from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday in residential areas, and in city parks on the same days between the hours of 7 a.m. and 4 p.m.

The proposed ban was expected to pass after a final reading during the city council meeting on October 21. Brown, however, pulled the item for discussion, referencing an email he and other council members had received earlier that day from a minister, asking them to put themselves in the shoes of stakeholders who would be affected by the ordinance.

"These are hard-working entrepreneurs, and so I put myself in their shoes. It was a revelation," Brown said Tuesday.

The reversal was a surprise, given Brown's initial support for the ban. He was part of a council majority that voted to draft the ordinance, which the mayor supported at its first reading October 7.

After taking public comment during the meeting, including from several landscapers, Brown and two other councilmembers voted 3-2 against the ban.