9:10am | Stephen L. Joseph, counsel for the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, says that contrary to implications made by the Robert Wideman campaign, neither Joseph nor the Coalition took part in “discussions” with Wideman or his representatives.
Joseph contacted the Long Beach Post late last week in order to provide the clarification.
“There were no discussions in the sense of any cooperation,” Joseph says. “We have no connection with him.”
Joseph says that on December 28 or 29 he received a phone call from the campaign that lasted a couple of minutes.
“They said they were planning on filing a lawsuit,” Joseph relates. “I told them there was already a [similar] lawsuit and explained what it is. And they said, ‘Okay.'”
In October Joseph’s group dropped its own lawsuit against the City when the city council passed a resolution to adopt the Los Angeles County Environmental Impact Report (EIR) regarding banning plastic bags without change, and to emend pertinent portions of the Long Beach ordinance.
December 28, 10:10pm | Roughly 18 hours after telling the Long Beach Post of his plans to sue the City of Long Beach for the plastic-bag-ban-related 10-cent surcharge on paper bags citywide, the Robert Wideman campaign announced it “has decided to suspend filing a lawsuit pending the outcome of case management scheduled for Jan. 31st, 2012.”
A press release issued by the campaign 3 p.m. Wednesday says the decision came after discussions with Stephen L. Joseph of the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition; and that in lieu of a lawsuit, “the campaign has begun intense conversations with attorneys and consultants on a ballot measure that would repeal the entire ordinance unless the matter is put to a citywide vote.”
December 28, 8:47am | Robert Wideman, who seeks to unseat Vice-Mayor Suja Lowenthal for her 2nd District seat, has told the Long Beach Post that next week he, along with at least one other party, will file a federal lawsuit against the City of Long Beach on the grounds that the 10-cent surcharge on paper bags that came along with the City’s ban of plastic bags is in violation of the California Constitution.
Wideman says that unlike the lawsuit filed by the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, his regards the paper-bag surcharge only, not the ban itself, which went into effect August 1 and on January 1 will expand to include small markets and coffee shops, among other establishments.
“We just feel it’s detrimental to business and city tax revenue to have this fee being collected,” says Jason Aula, Wideman’s campaign manager, who says he brought the issue to Wideman’s attention. “All we’re asking for is to remove this fee. Keep banning plastic, by all means. We want to save the environment; we’re all for it — go green. But not [in such a manner that’s] illegal according to the state constitution.”
Wideman and Aula say the 10-cent surcharge, even though it does not go to the City, violates Proposition 26, the 2010 initiative amending the state constitution to require a two-thirds supermajority vote in the California Legislature to levy install certain taxes and other fees.
“The government is forcing the businesses to collect it,” Aula says. “That’s a tax, that’s a fee — whichever one you want to call it. […] We’re just trying to keep people’s jobs, because these fees all add up, you know? When you’ve got to pay 10 cents here and there, every penny adds up. And I’m telling you, it’s driving business away from Long Beach. People are shopping more in Signal Hill just to avoid that fee.”
Wideman says the timing of his lawsuit is unrelated to his entry into the 2nd District race, and that he’s been considering filing it for a few months. “It was definitely a total afterthought to the fact of running,” he says. “That was not a factor in it, by no means.”
The impetus, Aula explains, is the progress of a similar lawsuit filed by Hilex Poly, the nation’s largest manufacturer of plastic bags, against L.A. County for an identical 10-cent surcharge. “It’s gone in a direction that we think is good,” Aula says of the Hilex Poly lawsuit, “in terms of getting this law changed here in Long Beach.”
A press release from the Wideman campaign says that Wideman, “a champion of change and progress in Long Beach[,] has begun a noble crusade to end the reign of unjust political behavior by incumbent Suja Lowenthal. Robert seeks to develop the economy and create jobs, not attempt to change the behavior of the citizens of Long Beach through a plastic bag ban. Robert is all for saving the environment, however that must be a choice made on an individual level.”
The press release concludes, “This is just the first taste of change and progress to come in district 2 in 2012!”