{"id":2452984,"date":"2020-01-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=318785"},"modified":"2020-01-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T07:00:00","slug":"aspen-setting-its-own-legislative-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-setting-its-own-legislative-agenda\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen setting its own legislative agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As the Colorado House of Representatives convene for the 72nd General Assembly on Wednesday, the city of Aspen is developing a legislative policy agenda to track bills and proposed laws that would impact the area.<\/p>\n

Aspen City Council will consider the policy agenda as soon as next week.<\/p>\n

Tara Nelson, who works in the city attorney\u2019s office and is acting as the liaison between lawmakers, city staff and council, said the agenda is designed to act as the cornerstone for elected officials to make informed decisions on policy matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis policy agenda is the general foundation for the city and council,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a collaborative approach to carry forward and unify everyone\u2019s policies and agendas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those policies are matched up with stated principles and priorities that council agrees on, like land and natural resources, climate action and affordable housing, to name a few.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt serves as a filter for getting involved in state, regional and national politics,\u201d Mayor Torre said.<\/p>\n

One of those state issues is a bill introduced by State Sen. Kerry Donovan (D-Vail) that seeks to repeal a statewide ban on local government regulation of plastics.<\/p>\n

Nelson said she has been in contact with Donovan and offered support and thanks this past fall for introducing the bill.<\/p>\n

Currently, local governments do not have any control over plastic regulations in their cities or towns.<\/p>\n

Repealing the statute will place control back into the hands of local governments, allowing municipalities to respond directly to local needs regarding plastics, according to Donovan.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur state has a shared value of environmental stewardship,\u201d she said in a prepared statement. \u201cRepealing the ban on local government regulations of plastics would be a great step forward so that individual communities can create policy around plastics and waste that local leaders see as being in their communities best interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torre, who led the plastic bag ban at Aspen\u2019s grocery stores<\/a>, which was passed by council in 2011, said he hopes the repeal passes this legislative session.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people are supporting it,\u201d he said. \u201cMost people don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to pass this round but to be honest, if we continue our full court press, it\u2019s not impossible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we need is for them to say municipalities have the ability. \u2026 We\u2019re just looking for local control of that issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aspen did take control to some extent eight years ago when council passed the ordinance dropping the use of plastic grocery bags and requiring shoppers to pay 20 cents for a paper bag supplied by Aspen\u2019s two grocers, City Market and Clark\u2019s Market.<\/p>\n

Council reasoned at the time of the ordinance\u2019s passage that the charge would discourage consumers from using paper bags in order to reduce waste, while encouraging them to take reusable bags with them while shopping for groceries.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s preemption law never came up during the debate, but City Attorney Jim True said he was prepared to successfully argue that eliminating plastic bags from grocery stores was allowable under the statute<\/a>, which focuses on recycling products and reducing waste.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a legal argument that justified our position,\u201d he said, adding that plastic bags in grocery stores are not for sale and are not recyclable. \u201cBut nobody raised it. \u2026 The legislature may fix the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donovan said on Tuesday that when the law was written in the 1990s, industries were moving from glass bottles to plastics. The statute was designed to manage waste.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had unintended consequences,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Nelson will participate in a webinar hosted by the Colorado Municipal League on Wednesday that will serve as a kickoff to the start of the assembly.<\/p>\n

She noted that there is an internal think tank within City Hall that includes department heads who may have interest in particular movements in the state capitol.<\/p>\n

\u201cI facilitate that,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cI\u2019m the eyes and ears and send things on to others; that\u2019s the collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torre said the city\u2019s 2020 policy agenda proposal<\/a> can be used as a reference when considering decisions that impact the city and surrounding jurisdictional boundaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will help us with our visioning efforts,\u201d he said. \u201cAspen has a stated desire to have an influence on state, regional and national politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilman Ward Hauenstein said he supports the city\u2019s outward focus and monitoring what\u2019s being introduced in the 2020 legislative session, particularly Donovan\u2019s bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to reduce single-use plastics,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t like being told by the state what we can and can\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither does Donovan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope people will see this as empowering communities to find the right fit\u201d in reducing single-use plastic as it relates to a town\u2019s values. \u201cLocal communities are better suited to walk a tighter line.\u201d<\/p>\n

csackariason@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Colorado House of Representatives convene for the 72nd General Assembly on Wednesday, the city of Aspen is developing a legislative policy agenda to track bills and proposed laws that would impact the area. Aspen City Council will consider the policy agenda as soon as next week. Tara Nelson, who works in the city […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 22:09:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452984\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}