Council passes amended bag fee

Fort Collins City Council passed an amended bag-fee ordinance Tuesday night, ending hours of suggested changes and a yearslong effort.

Q&A: Breaking down Fort Collins' new bag fee

Effective April 1, 2015, the city will implement a 5-cent fee on disposable bags from all retailers. The amended ordinance is a mix between the original one passed on first reading in July and a new one recently introduced as a possible alternative in response to public input. With the amendments, retailers will be required to obtain consent from customers before charging them for a bag. The city also will have to evaluate any opportunities it might have to reduce the use of disposable bags in its own operations.

The amended ordinance passed on a 5-2 vote, with Mayor Karen Weitkunat and Councilman Wade Troxell — who both voted against the first ordinance at its first reading July 1 — dissenting.

Fort Collins residents lined up Tuesday to speak their piece before the vote, with the majority opposing both ordinances. Some offered different solutions, others asked for time.

"Ultimately, what I want to say is this is a very green community. I think most people who oppose this are not opposed to being conservative and finding ways to conserve," Fort Collins resident Chris Kelly said. "It's just time for our government to stop imposing these fees."

"I think people will get there if you give them other opportunities..." Kelly said.

Fort Collins resident Lacey Gaechter, on the other hand, said she'd "love to live in a city that attempts to reduce use of disposable bags" and that she supported either ordinance, adding that 10 cents is a "very small price to pay."

The council went back and forth, with Councilman Wade Troxell saying he would be supportive of a more "systemic" idea.

"These two options are half-baked," Troxell said, to which Councilman Gino Campana replied, "If it's not baked at this point, I don't know when it's going to be baked."

Several members suggested amendments to the original ordinance. Mayor Pro Tem Gerry Horak suggested the amendments that were later made, extending the ordinance from just grocers to all retailers, reducing the fee from 10 to 5 cents per bag, and eliminating the original stipulation that would have made stores use half of the fee's revenue to provide reusable bags for customers.

"I think we're going to pass something tonight," Horak said during a break, when city staff was writing the amendments to present to council members.

Mayor Karen Weitkunat, however, raised concerns about making amendments to an ordinance on its second reading, calling it "not very clean."

"It is a lot of verbiage," Weitkunat said. "For us as a council, it's really cleaner not to drastically alter an ordinance on second reading."

"I think it's cleaner in allowing for that addition of public commentary," she added.

The discussion over bag fees has been ongoing for two years, with the ultimate goal of the city to reduce the use of disposable bags in Fort Collins, where an estimated 50 million disposable bags are distributed annually, according to the city.

How they voted

Yes

Gino Campana

Ross Cunniff

Gerry Horak

Bob Overbeck

Lisa Poppaw

No

Wade Troxell

Mayor Karen Weitkunat