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1) Hazardous substance using businesses must report their toxics releases; 2) These same businesses must cover their costs for reporting their toxics releases. She asserted that throughout the law's seven-year life nothing significant had changed in the first element. She stated that the second element had only been altered. She alleged that it had been altered at the behest of a few Eugene businesses in State Court and in the Legislature. She related that, in the 1980s, the State Fire Marshall had ~gotten the Legislature to prevent quantity-based fees on local hazardous substance programs that duplicated the State Fire Marshall's program." She opined the court, using %izarre logic," had applied this law to the Toxics Right-To-Know law. She averred the State Fire Marshall's law had no relationship to the local City Charter. She listed points in the State law, as outlined in a chart submitted to the council, for comparison purposes. She stressed the law was intended to allow firefighters to know what a business was putting in barrels on site. Ms. O' Brien related that the fee cap, which she asserted was the result of lobbying by Eugene area businesses, shifted the burden of fees from large businesses to small businesses. She explained that the resulting fee for Hynix Corporation was $1.62 per FTE while a small business paid almost $32 per FTE. Jennifer Gleason, 2845 Kincaid Street, spoke as a member of the Toxics Board. She urged the council to accept the recommended fee schedule and adopt one of the measures Right-To-Know advocates were suggesting to rectify the situation. She stressed that the Charter clearly stated that the program must be self-supporting via fees paid by participating businesses. She regretted that the Toxics Board could not find a way to avoid a recommendation to increase fees. She said that, when originally drafted, the law created a system under which the burden to businesses would be minimal. She stated that a minority of businesses changed the way the law works so that the burden had been shifted to small businesses. She alleged this same minority came before the council ~at every opportunity to complain about how unfair this law is." She shared her frustration at having to continually come before the council to defend citizens' right to know what was in their environment. She stressed that the Toxics Board was appointed by the City and had struggled to find a fair solution. She felt the proposal before the council represented the best solution possible given the newly-mandated constraints. Noting that no one was happy with the recommendation, she commented that this was the best indication that it was the result of serious compromise. She submitted further testimony in writing. MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 23, 2004 Page 4 Regular Meeting