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Fire Marshal, the City of Eugene Fire Marshal, and the City of Eugene Wastewater Division, which he opined was enough regulation. He said the proposed ordinance struck him as a parasitic bureaucracy that was mounted on the backs of small business, adding that big businesses seemed to get tax breaks while small businesses got more regulation, which was unfair. He said if his company became subject to the new provisions, he would endeavor to move his business, which supported a $700,000 annual payroll out of Eugene. Vivian MacKenzie, 2806 Country Lane, worked at a small research company that would fall under the proposed amendment. She expressed concern that smaller companies that may have to report did not have the resources for security guards and security systems to ensure their chemicals were protected from illegal drug manufacturers. She stated that the City's website did not have the ability to track who logged on to and used the database that listed chemicals stored at various sites. Her second concern was the reporting burden on smaller businesses. Small businesses were already regulated by the State and City Fire Marshals, City of Eugene Wastewater Division, DEQ and EPA, and had neither the time nor resources for such an extensive reporting program that did nothing to regulate the amount of chemicals that went into the environment but was only a tracking system. Terry Connolly, 1401 Willamette Street, representing the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce, stated that the Chamber opposed the ordinance primarily on the basis that, unlike previous ordinances that were necessary to implement the Toxics Right-to-Know Program in the Charter amendment, there was no aspect of the ordinance that was required by local or State law to implement the current program. He added that manufacturers would continue to file reports and the public would continue to have full access to those reports. Mr. Connolly asserted the ordinance had nothing to do with fee inequities, but everything to do with subjecting more businesses in Eugene to more costs and regulations, both of which would put them at a distinct competitive disadvantage with businesses located outside the city. He said that the costs and burdens to the small businesses were only magnified when a local news story said that fewer than ten requests had been received by the Eugene Public Library to see printed reports from the current program. Divided over the cumulative total of taxpayer general funds, business fees and costs of compliance, and City legal expenses incurred because the original charter amendment violated State law, the estimated cost of each request to view the reports at the library was over $100,000. He concluded by saying that the ordinance contradicted the letter and spirit of the categories of businesses that were required to report or pay fees in the Charter amendment. The ordinance would expand the program from large manufacturers as intended by the voters to now cover something entirely different, such as the YMCA fitness center. Mr. Connolly asked the council to follow the advice of the City Manager, noting that the proposed ordinance amendments allowed the problem of fee inequity to be much more complicated than needed. David Hauser, 2168 Elkhorn Drive, representing the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce, said he was unsure of the objective of the proposed ordinance. In addition to financing a City Charter-mandated program in an equitable fashion, some viewed the proposed ordinance as an opportunity to expand the Toxics Right-to-Know Program in rather profound ways. If the objective was to finance the current program, all of the attention was on revenues and not on expenses. If the current budget for the Toxics Right-to-Know Program was $100,000, the bulk of the money in wages and benefits, perhaps the program itself should be reviewed. He said the number of companies required to report had remained largely unchanged since the inception of the program in 1996 and those 40 companies were familiar with the program reporting requirements. He stated that the Toxics Board audited approximately one-third of the reports annually. He said one way to achieve greater fee equity would be to lower fees paid by companies that were currently required to pay fees, thus maintaining the original intent of the Charter while reducing MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 14, 2005 Page 13 Regular Session