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Ethan McCutchen, 2984 Mill Street, the Director of Grass Commons, a Eugene-based, non-profit organization, said the obligation of a business to publish its effect on its social and natural environs should transcend the usual arm wrestling between free market capitalism and government regulation. He stated that there was a common need for information regardless of whether one relied on policy or market forces to build a strong, healthy society. Openly shared information was written explicitly into the assumptions of capitalist theory in nearly every text on the subject beginning with Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations. He said business communities had traditionally been anti-capitalist in this regard, using the rhetoric of market forces to dress up tactics that took information and power away from consumers, and therefore away from market forces. He said measuring and revealing hazardous substance usage came before any debate about toxics problems. Win Denham, 1995 West Seventh Avenue, was a small employer with a business in Eugene that had gotten smaller. He said one of the reasons small businesses got smaller was due to expense that they could not control. He expressed disgust that government regulation committees such as the Toxics Board had to be funded. He explained that he could not develop his business's budget in the same manner as public agencies because he did not use the money of others. He said he and his contemporaries were being forced to use their money to support a program that they could not control, asserting the ordinance was all about the money. His business had one half of the family-wage jobs it had five years ago, and programs such as the Toxics Right-to-Know Program were designed to move his customers to other locations. He said burdening small businesses with the cost of the program was not the way to go. Kathy Ging, 2878 Harris, said she was a major contributor to the Toxics Right-to-Know movement, and supported the changes in the Toxics Right-to-Know law, saying that painters and dry cleaners needed to be added. She found comfort in knowing that businesses must disclose their discharges, surmising this prevented the most toxic emitters from choosing to locate in Eugene, which was a good thing. She stated that the program in Eugene was the best in the United States. Mayor Piercy closed the public hearing and thanked those who testified. She expressed appreciation on behalf of the City Council for the comments that were made. The meeting adjourned at 10:14 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Dennis M. Taylor City Manager (Recorded by Linda Henry) m:12OOSIcentral services departmentlcity manager's off~celcity councillccOSO214m2, doc MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 14, 2005 Page 19 Regular Session