Quiet Clean NOVA —March 19, 2025 Meeting
Present by Zoom were: Lubna Dabbagh (Vienna), Dave Fitzgerald (McLean), Avril Garland (Vienna), Jim Gillespie (Fairfax City), Kristi Karls (Annandale), Margaret McKelvey (Arlington), and Gary Usrey (Arlington).
We had a guest speaker (organized by Jim Gillespie) —Bob Shippee, head of the Legislative Committee of the Virginia Sierra Club. He gave us a number of tips on legislative strategy which we discussed with reference to our plans to get our bill (seeking freedom for localities to ban or otherwise regulate gas-powered leaf blowers) re-introduced and through the 2026 General Assembly.
Find friends on the relevant Senate and House committees (for us – Local Government and Counties Cities and Towns respectively) and nurture those contacts over the preceding year.
- Face to face is best.
- Try to meet legislators in their district offices. Trying to meet with them in Richmond during the reconvened session starting April 2 is not a good idea as they will be focused on responding to Gov. Youngkin’s vetoes and amendments, not thinking about the next legislative cycle.
- To counter the idea that the leaf blower issue is a niche, Northern Virginia issue, try to line up legislator “friends” from elsewhere in the state. Given our nascent QC Richmond group, that would be a good place to start. Delegate Betsy Carr would be great, though she is not currently on the CCT committee. Since getting through committees (and subcommittees in the case of the House) is the first and often biggest challenge, focus on those members first.
- Senators are not up for re-election in November but all Delegates are. Hopefully the Democrats will maintain their 51-49 majority, if not gain a couple more seats.
- Definitely engage in person with Senator Roem to understand why she thinks a bill limited to municipalities in Planning District 8 would be helpful as a first step/pilot. Since she cited concerns from the more rural areas of her district/presumably farmers, Lubna should be there to make the point that farmers (as Lubna has been) would normally not be concerned at all about any leaf blower regulation since farmers value the fertilizing aspect of leaves and would not blow them away.
Pick off opponents to a bill.
- Obviously the fewer opponents speaking before the committees, the greater the chances of success. We had only one opposition speaker in 2024 (the Virginia Golf Course Superintendents Association) and two in 2025 (the Virginia Golf Course Superintendents Association and the Virginia Manufacturers Association-essentially representing Stihl which made some behind the scenes calls in 2024).
- Meeting with the Virginia Manufacturers Association is probably not a bad idea. It is a powerful group, but likely not powerful enough to kill a bill.
- Meeting with Stihl to try to get them to not oppose in return for QC NOVA/QCVF soft-promoting the Stihl electric line in its lobbying/ educational efforts is definitely worth a try.
- Meeting with the Virginia Golf Course Superintendents Association to better understand their “issue” and to make it clear that we are talking about blowers at this point rather than all landscaping equipment and that the proposed legislation would be permissive, not mandatory, would probably be worth it. Any restrictions would be decided at the locality level. Carve outs for golf courses would be possibilities if localities so desired —and indeed might be likely as Ted Craig pointed out in his 2024 letter to Rob Bohannan of the VGCSA.
Best Allies
- Obviously, having as many allies as possible increases the chances of success. However, garnering allies is a question of level of effort, especially for a small group of volunteers like ourselves.
- This January 22 at the Senate Local Government Committee hearing where Sen. Salim presented our bill, we had the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District, and the City of Falls Church as unsolicited speakers in our behalf – probably somewhat opportunistically as they were already there for other issues. The Virginia Conservation Network voted just the day of the hearing to support the bill but it was too late for them to speak.
- Shippee’s suggestions for quality allies included the Virginia Conservation Network, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters and maybe the Piedmount Environmental Council and Chesapeake Climate action Network (CCAN). As chair of the Legislative Committee of the Virginia Sierra Club, Shippee committed to taking our prospective 2026 bill to the club for a decision on whether to support it.
- Note: An organization does not have to be a member of VCN in order for VCN to support its bills. QCNOVA has been turned down three times for membership (twice before the 3/19 meeting and once right after despite Gary Usrey’s efforts). Elders Climate Action, of which Gary is a member and which is a member of VCN, will continue to carry water for us.
- Support from the Virginia Municipal League and/or the Virginia Association of Counties could be helpful, but may not be worth the level of effort required. Not having them opposed (more or less equal to not taking a position at all) would be important. In Shippee’s experience, VACO has more sway than VML.
- Approaching prospective governor Spanberger is not a bad idea, but getting her attention would be a major lift given competition for meeting with her campaign; Sierra Club has not yet been successful.
The decision on whether to have legislation introduced in either the House or the Senate, or in both, varies from issue to issue and depends very much on the strength of the patron.
- There’s no perfect answer. Many people see the two-chamber approach as having two bites at the apple. However, it can often be two chances for failure because, if a bill fails in one chamber, the other will normally just summarily drop it without further consideration. One failure is better than two!
- (To recall: Our 2022 bill, introduced in the House only, did not make it out of the CCT Sub-committee. Our 2024 bill, introduced in both houses, did not make it out of the House CCT full committee and was carried over by the Senate Local Government Committee. And our 2025 bill, introduced only in the Senate, did not make it out of the Local Government Committee.)
- When cross-over occurs, a bill starts over in the other chamber. For example, when a bill crosses over from the Senate, it goes first to the relevant House sub-committee, then to the full committee, and then to the floor. When a bill crosses over from the House it goes first to the relevant full Senate committee, (The Senate has no subcommittees), then to the Senate floor. These different paths could inform the best approach to take.
- Asked what legislators we should approach as patrons for our bill, Shippee suggested on the House side Delegates Betsy Carr (Richmond), and current CCT Committee members Bennett-Parker (previous patron Alexandria), Shelly Simmonds (Newport News), Alex Askew (Norfolk/Virginia Beach), Irene Shinn (Herndon), Atoosa Reasor (Loudoun County) , and Katrina Callsen (Charlottesville).
Best Angle to Stress
- Having three or four angles to stress is smart in lining up allies/making the bill’s pitch.
- Noise and environmental impact may be most salient. Public health and environmental justice can also be key.
Petitions – are they worth it?
- A level of effort calculation
- Focusing on individual legislators is likely to have more immediate payoff.
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Other business
Margaret reported that follow-up on the suggestion from Senator Angelia Williams Graves’ chief of staff about meeting with the Virginia Manufacturers Association had yielded an email introduction from new COS Lisa Barnes to her and to Brett Vassey of VMA. Margaret emailed Vassey suggesting a meeting but has not yet received any reply.
Jim Gillespie will be in Virginia Beach (where Stihl is headquartered) in mid-April and could try to arrange a meeting then.
It was agreed to have an in-person meeting on Sunday April 6 (2:00-5:00) hosted by Lubna to further plan out our legislative strategy for 2026 and assign various work elements for meetings with legislators etc.
Minutes prepared by Margaret McKelvey March 24, 2025