HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Houston ISD’s former chief working officer and a landscaping company operator who contracted with the district have been federally indicted on public corruption rates as component of an alleged kickback that totaled about $6 million about a seven-calendar year span.
The FBI’s Houston business office introduced the arrests Thursday of Brian Busby, the former district govt, and Anthony Hutchison, who feds determined as an HISD agreement seller.
Both gentlemen built their initially appearances in advance of a U.S. magistrate choose Thursday afternoon, and they have been unveiled from custody, with Eyewitness Information cameras capturing them strolling out from the courthouse in the early evening.
As aspect of their bond conditions, Busby and Hutchison ended up purchased not to have call with recent or previous HISD workers or any other witnesses in the situation. Prosecutors allege the two have experimented with to intimidate witnesses into lying to investigators.
Very last year, 13 Investigates claimed on FBI look for warrants executed at Busby’s house and at HISD headquarters right after allegations emerged of mismanagement.
Court documents later on mentioned that Hutchison, allegedly in conjunction with Busby, overbilled the district for get the job done it was contracted to conduct but in no way concluded.
“Busby allegedly helped award HISD development and grounds maintenance contracts to Hutchison in return for hard cash bribes and hundreds of hundreds of dollars in residence remodeling,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office environment for the Southern District of Texas explained Thursday.
Busby’s lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, has denied the claims.
Previous calendar year, the district made a decision not to renew Busby’s contract in the midst of the allegations.
Numerous other previous HISD officers have admitted guilt in the case, in accordance to the FBI. SEE More ON THE HISD INVESTIGATION:
Former HISD Board of Education president Rhonda Skillern-Jones, previously entered a plea arrangement related to the conspiracy demand and could deal with up to five years in prison. Other previous HISD officers, such as Derrick Sanders, 50 Alfred Hoskins, 58 Gerron Corridor, 47 and Luis Tovar, 39, also entered a plea agreement for the conspiracy demand and also experience up to 5 a long time in prison.
“Present day arrests and relevant costs are the end result of a prolonged, multifaceted FBI Houston investigation,” Performing Special Agent in Cost Richard A. Collodi claimed in a information release. “Houston taxpayers and the thousands of HISD college students, together with their lecturers and workers, are the likely victims of this alleged multimillion-greenback community corruption plan. The FBI will continue on to operate to keep accountable community officials who are unsuccessful the citizens of their community by accepting bribes, and people who shell out bribes.”
Busby begun doing the job at HISD in the late 1990s as a custodian. As he sophisticated in just the ranks, he was later on appointed COO in December 2016. He was accountable for overseeing extra than 7,000 workers and an annual running finances of additional than $250 million.
In a warrant unsealed in May well, federal officers allege Busby was engaged in a kickback plan with multiple sellers, which includes Southwest Wholesale and Just Development, which afterwards altered its name to Just Associates Design.
Hutchison owns both of those of those organizations.
Southwest Wholesale begun supplying confined gardening and landscaping services to HISD in 2010. In 2016, the enterprise was awarded a agreement for grounds routine maintenance, landscaping, tree pruning, and removal and irrigation techniques for sure schools in the district. The contract was valued at $26.8 million and was predicted to be prolonged to January 2021, in accordance to courtroom filings.
“Busby and his colleagues instructed HISD’s grounds servicing workforce to conduct the get the job done that experienced been contracted to Southwest Wholesale, in result giving Southwest Wholesale with HISD labor,” the lookup warrant states. “Meanwhile, Busby, through his immediate experiences, directed his administrators to authorize and approve time beyond regulation pay to incentivize HISD grounds servicing workers to perform the work.”
One particular of the 1st examples of Southwest Wholesale not completing operate took place in March 2018 when Sharpstown Middle School’s enjoying fields were being contracted to get $984,000 in renovations. That volume was compensated in comprehensive regardless of not all of the perform being finished, court documents allege.
The HISD athletic director expressed “concerns about the significant price tag,” but went Busby by means of with offering the deal to Southwest Wholesale, according to court documents.
The athletic director afterwards found work, these as ramp installations, striping of the fields, and new trees planted, was not executed.
The FBI also found that Southwest Wholesale billed for mowing do the job at other colleges, regardless of the work not being accomplished.
In a statement, HISD said it is cooperating with the federal investigation into allegations that took spot in between 2011 and 2020.
“From the time that HISD grew to become conscious of the federal investigation in February 2020, HISD furnished data as requested by legislation enforcement with respect to the investigation. As that prison investigation progressed, HISD also applied extra internal methods to safeguard in opposition to the kind of conduct alleged in the fees announced right now. No individual billed in link with the indictments introduced nowadays is presently used by HISD,” the district states. “HISD fully respects the legal justice approach, and HISD are unable to remark more with respect to the fundamental details of the investigation or the charges declared nowadays pending resolution of those people rates.”
This is a acquiring tale. All updates can be discovered here.
Spruce trees line Worldwide Airport Street near the south terminal of Ted Stevens Anchorage Intercontinental Airport on Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
For the first time in many years I have not obtained a solitary problem about Xmas trees. How could this be? It is difficult to fathom that no one particular wishes to know what I feel is the very best tree or that no one is nervous about needle fall.
Is it just also early? No concerns right here is wonderful by me, but I am demanded to create one particular Christmas tree column even so. There is no way all-around it.
I suppose I could do a column on the tree recycling application of Alaskans for Litter Prevention and Recycling. It wouldn’t be a very long a single mainly because we all know the system — except this calendar year we will be capable to also recycle strings of lights, but not when on trees. This time the program operates from Dec. 28 as a result of Jan. 15. Look for adverts in the ADN, which is a cosponsor of this significant system.
So alternatively, permit me draw your awareness to Worldwide Airport Road, from Jewel Lake Road to the domestic terminal at Ted Stevens Anchorage Worldwide Airport. Even all those dwelling outside of Anchorage have pushed this route. As I was heading towards the airport a short while ago, I was wondering about the now-large spruce that line the street. Some of you might bear in mind when this landscaping effort commenced.
Promptly, there had been issues. The trees seemed like lollipops lined up in a row. Folks complained. The trees ended up way too close to each individual other, individuals claimed. And absolutely everyone insisted the trees were way too modest and would under no circumstances mature tall ample to monitor what then have been a lot that had trees on them!
What you don’t see are mountain ash trees on the median strip. Hundreds ended up planted, 1 following another, down the roadway at the identical time the spruce went in. Alas, winter season hit. Snow was piled on the median and in tight berms that trapped voles captivated to the mountain ashes’ tender bark. The only point to consume were being the trees, and the voles decimated them, girdling every and each and every trunk. By late spring, it was distinct all the mountain ashes ended up goners.
We know now mountain ashes entice moose into medians, creating them to cross roads and get hit. But back again then, the town administration that oversaw the landscaping task took a ton of warmth. Critics handed on the way the spruce seemed and hit on the ashes. Lifeless trees — hundreds of them! General public bucks wasted on what? Landscaping?! This was one particular of Anchorage’s initially genuine beautification efforts, and the beautification of Intercontinental Airport Road was not a fantastic get started, for certain.
Searching again, what a blessing that task was! What you see along this vital roadway is a attractive, tall and thick residing wall. What you really don’t see is most of the ugly and granular advancement important to assistance an airport. And the success of the undertaking designed landscaping essential on all public jobs through the municipality, which is a superior point — and ideally there are programs in position in circumstance spruce bark beetles just take the spruce out.
Why, if you didn’t know exactly where you were, you may imagine a port authority or municipal administration actually prepared and planted a beautiful entry to Ted Stevens Global. It is time to admit a career really well performed. What a current from the past! Who is aware, we might even be capable to place vacation lights on individuals trees sometime.
Jeff’s Alaska Backyard Calendar
Correction: Oops, the invasion of new birds is by starlings, not grackles. Just about every night time my dad would fireplace a shotgun into the air to crystal clear our trees of 10,000 or a lot more pooping birds. We do not want grackles possibly, but starlings are the recent risk.
Alaska Botanical Backyard garden: Lights: Stop by the show! Motion: Renew your membership, and give them as presents even though you are at it. Not a member? Be part of now. www.alaskabg.org
Indoor pelargoniums: Ours are in total bloom less than lights. Time to enable them relaxation a bit. Take away bouquets and new buds. Increase neat with fewer light. Resume gentle procedure in early February.
Home windows: Make guaranteed your crops are not obtaining also cold in close proximity to leaky windows.
Prachi Shah trims her Desert Rose Flower at her farm in the Kongowea area of Mombasa in this photo taken on 14th December 2021. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NMG
By PURITY WANJOHI More by this Author
Summary
Plants have featured in Ms Shah’s life since she was in university. As a hobby, she created bonsai plants primarily for her own enjoyment.
Ornamental plants are one of nature’s finest offerings, contributing immensely to making living a pleasure.
If Prachi Shah were to be a flower in a farm, she would be a grafted desert rose. Sprouting and growing slowly, it increases in colour and beauty and when fully grown, a nature marvel – gorgeous with spectacularly coloured trumpeting blooms.
Why a desert rose, I ask. “Well, it would describe, to a fault, my journey as a landscape gardener working with ornamental plants,” Ms Shah says from her Mombasa-based flower farm, Prachi Creations.
Established in 2009, the business involves the beautification and landscaping of various sites, homes, and offices using ornamental plants, and on a smaller scale selling beautiful potted plants, mainly grafted desert roses.
Plants have featured in Ms Shah’s life since she was in university. As a hobby, she created bonsai plants primarily for her own enjoyment.
“In 2008 I took part in an exhibition that became a launchpad for my entrepreneurial journey. After the exhibition, I started collecting variety of indigenous plants for Bonsai beauties and with time transitioned into the field of landscaping,” she explains. “Bonsai artistry taught me to be calm, persistent, patient with a great attention to detail, qualities that have helped me become a good entrepreneur.”
Prachi Shah trims her Desert Rose Flower at her farm in the Kongowea area of Mombasa in this photo taken on 14th December 2021. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NMG
A very ‘khatarnaak’ (dangerous) woman who takes big risks and jumps into anything adventurous and challenging, Ms. Shah began importing, selling and landscaping using ornamental plants from the international market. The response was phenomenal, boosting her business tremendously.
“I chose to work with ornamentals because they’re charming. Desert roses, for example, are a favourite because of their many shades of colour and variety. One look at them and people fall in love,” she says. “Furthermore, not many people were in the business of landscaping using ornamental flowers.”
Ornamental plants are one of nature’s finest offerings, contributing immensely to making living a pleasure. They are visual delights intentionally planted for aesthetic appeal. With beauty as their mainstay, ornamental plants are absolutely fitting to feature in our outdoors and indoors spaces.
They add character to dull corners, soften harsh interiors and flood our gardens with pops or bursts of colour. Furthermore, they purify and scent the air, and beckon wildlife. There’s nothing more practical and heartwarming than an ornamental plant.
Grafted desert rose flowers at Prachi Shah farm in Kongowea area of Mombasa in this photo taken on 14th December 2021. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NMG
Eleven years later, Ms Shah has established herself both as a bonsai artist and an ornamental landscaper. Her farm contains a trove of the propagated fascinating and living Bonsai trees which include Ficus, acacia, baobab as well as grafted and local grafted roses.
“The oldest plant I have is a 23-year-old baobab. As for the roses, I have a stock of over 50 grafted desert roses. The colors vary from pink, yellow, black, purple, orange, red and more,” she says adding that she has other types of ornamental plants like the Ixora plants which produce clusters of star-shaped flowers which have extended bloom power.
Ms Shah imports her plants from India and Thailand, a process which is very precarious. One has to be very thorough with the characteristics of the plants especially on how it behaves during transit when importation is done. If a plant can’t survive without soil for a few days, importing it will be a fruitless venture.
It is with the same inspired dedication that she delivers, and grounds the plants in her clients’ soils. Luckily, most of them know about the rose.
Grafted desert rose flowers at Prachi Shah farm in Kongowea area of Mombasa in this photo taken on 14th December 2021. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NMG
“I have clients both locally and abroad who reach out through social media and word of mouth. Some come for plants to liven up their outdoor spaces, spruce up their interior decors – bedrooms or living rooms – or to give their balconies an outdoor feeling. But one thing they have in common is that they are all plant lovers.”
Ms Shah, also fondly known as Mama Bonsai, glows with pride about her work. Every job is an opportunity to meet new people and grow as an individual and landscaper. Her achievements are a source of happiness and satisfaction.
The highlight of her 11-year career is when one of her Bonsai plants was chosen as a gift to the First Lady Margaret Kenyatta. A continuous highlight is the fact that is that she’s the only one who imports grafted desert roses. But there’s more.
“Recently I successfully undertook the restoration of a 35-year-old Ficus and the evergreen Terminalia Mantaly which were uprooted and left oscillating between life and death. Both were jolted back to life after 110 days. In 180 days, they stood tall covered in lush green leaves.”
Because desert roses are perfect for landscaping, how do we get the best from them? Just like the name suggests, a dry and hot environment is bliss to them. Therefore, position these eye-catching roses under full sunlight (preferably in a place where one will acknowledge their beauty and splendour) in sandy, stony soil mixed with compost.
Water sparingly to avoid drowning the life out of them. If planted in a container, ensure that you do so in a good soil mix and a container with good drainage to allow excess water to run off immediately.
As I conclude, I ask Ms Shah if flowers are like human beings. “Yes, they are. Both need and crave the same things: love and care.”
That’s the mindset at Phoenix Landscape Solutions in central Florida, where Shawn Logan launched an installation and maintenance firm at the onset of the pandemic.
In an area where landscape companies are a dime a dozen, finding legal and qualified labor is a struggle, and where corporate national players clench high-profile accounts, Logan jumped in with a Disney-service style, an industry track record and a shining reputation with past clients.
But would they spend extra money in May 2020 when he opened up shop?
“I wasn’t sure, and many people were getting laid off,” Logan says. “I hoped I’d be able to cover my bills, but I found out that everyone working at home was looking at their landscapes going, ‘I will spend money to make this look better because I don’t want to do it myself.’”
He and his wife, Kylee, decided to give the business a shot for 30 days — and with the fast success, they pushed that out to six months. By then, Logan had brought in about $30,000 in residential installation business.
“It snowballed and kept going,” he says, citing profit margins of close to 65{6d6906d986cb38e604952ede6d65f3d49470e23f1a526661621333fa74363c48} on this type of work. “It was nuts.”
Shifting toward commercial maintenance with residential installation as “icing” after business slowed down in February 2021 forced him to shift into sales mode, and he began calling on the type of accounts he was known for overseeing at previous positions: resorts, HOAs and other visible commercial properties.
Today, Logan has his eyes on a prize. He loves to pull into a resort property’s grand entrance and take in thousands of annuals that are “perfectly aligned and maintained,” he says. “I love working on the property and overhearing guests come in and say, ‘Wow! Look at this place.’”
When Shawn Logan first started Phoenix Landscape Solutions, he and his wife, Kylee, set a 30-day trial period.
Logan started working in the green industry when he was 18 years old, after tooling around a bit in the roofing and HVAC industries. “I’ve always been a work-with-your-hands type of person,” he says.
Then, he started working for a small residential landscape company that took care of about 150 houses in a nice neighborhood. “It was all push mowing, edging, trimming and general labor,” he explains.
Within a year and a half, he was running the truck all day and had learned the names of plants — taking a keen interest in horticulture. “I also knew how to deal with the guys,” he says of overseeing a crew.
He moved on within a year to a commercial landscape firm, where he built some leadership skills while running routes for accounts such as hotels, warehouses and retail centers. His next career move was maintaining high-end resorts, and he advanced to managing one of their key accounts and eventually became a branch manager. The operation grew from $1.5 to $3.5 million in a year.
From serving as a senior account manager to making operational decisions — shutting down an unsuccessful branch and overseeing a satellite office — Logan’s experience quickly escalated into leadership, yet always centered on clients and the team.
When BrightView recruited Logan, “it was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down,” he says of diversifying his experience by working in more of a corporate environment. He soon returned to the mid-sized company that had lost money and helped double their revenue from $2.2 to $4.5 million within four years.
But when COVID-19 hit, Logan began seriously thinking about making a change. Kylee is immunocompromised with lupus and is a cancer survivor. “He would come home from his other job and sanitize himself in the laundry room, everything would go into the hot wash — he was afraid to kiss me goodnight,” she says. “It was a scary situation for him to be in.”
This made the decision to start his own business easier.
“When we went out on our own, he could set that standard of safety for our employees and clients,” Kylee says.
“They appreciate it when we would come to their properties with masks on. It was a much better dynamic.”
Since starting the business in May 2020, Logan expects to round out 2021 with about $400,000 in revenue and is projecting 2022 to bring in $600,000 to $800,000. However, one hitch during the pandemic has been vendor terms, he says. “A lot of vendors are not giving credit, and where you might have been able to get 30- to 90-day terms on accounts, it’s harder now to get approved for even 15-day terms than it was two years ago.” This has demanded a close eye on cash flow, Logan says.
And that is fueled by gaining business, some of which by Logan has done by growing partnerships with reputable local businesses such as Aqueduct, an irrigation firm in Minneola, Fla., operated by Joseph Zeilic, who worked with Logan at a previous business.
When Phoenix Landscape Solutions customers need irrigation work, Logan sends the work to Zeilic. And when one of Zeilic’s irrigation customers asks about landscaping, he sends them to Logan.
By sending work to others in the industry he knows and trusts, Logan can continue growing at a fast clip without getting burnt out, he says. “Family is the most important thing to me in the world, and I will not sacrifice family time to grow the business,” he says, adding that playing video games with his son, watching movies with his wife, and reading books about dragons with his daughter keeps him balanced. While his wife first questioned sending projects elsewhere, Logan has found this allows him to focus on the accounts he wants to attract while maintaining some sense of balance.
What keep clients loyal and coming back is the customer service, says Zeilic, echoing Kylee’s remark that Logan treats accounts with a “you’re my only client mindset.” She says, “He has worked for successful companies and done so well that clients wanted him when he left. He keeps a consistent experience for clients.”
Zeilic adds, “(Service) is how he can make a bad situation — the pandemic — an advantage, because he answers, he calls and always gets back to you.”
Essentially, the Phoenix Landscape Solutions team treats landscaping as hospitality — and in many ways, it’s not all that different. People are the center, Zeilic says.
Logan stays in touch with former co-workers, which has turned out to be a good recruiting tool
Courtesy of Shawn Logan
Courtesy of Shawn Logan
FINDING GOOD PEOPLE
Like with Zeilic and building their business relationship, Logan finds that keeping in touch with former co-workers has also given him a pipeline of potential employees like Grimardhy Garcia, who has been with the company since May.
“I can trust to leave him in charge of the crew on any project while I am out on estimates,” Logan says. “His quality and quantity level are on the same levels as my own. Grimardhy is a key player that has increased our ability to handle more work each and every day. I have kept in contact with all of the hardest-working people that I have worked with over the years and Grimardhy is one of the best, even at his young age of 24.”
Logan says keeping in touch with those employees has been beneficial for both parties.
“It’s been a great strategy throughout my career,” he says. “Not only does it help keep hard working guys around, but it has helped me build some of the strongest friendships. I am not always concerned about how they can help me but more so how I can help them. I’ve always believed in giving others help even if they can’t help you in return.”
Logan also focuses on taking care of his own. If a crewmember who always stops at the gas station mini-mart to grab coffee before the day begins skips the routine, Logan wants to know why. If an employee who’s usually social and joking with teammates is quiet, he wonders, “Is everything O.K.?”
“I am more in tune with the guys who work with me and their personal struggles,” he says, comparing the relationship to when he was overseeing workers as a general manager. Sure, he knew everyone on a first-name basis and would talk to them about their families. “But those guys who are working with me now, I’m a whole lot closer to them than when I was running 12 trucks, and I pay attention to their overall health.”
The pandemic sharpened his already careful eye on cleanliness and safety protocols, and he leads his company with a genuine concern for the “whole person.” That extends to assuring their financial stability, which has been a real challenge for many families during the last 20 months.
“When I hired my first guy, I remember other companies were paying $8 to $10, and I said, ‘My employees will make enough to actually support themselves,’” Logan says, noting that the per-hour bar starts at $15 and goes up to $25. This also helps attract driven, clean workers in a tough labor market, he adds.
As for recruiting the type of ethical, high-performing team members that can keep up with the growth clip at Phoenix Landscape Solutions, Logan has a few ways of filtering prospects so he can focus the search on real prospects. For one, he watches the clock to see if an interviewee shows up on time. If not, why would they respect the workday schedule?
Also, Logan tunes into body language. “I can tell if they are lying to me,” he says. “I’ll ask, ‘Do you have any experience,’ and if they look away or at the ground or they say, ‘I can do everything,’ then I’ll grab an edger and say, ‘Start this.’”
You’d be surprised how many can’t get a hedge trimmer going, Logan says. “I’ve had someone say, ‘I can do anything,’ and he didn’t know where the on switch was.”
He pays close attention to how a candidate carries him or herself. “I look for people who are respectful, courteous, polite and can make eye contact,” he says.
Like any owner, he has learned the hard way about what to look for in a hard-working employee. “My first guy I hired was great for the first few months, then he got comfortable and just stopped doing the work,” Logan says.
For example, on a basic irrigation job where the task was to fix a break on the backside of a wall, Logan brought the supplies to the site and took care of maintenance in the front. At 6 p.m. that Friday, the homeowner called and complained of pooling water. “I went back to the property, which was about 45 minutes away from the shop, and literally, the parts were still sitting there,” Logan says. “He just didn’t do it.”
He needed to find labor in a fix — and reached out to industry connections at previous places of employment. “Now, I’ve got two guys I used to work with, and they have good attitudes, they work hard, and I have some lofty goals for them over the next six months or so,” Logan says.
For instance, a “small” contract for the major resort properties he is in discussion with is a couple hundred thousand dollars annually. “You need all the upfront overhead just to start the contract,” he says.
But he’s got a plan for this, too. With a home-equity line of credit in place to support capital expenditures and a frugal eye on cash flow and the budget, he is leveraging resources to continue growing the company.
After a dynamic and fast-growth first 20 months in business, Logan will continue to balance acquiring desirable accounts with attracting talent.
And as for retaining that Disney way of service, the Logan family live those reminders by enjoying the park where their mother is a guest services pro at least every other weekend. They can operate a business that focuses on health, safety, hospitality and delivering on promises.
Logan says, “I started Phoenix Landscape Solutions knowing that if I owned the company, my values would be upheld.”
California regulators voted on Thursday to ban the sale of new gas-powered leaf blowers and lawn mowers starting in 2024 and portable generators by 2028, the latest step in the state’s aggressive effort to reduce harmful pollutants and transition toward a carbon-free economy.
The new regulations by the California Air Resources Board require all newly sold small-motor equipment primarily used for landscaping to be zero-emission by the target dates, with some exceptions.
The agency’s decision is based in part on the belief that battery technology will improve and zero-emission gear will become more widely available before the requirements kick in — though there will be an annual review to determine whether they are on target and whether regulation needs to be altered or delayed.
The restriction applies to homeowners and commercial landscapers alike, and the ban also includes gas-powered weed trimmers, chainsaws and power washers. The regulation does not ban existing gas-powered equipment, however, which can continue to be used.
Combined, these small gas-powered engines create as much smog-causing pollution in California as light-duty passenger cars. There are approximately 15.4 million small off-road engines in California and they produce about 141 tons of smog-forming emissions per day, according to the agency.
Richard Corey, executive director of the agency, told the board that the ban will provide significant health benefits for Californians, including those in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, which tend to experience the highest exposure to pollutants.
Environmental and public health advocates praised the new regulations, saying transitioning to zero-emission landscaping equipment and generators — either battery-powered or plug-in — will not only reduce pollution but protect the health of landscaping workers, homeowners and tenants who are exposed to gas and oil fumes.
“The new sales will start to make this transition to what’s much cleaner as well as quieter equipment,” said Bill Magavern of the Coalition for Clean Air. “That’s going to be a major health improvement for the workers who use the equipment and for residents who are exposed, as well as everybody in the region because smog is really a regional problem.”
Agency staff told the board that while transitioning to zero-emission machinery will lead to an added upfront cost to landscapers, that will be offset by the money they save in fuel, maintenance and repairs. The reduced emissions also will prevent hundreds of premature deaths in the decades ahead, as well as lowering healthcare costs for those affected by the carbon emissions, they said.
Landscaping businesses have adamantly opposed the new restrictions, saying zero-emission, commercial-grade equipment is prohibitively expensive and less efficient than the existing gas-powered lawn mowers, leaf blowers and other small machinery used in the industry. According to one industry representative, a three-person landscaping crew would need to carry 30 to 40 fully charged batteries to power its equipment during a full day’s work.
“The cost of transition would be significant and probably kill my small business,” Elizabeth Burns, president of Zone 24 Landscaping in Torrance, told the board.
Jeff Coad of small-machinery manufacturer Briggs & Stratton told the Air Resources Board that his company supports a move to zero-emission equipment but said the 2024 target date was unrealistic. The quality of zero-emission equipment such as commercial riding lawn mowers remains far behind that of gas-powered versions.
Air Resources Board member Hector De La Torre said when the agency sets ambitious goals, as in this case, “99{6d6906d986cb38e604952ede6d65f3d49470e23f1a526661621333fa74363c48} of the time we get there.” If there are problems going forward, however, the board will stop the process and reassess the situation.
“We’re not blind to the realities of what’s going on in the marketplace,” he said.
According to the board, operating a typical professional gas-powered lawn mower for an hour emits as much pollution as driving a car from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Operating a backpack leaf blower for an hour emits pollution comparable to driving that same car from Los Angeles to Denver.
The Air Resources Board began working on the regulations after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order in September 2020 that required the state to “transition to 100{6d6906d986cb38e604952ede6d65f3d49470e23f1a526661621333fa74363c48} zero-emission off-road vehicles and equipment by 2035 where feasible,” which includes landscaping equipment and portable generators.
In October, Newsom signed legislation enshrining that policy in state law.
Assemblyman Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), author of the legislation, said the state has set aside $30 million to help professional landscapers and gardeners make the transition from gas-powered to zero-emission equipment. Berman and members of the Air Resources Board agree that more money will be needed in the future, particularly for small landscaping businesses.
The ban on gas-powered generators elicited the most opposition during Thursday’s hearing, with critics saying battery-powered generators are an inadequate substitute during a sustained power outage or when access to power to recharge a battery is nonexistent.
Dave Johnston, the air pollution control officer at El Dorado County Air Quality Management District, expressed concern about the consequences for residents in rural areas. Gas-powered portable generators are essential for many Californians, especially those living in areas hit by widespread blackouts when high winds sweep through the state, mostly because utilities are trying to prevent a downed power line from starting a blaze.
“Power outages in rural areas are frequent and can last for several days and are becoming more common,” he told the board, asking it to delay the ban. “Forcing moderate- to low-income rural residents to do without power for extended periods to achieve small emission reductions in these areas that are already in attainment is unconscionable.”
Recreational vehicle manufactures and dealers also urged the board to rethink the generator ban. They said RV users depend on gas-powered generators, which are often permanently mounted, while in remote areas without access to power. Solar-powered equipment cannot provide the energy needed to run medical devices, refrigerators and air conditioning in hot climates, they said.
“The battery required to supply needed power to an RV for just one day would need to be twice the size of a battery currently used in a Tesla Model S and would cost upwards of $60,000 to $100,000, and would add at least 1,000 to 2,000 pounds to a vehicle, decreasing its fuel economy,” said Michael Ochs of the Recreational Vehicle Industry Assn.
Dealers told the board the ban will force Californians to buy RVs in neighboring states where gas-powered generators are permitted, which would cost jobs and do nothing to improve air quality.
Agency officials said those concerns will be assessed before the new regulations are implemented.
The new regulations come as California moves toward the goal of transitioning to 100{6d6906d986cb38e604952ede6d65f3d49470e23f1a526661621333fa74363c48} clean energy by 2045, shedding its reliance on gas-powered cars and slowly phasing out the state’s billion-dollar oil and gas industry.
In the same 2019 executive order to ban gas-powered leaf blowers and lawn mowers, Newsom required all new cars sold to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035. Newsom in April took action to ban new permits for hydraulic fracturing starting in 2024, and in October took the first step toward banning new oil and gas wells within 3,200 feet of homes, schools and healthcare facilities.
A couple of weeks ago, we were still doing a little yard work. Well, I wasn’t. The guy I pay to do such things was doing my yard work. I called a friend who said he had been trimming shrubs at his house.
I continue to be surprised at him doing yard work. Normally, he’s not the outdoorsy type and he’s not crazy about manual labor, either. But for some reason, he takes to a little bit of yard work.
I told him I wouldn’t even know where to cut. He replied, “You just start cutting and you’ll see. It will reveal itself to you, like cutting hair. It’s mystical.”
That was the craziest explanation of gardening — and haircutting — I’ve ever heard.
But he cuts his own hair and it always looks the same to me. He also cuts his mother’s hair and, again, always looks the same. He studied botany in college, so maybe there is a link between haircutting and trimming shrubs.
I don’t pay a lot of attention to things like people’s haircuts. I give my full attention at work, so when I’m not working it’s difficult for me to muster the brain power to focus. My brain wants to relax.
Whereas I am terrible with plants, my husband wouldn’t allow me to tend his plants. Or the shrubbery. Or the yard. So I have little experience growing plants, except for the years I raised a vegetable garden with my grandmother and I suspect her extremely green thumb saved the harvest every year.
As for hair, I only dared to cut my own hair this year when I was concerned about going out and having a stranger breathe in my face. When I was a grade-schooler I cut my own bangs after getting bubble gum stuck in them and, of course, it was the week of school pictures.
In March, I just wanted the ends trimmed, and it was getting long. So I put my hair in a ponytail, held it out from my head and cut. It was fun, feeling the scissors crunch through the tendrils and seeing the final result: even ends. I was so excited, I decided I would start trimming my own hair, so every four to six weeks, I’d go through the same procedure, thinking I was getting spiffed up.
By late summer, I was more comfortable getting out, so I dared to get an actual professional haircut.
I told my stylist to take off whatever she need to jazz me up a bit. I never expect miracles.
She gasped when she began to cut. Just a little one, not meant to embarrass me, but to acknowledge that my hair looked like it was last trimmed wth pinking shears. (An aside: I used to beg my grandmother to cut my hair with pinking shears.)
My haircutting friend doubts this story, believing she was leading me to think it was worse than it was so I would spend money on haircuts.
I enjoy having someone fool with my hair. Plus, it’s good to get out and contribute to the local economy while also enjoying the company of other people. Finally, I can’t see the back of my head, and I have to trust someone.
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