The Seattle City Council is set to vote on the yellow pages phone book ordinance today at 2:00 p.m.—after making modifications from the latest version.
Generally, the bill would prohibit phone book publishers from distributing yellow pages to people on a city-run opt-out list and fine those found flouting the law.
The council was initially scheduled to vote on the bill last Monday, but postponed it by a week because of some concerns raised by city council member Sally Bagshaw that the ordinance would affect business groups and non-profits. The Greater Seattle Business Association, which distributes a small phone book of gay-run and gay-friendly businesses, and the West Seattle Chamber, which publishes the West Seattle Community Resources Guide, told the council last Monday that they were afraid the ordinance could penalize them.
In the new draft of the bill, the council is attempting to assuage those groups. The bill Would exempt organizations that distribute directories to their membership. Bagshaw’s staff told The Stranger today that she had worked with council member and bill sponsor Mike O’Brien last week to address her concerns and was ready to vote for the ordinance. The amended ordinance focuses the regulation on those distributors (rather then publishers) that are generating the largest amount of unwanted material in the waste stream. The amendments also specifically exempt organizations that distribute phone books to people who request a book, or who distribute less than 4 tons of paper annually.
Both Bagshaw and O’Brien are currently in committee meetings and couldn’t be reached for comment. Although O’Brien has Bagshaw’s support now, he still faces the wrath of the Yellow Pages lobbyists who vehemently oppose the bill.
Unanticipated consequences.
You will see a lot of small local firms that just happen to produce a shade less than 4 tons crop up.
Although it’s nice that this exemption works for the Pink Pages.
I don’t know anyone who actually uses a phone book or even has space for one. The Google Machine rendered paper reference material sort of moot a few years ago. If the Yellow Book people want to keep blowing cash on something that just goes strait to the recycle bin, I say we let ’em run their business into the ground.
That being said: I don’t have a home phone. I have FIOS and with that I use Skype. Being devil’s advocate, the fiber line also doubles as a phone line, albeit to a different company…So the question is: if Verizon/Frontier/Qwest/USwest/Ameritech/ATT/whoever provide my internet, Am I then in their pool of “their membership” and still going to get a Seattle phone book anyway?
Maybe I’m in an uncommon situation, But I’d really rather not still have to toss the litter on my door stop in the bin w/o even taking it out of the bag even after this law passes.
Maybe if the law specified unwanted phone books could be prosecuted as litter ($103) or trespassing, or illegal dumping or something…what is preventing this route right now? Amend current law I mean instead of a new one YB gets to protest and tie up in court…
You can always use the yellow pages to throw into the Billionaires Tunnel when we’re all homeless thanks to the giant sucking sound of taxes going to that.
The gay phone book is a waste to trees too.