Getting Involved : He Took On City Hall and Learned

When the Los Angeles City Council considered a ban on noisy gas-powered leaf blowers last year, gardener Brian Yamasaki got involved in the political process. He learned that although letter-writing campaigns and visits to the City Council required him to juggle his schedule frequently, political involvement had many benefits. Yamasaki was interviewed by Karen Kaplan.

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I am an officer in the Southern California Gardeners Federation. When the City Council was deciding whether to ban gas-powered leaf blowers, I was called to assist with the effort to bring our issues with the blowers to light.

We wanted to look for other alternatives to a ban. It would be a great nuisance not to have the blowers. It is an extremely important timesaver. Without it, I would have to work on one fewer house per day. That represents a big chunk of income.

We visited City Council members and talked with them about our point of view. At the same time, we worked on letter-writing campaigns and got some petitions going.

All of this activity took up many hours each week. There was just so much work that some of it had to be done during normal working hours. Besides, if you’re meeting with the City Council people, that has to be done during business hours.

I had to work later into the night and on Sundays to make up some of that time. I talked to my clients and told them what was going on, and they let me reschedule when I needed to. Clients like to invest in a person who devotes time to public service because they see you as someone with a stake in the community. Besides, I was trying to protect my clients’ interests so that I wouldn’t have to raise my prices.

Unfortunately, we lost this battle when the council voted in December to ban the blowers. But it’s not a waste of time to get involved. It’s not a waste of time to explain your situation to a City Council member. It’s not a waste of time to explain your view to the mayor. You work in the city and you can only benefit when you give your input. If you don’t, it does your business no good, and it makes your fellow professionals a little weaker.

You can’t say to yourself, “I’m doing this for the community and I’ll get it all back in the end” because you don’t know if that’s true. But if you do nothing, it won’t help at all, and if you do something, it might help.

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AT A GLANCE

Owner: Brian Yamasaki

Nature of business: Gardening and landscaping services

Location: Los Angeles

Year founded: 1991

Number of employees: 1

Annual sales: $40,000