A question of abandonment

Deirdre Newman

A joint effort between city officials and local businesses that use

shopping carts has borne fruit as the law will finally make it to the

checkout line today.

The City Council will consider a law that mainly calls for all

stores using shopping carts to establish an effective containment

system to keep the carts on their properties, with a $150 fine for

each cart the city retrieves after the fifth one in any 12-month

period. The council will also consider two alternatives to the

proposal.

Taking tough measures with the law is important to keep the city

as free from litter as possible, said Councilwoman Libby Cowan.

“Even if the city has to pay for it ourselves, I think it’s an

essential component of keeping our community looking great,” Cowan

said.

In August, city officials invited feedback from various store

managers on the proposed laws. Only five of 34 invited

representatives showed up. City leaders continued to seek reaction,

resulting in the law that will be considered today.

There are two kinds of waivers a store can get so it wouldn’t have

to pay fines for abandoned carts. The first is if the store agrees to

participate in the city’s Shopping Cart Nuisance Abatement Program,

where the city contracts with a private company to have a truck

search the city daily to pick up abandoned carts and return them. A

store requesting this waiver would contract with the city to pay $3

for each of carts returned and the city would pay the balance of the

cost.

The second waiver, added at the request of the California Grocers

Assn. that represents the four major grocery stores in the city,

would allow stores to gain certification from the city that they have

an “effective” cart retrieval program of their own. City officials

would determine the standards of effectiveness. A store could lose

the waiver if the city’s retrieval company picks up more than 10 of a

store’s carts in a week for a second time.

The first alternative includes changing the law to add zero

tolerance of even one abandoned cart, eliminating both waiver

provisions, issuing civil fines to stores without effective

containment systems and not hiring a cart retrieval company.

Councilman Gary Monahan worries this option could leave the city

vulnerable to lawsuits.

“If we [stick] it to them, we’ll be in court in a heartbeat and

we’ll lose like there’s no tomorrow,” Monahan said. “We need to be

realistic on that.”

The other alternative is to reject the ordinance and just contract

with a retrieval company that collects abandoned carts to return them

to the store owners, without any charge or contribution and with no

other enforcement efforts.

Financial impacts to the city include staff to implement and

enforce the new law and the cost to contract with a private retrieval

company.

The exact administrative costs of enforcing the proposed law are

not known, said Acting City Atty. Tom Wood. The city would need to

spend a few months putting the law into practice before it can fully

gauge these costs, Wood added.

The estimated annual cost of contracting with a private retrieval

company would be $48,000.