Crackdown on shopping carts begins

Deirdre Newman

City leaders finally cracked down on the unsightly problem of

abandoned shopping carts, but some residents charged they did not go

far enough.

Monday, the City Council approved a moderate law that calls for

all stores using shopping carts to establish an effective containment

system to keep the carts on their properties.

The approval represents the culmination of city officials

collaborating with local businesses that use shopping carts to arrive

at a mutually agreeable solution. While it is the first decisive step

in meeting the city’s objective of reducing abandoned grocery carts,

some said that the burden should not be on the city.

“The city should not be in the shopping cart retrieval business,”

said Beth Refrakuf. “[The city] has more important things to do.”

In August, city officials invited feedback from various store

managers on the proposed law and two alternative -- one of which

called for a zero-tolerance policy.

The new law imposes a $150 fine for each cart the city retrieves

after the fifth one in any 12-month period. It also calls for the

city to contract with a private retrieval company for about $48,000

per year.

Along with Monday’s approval, the law has are two kinds of waivers

a store can receive so it won’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 cart returned and the

city would pay the balance of the cost.

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

Assn., the group 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 more severe ordinance the council considered included 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.

Some residents and Councilman Allan Mansoor supported this

alternative.

“I think the burden needs to be on the store owner to keep carts

contained,” Mansoor said. “Once they’re out, it’s hard to get them

back.”

But Mansoor could not muster the support of the majority of the

council.

The other alternative was to reject the passed 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.

Mayor Gary Monahan’s support of the moderate alternative did

garner a 3-2 victory with Mansoor and Councilman Chris Steel

dissenting.

While Monahan said he was sympathetic to Mansoor’s concerns he

urged the council to approve the moderate option because so much time

and collaboration had been invested in the project.

“In 12 months, if we don’t see significant improvement, then it

didn’t work and we will have to look at something tougher,” said

Monahan.

Steel used the discussion of the shopping cart options to air his

common complaint that charity magnets on the Westside were

responsible.

In response, Monahan directed his colleague to make a proposal to

solve the problem he perceives instead of just complaining about it.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers Costa Mesa and may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at [email protected].