Council pushing to clean up carts

Lolita Harper

They have been found in bushes and on street medians, even

precariously perched in trees. Abandoned shopping carts are

everywhere, and city officials took another step Wednesday to get rid

of them.

City officials announced during a community meeting Wednesday that

they will pursue a new law designed to share the cost of cleaning up

shopping carts with area stores whose carts continue to litter the

city’s streets.

Mayor Linda Dixon, Councilwoman Libby Cowan, and code enforcement

and maintenance staffers shared the details of a proposed ordinance

with various store managers to outline the steps the city will take

to combat the problem and gain feedback. Retailers’ responses,

however, was minimal, as only five of 34 invited representatives

attended.

“The city has gone over and above trying to communicate and work

with the stores in Costa Mesa about shopping-cart blight in our

neighborhood,” Dixon said.

City leaders will continue to seek reactions from stores and plan

to send out a mass mailing detailing the proposed city ordinance,

which calls for stores to manage their carts or be forced to take

part in a city program. If more than five abandoned carts are found

in a year from a single retailer, that store will be required to

employ some sort of containment system -- designed to physically keep

the carts at the property -- or partner in a citywide cart-retrieval

contract, said Sandi Benson, Costa Mesa chief of code enforcement.

Only two other cities -- in Florida and Nevada -- have such a law.

In Costa Mesa, the city would manage the contract, which would

call for each store to pay for its share of abandoned carts, based on

a formula. The city would pay a third of the contract and expect

stores to make up the difference.

“I think this contract is really fair because it says to the

retailer: If you can effectively control your carts, we have no issue

with you,” Cowan said.

Karen Ramos, a regional spokeswoman for Albertsons and Sav-On Drug

stores -- which are owned by the same company -- said both stores

would willingly comply with any law the city chooses to pass.

“We would like to think we are already complying with the city’s

request to keep the shopping carts in our parking lots, but if an

ordinance goes into effect, we will, of course, comply,” Ramos said.

It is in the retailers’ best interest to keep the carts on the

property because stores need them to be available for their

customers’ convenience, Ramos said. Carts also cost the stores about

$100 each, she said.

“We don’t want our shopping carts out in the community; we know

that is not where they belong,” Ramos said. “They belong in our

parking lot, for the use of our customers, and we want to work with

the city to keep them there.”

Albertsons’ store managers are among the handful of

representatives who have consistently provided feedback during the

community meetings. Representatives from Stater Brothers, Grower’s

Direct, Trader Joe’s and Target have also been consistent players.

At best, only a third of the invited retailers have been present

at the meetings -- statistics that frustrate Dixon.

“Some retailers have been extremely conscientious and attended all

the meetings, and others, which have carts that significantly

contribute to the problem, have taken no interest,” Dixon said.

The mayor pinpointed Kmart on Harbor Boulevard and Wilson Street,

and said she personally called to invite management to the community

meeting and still no one came.

Kmart Manager Beverly Bennett declined to comment Thursday.

“If they choose not to attend, so be it,” Dixon said of retailers

in general. “After we’ve picked up their sixth cart, they will have

two choices: to work with the city or be fined.”

City leaders hope the mass mailing will stir up more response from

retailers and help them further refine some details of the ordinance,

which is expected to pass with overwhelming endorsement.

While council members have been criticized for being factional,

the shopping-cart issue is one of the few that unites the dais. In

previous meetings about the subject, all council members expressed

strong concern in cleaning up the rolling eyesores and making sure

taxpayers did not foot the entire bill.

“This City Council is determined to get carts off our streets and

out of our neighborhoods,” Dixon said.

* LOLITA HARPER covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at lolita.harper@latimes.com.