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ADOPT AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 8, CHAPTER 8.40, SECTIONS 8.40.050, 8.40.080, 8.40.090, AND 8.40.150 OF THE STOCKTON MUNICIPAL CODE REGARDING SHOPPING CART ENFORCEMENT
recommended action
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the City Council:
1. Adopt an Ordinance amending Title 8, Chapter 8.040, sections 8.40.050, 8.40.080, 8.40.090 and 8.40.150 of the Stockton Municipal Code (“SMC”), to allow for improved implementation and enforcement of the provisions of the existing ordinance.
2. Authorize the City Manager, or designee, to take all appropriate and necessary actions to carry out the purpose and intent of the ordinance.
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Summary
The Stockton Police Department, Neighborhood Services Section (“NSS”) was requested to review its policies and procedures with respect to shopping cart enforcement. In the past few years, both the amount of shopping carts in possession by unauthorized persons and carts found loose or abandoned in the City have grown significantly. Upon a review of the City’s current Shopping Cart Ordinance (“Ordinance”), staff found the manner in which the Ordinance addresses these issues to be very similar to that of other municipalities. However, in some instances, current language is ambiguous in whether or not requirements will be enforced. Staff’s review revealed opportunities to make improvements in the enforcement of the Ordinance, and that minor changes to the current Ordinance would make enforcement more effective and less cumbersome for NSS (Attachment A).
DISCUSSION
Background
In 2001 the City of Stockton adopted the Ordinance (SMC 8.40 et seq.) consistent with the provisions of the California Business and Professions Code (“BPC”), Section 22435 et seq., to address the growing problem of abandoned shopping carts within the city limits. It is important to recognize that, though the City of Stockton is a Charter City and can, in some cases, adopt and implement its own ordinances, rules, and regulations contrary to State law, the Legislature specifically cited retrieval of shopping carts by local governmental agencies as a matter of statewide concern which is to be governed solely by the BPC, prohibiting any city, county, or city and county from adopting any provisions within their ordinances which conflict with the BPC. Following passage of the City’s Ordinance, enforcement became a shared effort between the Stockton Police Department (“SPD”) Patrol Division (citing individuals in possession of abandoned carts and assisting NSS and Public Works in certain enforcement actions), NSS (issuing Notices of Violation for abandoned carts on public and private property), and Public Works (collecting and impounding/disposing of carts on the public right-of-way).
The BPC requires any city, county, or city and county that impounds shopping carts to hold such carts at a location that is both reasonably convenient to the owner of the shopping cart and open for business at least six hours of each business day. This has been a challenge for the City, therefore more responsibility must be placed on the business and/or property owners to prevent shopping carts from leaving the premises.
Present Situation
Enforcement of the Ordinance is solely complaint driven. Complaints can be submitted to the NSS complaint line, Public Works complaint line, or online at Ask Stockton, where it is then routed to either NSS or Public Works, depending on the details of the complaint. Due to the increase in shopping cart complaints, staff have renewed efforts to reduce instances of shopping carts in public and private areas.
In January 2024, a CSO was assigned to NSS and part of the position responsibilities is to oversee the implementation of a renewed effort to enforce the Ordinance. Also, a part-time Safety Aide II position has been established and has been tasked with reviewing the current Ordinance, making recommendations for revisions of the Ordinance, and creating an updated Policy and Procedure for enforcing the Ordinance going forward. Based on this review, the following amendments to the SMC are requested to better enable NSS, and other departments/divisions, to implement and enforce the provisions therein:
SMC 8.040.050
• Change the violation language to be consistent with the changes in 8.40.090.
SMC 8.040.080
• Change the language requiring businesses to submit a Mandatory Plan to the City to a requirement that businesses prepare a Mandatory Plan and store it “on-site.” Businesses would be required to produce the Plan upon request by an authorized officer and could be cited for failure to produce a Plan.
• Change ‘may’ language to ‘shall’ language to remove ambiguity as to what a business is required to include within its Mandatory Plan. Within the Plan provisions of this section, businesses will still have options for reducing abandoned cart occurrences, but they will have to be more specific in identifying how they are going to implement it.
• Require businesses to provide the City with a contact person and contact number at each of its locations and what, if any, third-party cart retrieval company they are contracted with. This provision will allow the City to gather information to incorporate a link on relevant City website pages where citizens will be able to report abandoned carts directly to the business’ cart retrieval company, thus minimizing complaints to City complaint lines. Numerous municipalities researched have implemented such webpage links on their websites.
SMC 8.040.090
• Simplifies language about penalties for failure to comply with Mandatory Plan requirements.
• Establishes remedial actions allowed to address repeated and excess violations.
• Establishes provisions for addressing a property owner not allowing a business owner to install cart wheel locking devices, and associated systems, after proper notice. This provision would only be applicable when the property owner and business owner were not the same.
SMC 8.040.150
• Change the existing Chapter 1.20 reference to Chapter 1.24, Chapter 1.28, and Chapter 1.32 to correctly identify the SMC Sections under which NSS is authorized to conduct administrative remedies.
FINANCIAL SUMMARY
There are no General Fund costs associated with the amendment to the ordinance as drafted. Collection of any fines, fees, or cost recovery associated with shopping cart enforcement will continue pursuant to current practice.
Attachment A - Proposed Shopping Cart Ordinance Amendments (redline)