CC - Item 6C - Abandoned Shopping Carts•
ROSEMEAD CITY COUNCIL
STAFF REPORT
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
FROM: OLIVER CHI, CITY MANAGER
DATE: NOVEMBER 20, 2007
SUBJECT: ABANDONED SHOPPING CARTS
SUMMARY
On October 9, 2007, the City Council directed staff to prepare an overview of the City's
efforts in dealing with abandoned shopping carts. The overview was to include what we
are currently doing and what changes should be made, if any, to be more proactive in
addressing abandoned shopping carts in Rosemead.
Staff Recommendation
Staff recommends that the City Council review this report and provide staff with
direction regarding additional shopping cart removal efforts.
ANALYSIS
The City has contracted with California Shopping Cart Retrieval Corporation (CART) for
the past several years. Past practice was for CART to pick up approximately 100 carts
per month and deposit them in the storage area at the back of City Hall. Other cart
companies would then retrieve the carts from City Hall and return them to their contract
businesses for payment. Unmarked carts were disposed of by Consolidated Disposal
Service. The cost for this service was approximately $3,000 annually. This operation
had the tendency to clutter the trash and storage area at City Hall and furthermore,
made it difficult for the trash to picked up and disposed of.
After reviewing this operation, City staff scheduled a meeting with the Executive Vice
President (David Reid) and the Field Supervisor (Edwin Maestas) from CART in July 2007
to discuss alternative ways to enhance cart retrieval in Rosemead. Based on the discussion
with representatives from CART, staff implemented the following process improvements:
• Return the carts to the appropriate businesses directly.
• Provide a monthly cart retrieval report which would track the total number of carts
retrieved and to which businesses they belonged.
APPROVED FOR CITY COUNCIL AGENDA'.
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City Council Meeting
November 20, 2007
Page 2 of 2
In addition to those changes, CART has also contacted many of the local stores and
markets in attempt to directly contract with them for cart retrieval services. To date, CART is
under contract with Target and is working with Rosemead Market and Beaches Market to do
the same.
Operationally, the Public Safety Services Department employees (code enforcement
officers, parking control officers, and Field Services staff) are returning carts to local
businesses and documenting retrieval information. For example, this past September, 131
carts were retrieved and returned to businesses. Also, in October, 134 carts were returned
to businesses. During those two months, 14 unmarked carts were retrieved and disposed of
by Consolidated Disposal Service.
In order to further improve the City shopping cart retrieval service, staff will continue to
compile and evaluate cart retrieval information and evaluate the contract with CART. For
example, staff is also proposing to post a newly developed shopping cart law sign at local
businesses (Attachment A) while continuing to communicate with them to improve their cart
retrieval activities.
Finally, staff is proposing to implement a community education program that would involve
distributing informational brochures and correspondence to residents and businesses
related to laws against removal of shopping carts.
Submittby:
enaeki
Assistant City Manager
Attachment A: Proposed Shopping Cart Sign
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Unauthorized removal from premises or
unauthorized possession of a shopping cart is a
violation of Shopping Cart State Theft Law.
El traslado no autorizado desde las instalaciones
o la posesion no autorizada de un carro de
compras es una violacion a la Ley de Hurto de
Carros de Compras.
Neu ai cat gIU hoac dem xe tai chd ra kh6i
khu vic nay khi khong co phep la vi pham
Luat Lay Cap Xe Di Chap.