City Council - Ordinance Committee

CHICOPEE CITY COUNCIL ORDINANCE COMMITTEE APPROVED MEMBERS James Tillotson, Chairman Gary Labrie, Vice-Chairman Robert J. Zygarowski Frank Laflamme Timothy McLellan MINUTES April 28, 2014 The following are the minutes of a public hearing held Monday, April 28, 2014 at 6:30 PM in the City Council Chambers, Fourth Floor, City Hall Annex, 274 Front Street, Chicopee, MA 01013. Members Present: Tillotson, Labrie, Laflamme, Zygarowski Not Present: McLellan Also Present: Dan Garvey (Associate City Solicitor), Frank Czepiel (Commission on Disabled), Thomas Charette (Chief of Police) The meeting was called to order at 6:30 PM. ITEM #1 BE IT ORDAINED by the City of Chicopee that the Code of the City of Chicopee for the Year 1991 , as amended, be and is hereby further amended as follows; By adding Chapter 169-37 – Shopping Carts All supermarket’s, retail and discount stores and any other businesses which provide shopping carts for the use and convenience of their customers shall comply with the following requirements in order to prevent the disposal of the carts as waste or litter interfering with the use of public and private property including bodies of water. (a) Every shopping cart owned or used within the City of Chicopee shall have a permanently affixed and clearly visible cart identification sign. Every cart owner shall continuously maintain or cause to be maintained the cart identification sign so that the owners name is accurate and clearly legible. (b) Shopping carts so identified shall be used only on the business premises. Signs informing the public of this requirement shall be prominently located at the entrance and exit of the store or business. 1 (c) All stores and business providing such carts for the convenience of their customers shall be responsible for installing, operating and maintaining a cart retrieval program which shall include at a minimum a contract or agreement with a cart retrieval service that is sufficient to respond to complaints from the public or the City of Chicopee regarding abandoned shopping carts in a manner that results in the retrieval of the carts on an ongoing basis. (d) All stores and business providing shopping carts to its customers shall lock or otherwise secure all shopping carts during hours when the business or store is closed. (e) No person shall be authorized or deemed authorized to remove a shopping cart from the business premises unless they are in possession of written permission from the cart owner. (f) Any shopping cart found on public property or private property other than that of the business utilizing the same shall be removed from said property by the owners of said shopping cart. Failure of the owner to remove the shopping cart shall be a violation of this Chapter and shall result in the City of Chicopee or its designee retrieving said cart(s). (g) In the event that the City of Chicopee retrieves a shopping cart, the City shall hold the cart at a location that is reasonably convenient to the owner of the shopping cart and open for business at least six (6) hours on business days. When the City has retrieved a shopping cart, the City shall so notify the owner that the City has impounded their shopping cart. This notice shall include the following: (1) Information as to the carts location, (2) How the shopping cart may be retrieved, (3) That failure to retrieve the shopping cart within fifteen (15) days from the date of the letter may result in the cart’s sale or destruction, (4) That the owner will be responsible for the City’s costs of retrieval totaling twenty-five 00/100 dollars ($25.00) per cart. (5) That a fine totaling seventy-five 00/100 ($75.00) per cart shall be imposed. In the case of a cart that does not provide adequate identification or markings to determine its owner, the City shall only be required to notify the cart owner if the city obtains actual knowledge of the owner’s identity. The Superintendent of Public Works or their designee shall issue a seventy five dollar ($75.00) fine upon an owner for any cart in violation of any section of this chapter. No cart shall be released to its owner under the procedures in this section unless the owner pays a fee for the City’s cost of retrieval and storage in addition to the seventy five 00/100 dollar ($75.00) fine for a total of one hundred 00/100 dollars ($100.00) per cart. 2 This ordinance shall take effect thirty (30) days from passage Councilor Tillotson stated this is a public hearing to get your input. We do feel there’s a problem in the city with carts being left where they don’t belong and not being retained and picked up in a timely manner. Public Input Mark Goddett, Director of Loss Prevention of Big Y Foods Inc. of 34 Kowal Drive, Chicopee stated that the cart retentions system can be a problem and could cost thousands of dollars. It’s almost impossible to comply with everything in this ordinance. If we don’t have a reasonable amount of time to recover a stolen cart there’s a seventy five dollar fee, I’m not sure if that’s fair to the retailers of this city. There is not a lot in this ordinance about the people who take the carts committing larceny. Councilor Tillotson stated we have had no problems with Big Y, you don’t see many carts around in the city. Bob Laport, Manager of Big Y, Chicopee stated he agreed with Mark Goddett that we need a reasonable amount of time to recover a stolen cart. We take good care of our carts, on Saturday’s you will find more BJ’s carts in our parking lot that Big Y carts. David Esseling, Store Manager of Walmart, Chicopee stated that we are probably the biggest store in Chicopee so we have the most customers taking the carriages off the lot. We’ve contracted F&M Company to retrieve the carts weekly. Councilor Tillotson stated once a week is not enough, they are all over the city. David Esseling stated that we are all here and we agree that something has to get done because it’s the right thing to do for the city. It is very costly to hire a company to go out there and pick the carts up weekly. If we’re going to pass an ordinance it has to be written that it’s fair, twenty four hours to retrieve the carts is not a timely manner and a seventy five dollar fee is not acceptable. Whatever we decide to do should be for the community. Councilor Laflamme stated you have security, why can’t you train them to stop the carts from leaving the property. Mark Goddett of Big Y stated I think the signs are a good idea from a due diligence and liability standpoint but those folks know they’re stealing a carriage. The contract security that we have driving around out there; they’re more for visibility and people’s safety and they’re not my employees’. If this ordinance passes I will have my employee’s stopping people for larceny of carriages and unfortunately I will be calling the Police. Big Y is a community based, family owned local company and we want to do the right thing for the community but, we also want the bad guys held accountable. Councilor Laflamme stated that this is been ongoing for years and we are just trying to clean it up. Councilor Labrie asked what did they do at the other Walmart stores in regards to this matter. David Esseling answered a lot of the Metro, inner city Walmart stores have potential cart containment systems on, that usually gets done when the store’s being built because it’s a lower cost. Councilor Zygarowski asked what would be an acceptable amount of time for you to retrieve the carriages. David Esseling answered within forty eight hours. Representatives from Fruit Fair stated they agree with the other Companies that we shouldn’t pay fines. Our carriage’s cost four hundred and seventy five dollars and a seventy five dollar fine on top of that; it’s just not reasonable. Representatives from Stop & Shop also agreed on the fines and the amount of time to retrieve the carts. Chief Charette stated the reality of what’s going on here is; the residents of the hotels are using these carts to transport their goods to where they’re residing and they don’t bring them back. It’s time for the business industry as well as the city to come up with something. I suggest we meet with the hotels and the business’s to come up with some way of dealing with this issue. 3 Motion to approve – motion passed Committee vote 4 – 0 favorable. ITEM #2 Minutes – April 8, 2014. Motion made to approve. Motion passed. Meeting adjourned at 7:55 PM. 4