Following the decision by the Los Angeles City Council to ban the use of single-use plastic bags on May 23, sustainability advocates in Culver City are hoping that their city will be next in line and follow in the footsteps of 47 other municipalities in the state.
Virtually every Westside city has passed prohibitions on the synthetic material or is in the process of considering them with the exception of Culver City.
With its vote, Los Angeles-, which many former and some current Culver City officeholders frequently use as a political battering ram to contrast what is supposedly right about their city-, became the nation’s largest municipality to ban the sale of plastic bags.
The 13-1 vote will allow retailers to sell customers a paper bag for 10 cents but will effectively outlaw the sale of plastic.
Near the end of last summer, Culver City City Atty. Carol Schwab said her office was in the process of reviewing other municipalities that have enacted similar ordinances as part of a proposed set of recommendations for the city council if it chose to implement such a law.
“When we are considering how to write a specific ordinance, we look at the direction that the city council has given and what their goals are,” Schwab explained in an interview with the News. “If it seems like it is a popular thing like a plastic bag ordinance ban, we would research what others cities have done, as well as how it might relate to our own municipal code.”
Councilwoman Meghan Sahli-Wells, who attended the Los Angeles meeting, called the vote a “momentous” decision.
“For me, it was a historic day,” said Sahli-Wells, a former community activist who made sustainability a core part of her campaign this spring.
For others, the Los Angeles ban was a waste of government resources and taxpayer money.
Organizations like the American Chemical Council have steadfastly opposed municipal bans on plastic.
“This new bag ban is an expensive mandate the city and taxpayers cannot afford,” states a Western Plastics Association website developed with the assistance of the chemical council.
“At a time when the city is passing drastic cuts to police, fire and parks to address multi-million dollar budget shortfalls, creating another taxpayer-funded government bureaucracy is bad policy for the city. Are we really going to spend tax dollars on creating ‘bag police’ to enforce the ban at a time when real police officers are being laid off?”
But Culver City residents like Sandrine Cassidy Schmitt appeared overjoyed by the neighboring council’s action.
“I am thrilled about the ban and proud of Los Angeles for stepping up to the plate,” said Cassidy Schmitt, a board member of the Ballona Creek Renaissance. “Legislation to ban plastic bags is the only way to witness real solid long-term change we need. Leaving it up to the individual is hopeful at best and has never proven to work on the level we need.”
Sahli-Wells and others wonder why Culver City has taken so long in bringing an ordinance that would prohibit the sale of synthetic bags before the city council. “Los Angeles County paved the way with its ban for cities across the county to take action,” she said, referring to the Board of Supervisors’ ordinance that was passed in 2010 and went into effect last year.
“I fully expect Culver City to do the same and very soon.”
During a city council candidates forum on Feb. 10, all of the contenders for office who were present indicated their support for such an ordinance.
Some of the city’s lawmakers have stressed the need to proceed cautiously to avoid any legal entanglements.
But advocates for banning plastic point to a state Supreme Court verdict last year in favor of Manhattan Beach, which instituted a ban on plastic bags four years ago but was sued by the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, which opposes municipalities outlawing plastic.
Sahli-Wells thinks that legal ruling, as well as the county’s ordinance, gives Culver City the legal cover that it needs to bring an ordinance before her and her council colleagues. “I really don’t see what we’re waiting for,” she said. “If there was any excuse before why Culver City was not working (on an ordinance), it’s gone now.
“I believe that (the Los Angeles vote) was the tipping point.”
Cassidy Schmitt, who lives near Ballona Creek and owns a business in Culver City that makes reusable shopping bags, is confident that Culver City will follow Los Angeles’ lead.
“I know Culver City was waiting to see what Los Angeles did. I am certain they will follow in their footsteps,” she predicted.
Councilman Jim Clarke said he thinks Culver City will consider an ordinance “sooner rather than later.”
He cited upcoming budget discussions as a reason that a hearing on plastic bags not might happen immediately.
“The important things that I want to see are whatever we put in place should be able to withstand a lawsuit,” he explained. “I also want to see that we have brought this along in such a way that we good public acceptance of it, through community meetings and town halls.”
After the review of an environmental impact report, the Los Angeles ban will go into effect.
Transition Culver City, a local environmental organization, pushed the topic of banning plastic to the forefront in Culver City over the last 18 months with a series of events that culminated in a screening of BAG IT! anti-plastic documentary on Feb. 24 last year.
Three days before the film was shown in Culver City, the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition filed a lawsuit in San Francisco against Marin County for its ordinance banning the sale of single-use bags.
The legal action contends that the county violated the California Environmental Quality Act by failing to complete and certify an environmental impact report prior to the passage of the ordinance, that an EIR is required because the ordinance is considered a project and generally disavows the claims made by supporters of prohibitions against the sale of single -use bags.
“This is an action seeking a writ of mandate to set aside, void, annul, repeal and terminate implementation and enforcement of Marin County ordinance 3553 regulating retail establishments provisions of single-use carryout bags that was adopted by the county Board of Supervisors on Jan. 25,” the legal brief states.
In San Francisco, the board of supervisors is the equivalent of a city council.
Stephen Joseph, an attorney with the Coalition to Save the Plastic Bag, did not respond to comment on the Los Angeles vote in time for the News’ deadline.
Opponents of banning plastic also point to a portion of the Los Angeles County EIR that concluded that the negative impacts of a paper bag include three times more greenhouse gas emissions than a plastic bag.
Sahli-Wells is not swayed by these arguments and feels that Culver City should not be either.
“Clearly, (considering a ban on plastic bags in grocery stores) has not been a priority here, and we should seize the moment,” she said.
Cassidy Schmitt said in the wake of the Los Angeles ban municipal leaders who do not embrace a prohibition on plastic risk creating the impression that they do not take sustainability seriously.
“Not embracing this change would damage any city’s image,” she said.
Sahli-Wells agrees with Clarke that passage of the city budget is a top priority, but afterwards the council should consider a municipal law banning plastic bags. “I really don’t see what we’re waiting for,” the councilwoman reiterated. “After the budget is done, let’s look at an ordinance that bans plastic bags in our city.”