Split Hermosa Beach City Council bans polystyrene
Hermosa Beach Councilman Kit Bobko
The Hermosa Beach City Council has banned Hermosa Beach restaurants from using polystyrene containers, including foam takeout boxes and cups, on a contentious split vote that followed a fourth public hearing on the matter.
“This is just another step in cleaning the ocean,” said Councilman Peter Tucker, who joined Councilman Jeff Duclos and Mayor Howard Fishman in approving the ban.
Discarded polystyrene foam quickly flakes into small pieces, and members of environmental groups have complained that the flakes make their way into the ocean and constitute a major source of beach litter.
Councilman Michael DiVirgilio, who opposed the ban along with Councilman Kit Bobko, said he had not been aware that the ban includes clear plastic “clam-shell” containers used in grocery stores to package items such as muffins, cake slices and rotisserie chickens.
City officials said the non-flaky polystyrene containers were included in the ban early in a two-year arc of discussions. A California Grocers Association official asked the council to remove the non-flaky packaging from the ban, saying it would cause a hardship for Hermosa stores.
The ban was opposed by the American Chemistry Council, and was supported by Californians Against Waste, Heal the Bay, Surfrider Foundation and a city-appointed Green Task Force.
About 25 Hermosa restaurants use foam cups and boxes. Restaurants contacted by the city offered no public resistance to the ban.
Bobko vigorously opposed the ban, saying Hermosa is not “Pyongyang, Moscow or Havana.”
He called the ban an undue use of government force, and told supporters they were using power rather than persuasion to rid eateries of polystyrene.
“You can’t convince everyone that your ideas are right, so what do you do? You do what everyone with power does, you use force,” Bobko said.
“This is not something that should be trivialized,” Duclos countered. He said polystyrene bans in more than 50 California cities address “a problem that the industry is not correcting.”
Bobko also criticized a city staffer, Senior Planner Pamela Townsend, for her comment in the Daily Breeze that, “As various cities locally adopt restrictions and different ways of doing things, it creates a ripple effect. It’s more than just Hermosa, one small city by the beach.”
Bobko did not identify Townsend by name, but cited the “ripple effect” quote. He said her comment improperly advocated for the ban.
Townsend approached the speaker’s podium and asked to defend herself, and Fishman denied the request.
“My integrity is being questioned,” she said.
“I did not mention Ms. Townsend’s name, she identified herself,” Bobko said.
Typically, staff members speak up if they are asked questions by council members, but they sometimes approach the podium on their own, as well.
Fishman chided Bobko for his remarks about Townsend.
“This is not a place to bash the staff, this is a place to discuss the issues,” Fishman said.
Dency Nelson of the Green Task Force said he was “offended” by Bobko “attacking” Townsend. Another task force member pointed out that Townsend and other city staffers formally recommended the ban in a report to the City Council.
DiVirgilio said, “Staff shouldn’t be taking positions.”