HomeMy WebLinkAboutOB-2 - 26-116 - 1. Draft Ordinance - Track Changes - 2/3/2026Ordinance No. 2026-xx Page 1 of 7
ORDINANCE NO. 2026-xx
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COSTA MESA,
CALIFORNIA, ADDING ARTICLE 7 TO CHAPTER II OF TITLE 9 OF THE COSTA
MESA MUNICIPAL CODE RELATING TO GROCERY AND DRUG STORE STAFFING
STANDARDS FOR SELF-SERVICE CHECKOUT STATIONS
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COSTA MESA, CALIFORNIA DOES
HEREBY FIND AND DECLARE AS FOLLOWS:
WHEREAS, the City of Costa Mesa, pursuant to its police power, may enact
regulations for the public peace, morals, and welfare of the City; and
WHEREAS, on November 4, 2025, the City Council directed staff to return with a
draft ordinance to establish staffing requirements for self-service checkout stations; and
WHEREAS, the City Council desires to establish staffing standards for self-
service checkout stations located in retail grocery and/or drug stores.
Now, therefore, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COSTA MESA,
CALIFORNIA DOES HEREBY ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. Article 7 is hereby added to Chapter II of Title 9 of the Costa Mesa
Municipal Code to read as follows:
GROCERY AND DRUG STORE STAFFING STANDARDS FOR SELF-SERVICE
CHECKOUT STATIONS
9-170 Purpose.
It is in the public’s interest to require grocery and drug stores to adopt effective
preventative measures that will address the impacts on public health and safety that
retail theft creates within the context of self-service checkout operations where theft
commonly occurs but remains largely unchecked and underreported. Regulating the
staffing of self-service checkout operations will address the hostile and unsafe working
conditions for employees, and unsafe shopping environments for customers.
9-171 Short Title.
This ordinance shall be known as the “Self-Service Checkout Staffing Requirements.”
9-172 Definitions.
ATTACHMENT 1
Ordinance No. 2026-xx Page 2 of 7
For the purpose of this Ordinance:
“City” means the City of Costa Mesa.
“Customer” means an individual who buys consumer goods from a Drug Retail
Establishment or Food Retail Establishment.
“Drug Retail Establishment” means a retail store that sells a variety of prescription
and nonprescription medicines and miscellaneous items, including
drugs, pharmaceuticals, sundries, fresh produce, meats, poultry, fish, deli products,
dairy products, canned foods, dry foods, beverages, prepared foods, and other
merchandise.
“Employee” means a worker employed directly by a hiring entity at a Drug Retail
Establishment or Food Retail Establishment. Employee does not include managers,
supervisors or confidential employees.
“Food Retail Establishment” means a retail store that is either: (1) over fifteen thousand
(15,000) square feet in size and sells primarily household foodstuff for offsite
consumption, including fresh produce, meats, poultry, fish, deli products, dairy products,
canned foods, dry foods, beverages, baked foods and/or prepared foods (other
household supplies or products are secondary to the primary purpose of food sales); or
(2) over eighty-five thousand (85,000) square feet and with ten percent (10%) of their
sales floor area dedicated to the sale of non-taxable merchandise including the sale of
fresh produce, meats, poultry, fish, deli products, dairy products, canned foods, dry
foods, beverages, baked foods and/or prepared foods.
“Non-Self-Service Checkout station” means a station that is not a Self-Service Checkout
and at which an employee provides human assistance to a customer for scanning,
bagging, and/or accepting payment for the customer’s purchases.
“Self-Service Checkout” means the automated processes that enable customers to
scan, bag, and pay for their purchases without human assistance, including but not
limited to fixed self-checkout, scan-and-go self-checkout, or mobile self-checkout.
“Self-Service Checkout station” means a station at a fixed location within a Drug Retail
Establishment and/or Food Retail Establishment at which a customer can engage in a
Self-Service Checkout for the customer’s purchases.
Ordinance No. 2026-xx Page 3 of 7
9-173 Self-Service Checkout requirement.
A. Drug Retail Establishments and Food Retail Establishments that provide Self-
Service Checkout options shall provide at least one Non-Self-Service Checkout station
staffed by an Employee that is available during the times that a Self-Service Checkout
option is available to customers, and Drug Retail Establishments and Food Retail
Establishments shall establish, implement, and advertise limits to Self -Service Checkout
to purchases of no more than fifteen (15) items.
B. Drug Retail Establishments and Food Retail Establishments shall have an
established workforce policy that prohibits customers from using a Self-Service
Checkout station to purchase either of the following:
1. Items that require customers to provide a form of identification, including, but not
limited to, alcohol and tobacco products.
2. Items subject to special theft-deterrent measures that are affixed to the item,
including, but not limited to, electronic article surveillance, ink, or other tags, or items
placed in locked cabinets, that require the intervention of an Employee to remove them
before purchase.
C. Drug Retail Establishments and Food Retail Establishments shall notify the
public of this Ordinance by prominently posting signage in a location accessible to
customers, which includes either a link or QR code to the City of Costa Mesa website
regarding this Ordinance, a summary of the public’s rights under this Ordinance, a
physical and/or email address to which notifications of violations of this Ordinance may
be delivered, and the enforcement options available to the public pursuant to this
Article. Failure to have and/or maintain an address pursuant to this section shall waive a
Drug and/or Food Retail Establishment’s ability to assert lack of notice in any civil action
brought pursuant to this Ordinance.
D. Self-Service Checkout stations shall be located to enable observation and
surveillance from both employees of Drug Retail Establishments and Food Retail
Establishments and local law enforcement.
9-174 Self-Service Checkout staffing requirements.
A. Drug Retail Establishments and Food Retail Establishments that provide Self-
Service Checkout options shall assign at least one (1) Employee to supervise the Self-
Ordinance No. 2026-xx Page 4 of 7
Service Checkout operation at all times that Self-Service Checkout is in operation
during business hours. The assigned Employee shall have no other work
responsibilities that would interfere with their ability to maintain direct visual inspection
and surveillance of the Self-Service Checkout operations.
B. In the event a Drug Retail Establishment or Food Retail Establishment operates
two (2) or more Self-Service Checkout stations, the Drug Retail Establishment or Food
Retail Establishment shall maintain a staffing ratio of at least one (1) Employee for
every three (3) Self-Service Checkout Stations (1:3 ratio). The manner in which this
standard is implemented may take into account operational and logistical feasibility.
9-175 Enforcement.
A. A Customer or Employee must notify on-site management verbally or in writing
and notify a Drug Retail Establishment or Food Retail Establishment in writing at the
address established pursuant to section 9-173(c) of a violation, after which the
establishment shall have seven calendar days from the date of notification to cure the
violation. If the violation is not cured, a Customer or Employee of a Drug Retail
Establishment or Food Retail Establishment may bring a private right of action in the
Superior Court of the State of California against a Drug Retail Establishment or Food
Retail Establishment for violating
this Article and, upon prevailing, may be awarded:
1. A civil penalty for each violation of this Article of one hundred dollars ($100) for
each employee of the Drug Retail Establishment or Food Retail Establishment. Each
day the violation is not cured, the penalty shall increase an additional one hundred
dollars ($100) per employee per day up to a limit of one thousand dollars ($1,000) per
employee per day for each day in which the violation remains uncured.
2. Attorneys’ fees and costs.
9-176 Retaliatory action prohibited.
No Drug Retail Establishment or Food Retail Establishment shall terminate, reduce in
compensation, or otherwise discriminate against any Employee for seeking to enforce
their rights under this Article by any lawful means, for participating in proceedings
related to this Article, for opposing any practice proscribed by this Article, or for
otherwise asserting rights under this Article.
Ordinance No. 2026-xx Page 5 of 7
9-177 Alternative Compliance
As an alternative means of compliance, a Drug Retail Establishment or Food Retail
Establishment shall implement all the following security measures:
A. Self-Service Checkout Stations are separated from Non-Self Service Checkout
stations by railing or other barriers.
A. At least one Non-Self Service Checkout station is in operation and located between
the public exit and the Self-Service Checkout Stations allowing employees to monitor
customers exiting.
B. At least one staff person is dedicated to the self-checkout area during all hours of self-
checkout operation.
Section 2. Inconsistencies. Any provision of the Costa Mesa Municipal Code or
appendices thereto inconsistent with the provisions of this Ordinance, to the extent of
such inconsistencies and no further, is hereby repealed or modified to that extent
necessary to affect the provisions of this Ordinance.
Section 3. Severability. If any chapter, article, section, subsection, subdivision, sentence,
clause, phrase, or portion of this Ordinance, or the application thereof to any person, is
for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by the decision of any court of
competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portion
of this Ordinance or its application to other persons. The City Council hereby declares
that it would have adopted this Ordinance and each chapter, article, section, subsection,
subdivision, sentence, clause, phrase or portion thereof, irrespective of the fact that any
one or more subsections, subdivisions, sentences, clauses, phrases, or portions of the
application thereof to any person, be declared invalid or unconstitutional. No portion of
this Ordinance shall supersede any local, State, or Federal law, regulation, or codes
dealing with life safety factors.
Section 4. Effective Date. This Ordinance shall take effect thirty (30) days after its final
passage.
Ordinance No. 2026-xx Page 6 of 7
Section 5. Certification. The City Clerk shall certify to the passage and adoption of this
Ordinance and shall cause the same to be published or posted in the manner required by
law.
PASSED AND ADOPTED this ___day of _____, 2026.
_____________________________
John Stephens, Mayor
ATTEST: APPROVED AS TO FORM:
________________________ _____________________________
Brenda Green, City Clerk Kimberly Hall Barlow, City Attorney
STATE OF CALIFORNIA )
COUNTY OF ORANGE ) ss
CITY OF COSTA MESA )
I, BRENDA GREEN, City Clerk of the City of Costa Mesa, DO HEREBY
CERTIFY that the above and foregoing Ordinance No. 2026-xx was duly introduced for
first reading at a regular meeting of the City Council held on the ____day of _________
2026, and that thereafter, said Ordinance was duly passed and adopted at a regular
meeting of the City Council held on the ___ day of _________, 2026, by the following roll
call vote, to wit:
AYES: COUNCIL MEMBERS:
NOES: COUNCIL MEMBERS:
ABSENT: COUNCIL MEMBERS:
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereby set my hand and affixed the seal of the
City of Costa Mesa this ___ day of ___________, 2026.
__________________________
Brenda Green, City Clerk