CURRENTS February 2019 | Page 5

Currents February 2019 > continued from page 3 City facilities, parks and the beaches. The City Commission at that time desired to broaden the language to include all establishments within the City, and the language does just that. Phyllis Smith, Collier City, Pompano Beach, FL, stated that she has plastic straws and since this ordi- nance has been adopted, she cannot use them any- more. Therefore, she asked that when the City comes up with the kind of straws that residents could use, she respectfully requested that they forward them to her house at 2437 NW 4th Court, Pompano Beach, FL. Comr. McGee indicated that there is a similar existing ordi- nance within the city buildings addressing Styrofoam as well. Therefore, she suggested that the City Commission consider amending the ordinance and to expand banning Styrofoam along with the plastic straws throughout the City, since we are trying to be environmentally friendly. Mark Berman, City Attorney, explained that initially there was an ordinance for Styrofoam that prevented Styrofoam use at city facilities, concessions, at city parks, recreation facilities and in city buildings. Initially, he was required to prepare an ordinance for plastic straws the same way dealing with just City buildings, and City facilities. There was fur- ther instruction to prepare and expand it, in looking at what other cities were doing, and they scaled it back and the model ordinance provided to other cities is what was done for this item. However, this does not affect people’s homes for straws, but it affects restaurants, food establishments, fast food and otherwise in the City. So this adds more to the cycle in terms of having restau- continued on page 6 > 5