Four years ago, the Santa Monica City Council passed an ordinance banning fees on ATM withdrawals by a 4-3 vote. The banking industry immediately filed lawsuits against the law and in July of 2000, a U.S. district judge in San Francisco struck it down.
Santa Monica (as well as the City of San Francisco, which passed a similar ban) appealed that decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which also overturned the law. City officials then appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused last week to hear the case.
Some city officials have grumbled that they knew the law would never stand up and that Santa Monica wasted thousands of dollars on attorney fees pursuing the case. Others say it was a “consumer protection issue.”
So this week Q-Line wants to know: “Was the ATM fee ban a waste of time and taxpayer money from the beginning? Or was it a valid case of protecting residents from being gouged?”
Call (310) 285-8106 with your response before Thursday at 5 p.m. We’ll print them in Friday’s paper. Please limit your comments to a minute or less. It might help to think first about the wording of your response. TAXES
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 5, 2003. Read the original PDF.