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# Residents mixed on ATM fee issue
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/residents-mixed-on-atm-fee-issue/
- Published: 2003-06-06T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:17:31.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Business, Main St, #archive-import

*Q-LINE, from page 4*

Last week, Q-line asked, “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?”

Here are your responses: ■ “A waste of money. Get real! All that money to have the Supreme Court refuse to hear the case. The City Council will go down in history as being a bunch of baboons. As the court said, banking laws and fees are not controlled by cities. That was money down the drain.” ■ “Of course the ATM suit was a waste of money. The city attorney’s office could be helping Pico neighborhood by helping landlords evict criminal tenants and a few other things as well. The city would rather chase its own agenda as opposed to something that would really help the residents.” ■ “I feel it was a valid attempt to at least raise a question about the fee. I feel that the money should have been short-circuited when the first round of court decisions was announced because it just cost a lot more money to keep it going. This is a national issue with the banks who are sponsored by the federal government. It is not really a local issue.” ■ “The Santa Monica City Council should try a different approach instead of always going after the businesses in a negative way in Santa Monica. They should try and do everything possible to help our business men and business women in Santa Monica. Possibly then the businesses would be able to hire more people and pay higher wages. This thing about going after the ATM’s was a big mistake. What they did to Howard Jacobs on Main Street is a complete joke. They should be ashamed of themselves.” ■ “These people are idiots and it’s not a matter of thousands of dollars, it’s tens of thousands of dollars for this kind of lawsuit and it’s a total waste of time. It’s perfectly reasonable for the banks to be charging a fee. It costs them money to operate the machines. The city has no business getting in that area. The City of Santa Monica is wasting people’s money, time and again on lawsuits and they are crying broke and spending all of their time in court.” ■ “The ATM fee ban appeal was a waste of taxpayer money. Coercing businesses into giving free service of convenience to all comers violates rights.” ■ “It has been a waste of taxpayer’s money in Santa Monica. It’s the case again... people with their own agenda, not what is best for the city. We don’t need these type of people on the City Council.” ■ “Santa Monica is the only city along with San Francisco in this state that has any courage to go ahead and fight the ATM fee. The banks are charging these fees in an overbearing manner. This city has always been at the forefront of trying to make life better for all its citizens. We are blessed to live in Santa Monica.” ■ “It was a waste of time and money. The City Council should focus on their own outrageous city fees and taxes which seem to go higher and higher each year.” ■ “Of course the ATM fee ban was a waste of time and money. What else is new? The City Council does such a fine job of this, wasting our time and our money. Now they want more money for education from us. We need a new council. Big time.” ■ “When the city lost the ATM lawsuit I said ‘YIPPEEE.’That’s what I said. Even though I knew it was more or less my money I was somewhat glad that it happened. It’s not their job to tell the banks what to do. Their job is to run the City of Santa Monica and not be wasting our money. I wish they would take note.” ■ “I think that this attempt to ban ATM fees was a really good idea. The fact that it’s been turned down by the higher court just shows that local governments don’t have the power that they should have. There is no reason why local governments should not have the power to enforce sane practices in its own community. This is big government at work again at I’m glad that we at least tried.” ■ “That was an incredible waste of time and money. In a city that has a huge budget deficit and is also spending $50 plus million on a new library, it was a complete waste of time. If the federal regulators did not feel that there was a problem, then there was no reason for a city to try and change it.” ■ “I guess the ATM fee ban was a nice try on behalf of the residents, but even more important is an expenditure of the taxpayers’ money to clean up this skid row by the sea that has come about.” ■ “Most certainly this has been a waste of our time and our money. That’s money that could have gone to the schools. There are several options to avoid paying ATM fees including credit cards, checks, teller withdraws, and debit cards. The Santa Monica Daily Press reported the city was considering educating consumers in the future on how to avoid these fees. May I suggest that Kevin McKeown be our first student.” ■ “It’s very commendable that the City Council was concerned about monetary interest of its residents. However, they seem to lack any concern about the health interest by planning to add fluoride to our water.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 6, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/060603.pdf?ref=smdp.com)