The CIA Cafe in South Portland's Knightville neighborhood has been in business for nearly a decade.Like many other businesses, the pandemic forced them to do things differently. One of those things was to stop accepting cash to keep the employees safe and away from germs. Now the city council may force them to change the way they do business, and the owners don't like it.It's credit and debit cards only at the CIA Cafe if you're ordering a cup of coffee. Many of their COVID-19 protocols are still in place. The owners and the employees like it that way."We're not bringing out food on dishes like we used to. So, I think we're just trying to do our best still just to not have interaction with the customers as much," said Abby French, who works as a barista.Every once in a while, owner Bill Dunnigan said someone will not like the fact that they don't accept cash, but he said that's rare. "Ninety-nine point, nine, nine, nine percent they whip out the credit card," Dunnigan said. "They don't hesitate. We have (a sign) no cash on the door, we've had no issues," he said.At the checkout counter Tuesday, an employee was heard telling a customer, "We do not take cash. We're only doing cards at the moment."Customer Jacob Albarado's cash was declined when he went to pay. We asked him, "Did it bother you that they didn't take it?" Albarado responded, "Yes, but there's no choice. What can I do?"Complaints came into city hall. Now councilors are discussing an ordinance. Some believe the business practice of not accepting cash could be construed as "discrimination against cash-paying customers" and they might want to prohibit it, according to the council's workshop agenda.Dunnigan said it's a private business and the federal government is on his side."The federal government says you can do that, but the city of South Portland is going to override the rules of the federal government," Dunnigan said. "I mean, I wish the city would stay out of my business to begin with."Dunnigan said he's doing it for his employees, some of whom got COVID-19 and even today they still don't feel comfortable dealing with cash."I think I've looked at cash differently now since the pandemic," said Rachel Hopkins, who is also a barista at the cafe. "I was never really worried about it beforehand but yeah, ever since (COVID-19) started it's definitely grossed me out a little bit more," she said.On the front counter, there is tip jar full of cash on the front counter, employees said they don't touch it until the end of the day.Tuesday night South Portland City Councilors held a workshop meeting to discuss this proposed ordinance with the city attorney to determine whether the proposed ordinance to require cash sales moves forward or not.