SR-702-002 (6)
Counell Office iIi:cls
Counel1 Meetlng of~ptember 11, 1984
4Itnta Monica, California
?-tJ2-- po 2-
It/-I(
SEP 11 '184
TO:
FROM:
SUBJECT:
Mayor and Council Members
Council Member Davld G Epsteln
Request for D1Scusslon of Request for Staff Report on
Ordinance Regulating Smoking ln Public Places
The September 2, 1984, L?s Angeles Tlmes lndlcates that Pasadena's ordinance
regulating smoklng in public places has been relatlvely successful.
It 1S requested that Counel1 discuss requesting staff to provlde a report
on the desirabllity of adopting an ordlnance slffillar to Pasadena's, wlth
the following specif1c sub-directions:
1. D1SCUSS the issue with the Chamber of Commerce, Restaurant
Assoclatlon, local health lnstitutlons, and other lnterested persons.
Onerous cost and convenience impact on local buslness to be avolded if
possible.
2 Evaluate desirabllity of lncludlng or excluding restaurants from
the scope of the ordlnance.
3. Evaluate deslrability of speclfying that no slgnificant capltal
expendltures be required of any place of publlC accommodations subJect
to the ordinance.
4. Evaluate approprlate enforcement mechanlsms -- crlminal, civil
penaltles and/or prlvate rlght of CiVll actlon.
5. Report with text of proposed ordinance or with negative recommendation.
14-4
SEP 11 '984
e
e
TRANSCRIPT OF PORTION OF MINUTES OF CITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD
SEPTEMBER 11, 1984
ITEM 14-A: Request of Councilmember Epstein to discuss request for
staff report on ordlnance regulating smoking in public
places.
Cm Epste1n: The City of Pasadena and a number of other cit~es
~n Californla, the state of Utah, and some other states have ordinances
and statutes which regulate smoking ~n public places. I believe that
glven the concerns over carcinlgens in our environment, that the most
dangerous carcerugen ~n ourenvirontnent probably is tobacco smoke and I
thlnk that we ought to move towards recognizing that many people have
a smoklng hablt and not belng puritanical about it, that is a habit
that people ought to keep to themselves, accordingly I think we ought
to conslder adopting an ordlnance similar to the Pasadena ordinance.
I belleve that we ought to try with respect to restaurants and workplaces,
we ought to consider at least trying a voluntary program rather than
a compulsory program lnltially. I belleve we ought to consult with the
lnterested industries etcetera before we formulate an ordiance. Accordingly
I would propose----local people who m~ght be affected (regarding who to
contact)--- that we direct the staff to investigate this question and to
present us wlth a short l~st of POllCY optlons regarding this matter.
There is c~rculat~ ng around a packet of materials, I believe Councilmember
Reed has It, WhlCh contalns the text of some of the ordinances and some
educatlonal mater~al about it that ~ght assist the staff In conducting
the research.
I would moved that (interupted)
e
e
Mayor Edwards:
lS he stll1 here?
Cm Epstein: I thlnk he is, I have about three minutes and I
would ask unan~mous consent that the gentleman might address us, and
then ~'ll make my motion.
Mayor Edwards: Charles !10ssen (sp?)
Mr. MOssen: Charles Mossen, I am the legislat~ve director
for Callfornlans for non-srooker's rights. .......... Californians
form non-smoker's rights has worked with many communities in
cal1fornla to pass the type of law that you're looking at tonight.
The materlal you have lS materlal that we supplied, we act as consultants
at no cost, to cltles, our membership paying all of our fees. There are
29 communlt1es 1n california that have ordlnances protecting non-smokers
it really lS an issue of health, the health warnings are mounting.
Lack of act10n means your making non-smokers guinnea pigs in an area
WhlCh lS absolutely unnecessary given the track record of othere cities.
There was an excellendt article inteh Watll Street Journal pointing
out how well thlngs are working in San Francisco, things are working
well ln the state of Mlnnlsota since 1975, in Palo Alto and San Diego
and many other communities. Public opinion certainly is in favor of
th1S sort of ordlnance, a publich opinion poll in March pOlnted
overwhelming publ~c support of theis sort of thing. Unfromtunately
the track record for voluntary programs is abismally poor. Other
communities have trled the volunnary approach, you even in fact have
a voluntary approach right now, and it is not working in this community
and other communltles in california. We would hope that you would pass
a strong law a ;nd we would be more than happy to work with XHR you in
Before you move anything, you had one person who,
~
~
e
e
r
formulating that and glving you whatever background information you
would llke to have.
em Epsteln: Well, I made the, why don't i remake the motion.
I would move that we direct staff to present us with ~XRXHKXXXHK
po11cy opt1ons regardlng an ordinance regulat1ng smoking in publlC
places, and to consider specifically the merits and demerits of
voluntary program with respect to the workplace and restaurants, and
that would include eiscussions with %~ga interested local entities.
That is the motion.
Mayor Edwards: Second. Discusslon, ~lrs. Reed.
em Reed: ~0MXXX9%KX If your isolated workplace and
restaurants for voluntary, what W~H~~ is leftxsesxNRs to be controlled
bes1des elevators.
em Epsteln: You see, the K~xk~gR ord~nances cover a lot of
pub11c places 11ke hallways, elevators, places of publci assembly and
50 forth. There are speclal problems+xaxxXkHXBxm~EH connected, or
there maybe, depend1ng upon what the response is, connected with
restaurants and w1th the feature of some of these ordinances whre they
sayan employyee ~an simply designate their own desk or workarea as
a non-smoking area~ Ithink at least we owe it to the business community
to cons,ult wlth them before we go and pass an ordiance of this sort, it
may be that ~t ~s someth~ng that there wouldntt be strong objections to
and we could appropr~ately do it. But I'm not prepared to direct the
Ctiy Attroney at this pOlnt to do that, butthere are alot of other
areas that would be covered.
Cm Ree~: Well, I don't have any problemt at all in making
smok2ng not legal in elevators, but I have a lot of concerns about the
res~ of lt, and we can't consider doing this witherout having real
3
e
e
act~v~ part1cipat1cn from the restaurant community and other parts of
the buslngess commun~ty.
Mayor Edwards: Well, I think Mr. Epstein's motion makes that clear.
It is speclflcally meet s with them, here is their concerns, and where
we are able to cooperate, all that much more the better, I don't hear
anyth~ng that forces anybody XHRX to do anything till we meet and
have some discussions with them. Any other discussion on the item.
All in favor say "aye"
Approved 4-1 (Press voted no)
THE END
~
/'./0
.- "'- I dv-
I .. 1) ."
. \ vf'
'W~ ~tYK
\ {J
~b1
7 - B
13 - B
13 - C
N' ~U-.r.-
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
September 11, 1984
ACTION
ITEMS
Con tac t street -1 ight
the non-gl are nature
the CIty.
i
f
I
,
f
I
I
petItIoners and protestors about
of new street-llgrt Installed by
Staff ResponsIble:
Date Due:
stan Scholl
10-15-84
Prepare an Info Item on tbe bump at 2105 Washlngton - In
partIcular trls report should Include:
1. any avaIlable statIstICS 0:1 tr.e traffiC Impact of
tre bumps;
2. tre results of the recent survey of nelgrborsj
3 .
conSideratIon of ~eslg~l~g or restrIplng tre
0"" curb to locrease motO"'l.st notIce of the
Include conslde~atlon of reflectIve pOl~t.
street
DumDs'
. ,
Staff Respo~slble. Sta~ Scroll
Date Due: 10-15-84
Send copy of
regardIng the
(reference to
Ms. Forelle.
"'esponse prepared by police department
p"'ocedure for putting animals to sleep
Ra~ona Tara Forelle letter) to Councll and
Staff ResponSIble: Jlm Keane
Date Due: 9-30-84