A bill for an ordinance amending article XI of chapter 24, D.R.M.C., to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products and accessories. Amends Article IX of chapter 24, D.R.M.C., to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products and accessories. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 11-17-21.
The communication regarding the veto of Council Bill 21 1182 has been received and filed. Councilmember Sawyer your motion to override the veto on Council Bill 21, Dash 1182. Thank you. Council President I move that council bill 21 dash 1182 passes notwithstanding the disapproval or objections of the mayor. It has been moved and seconded. Questions and Comments on Council Bill 21, Dash 1182 Council Member Sawyer. Thank you, Madam President. Given that we've been having these discussions for a year and between Councilwoman Ortega and myself, have held almost 100 meetings with stakeholders, community members, business owners, council members, city officials, lobbyists, tobacco companies and countless others. I don't think we need to rehash all of the issues tonight. It really comes down to priorities. Do we as a council want to override this veto in the name of public health? Or do we want to let it stand in the name of profit? Councilman Ortega and I brought this. Bill because we truly believe in prioritizing public health and we have. The support of over. A hundred local institutions and organizations in this work. We have the data to show that reducing access reduces youth usage of tobacco and vape products. Denver has the opportunity to be a leader in fighting this epidemic. As we have always. Said, we. Agree with the mayor's office that this should be. Done on a state level. And if this veto override fails tonight, we're. Committed to continuing these discussions. But we have seen that when Denver leads, others join us. Look at the tobacco 21 law. Denver did it first and then the state changed the age to 21. What about the COVID mask mandates? When Mayor Hancock announced that he was requiring masks, even though Governor Polis hadn't, he was making the decision to prioritize public health, even though it was controversial. And what happened? Governor Polis announces statewide mask mandate. That's what we're talking about tonight. Denver has an opportunity to lead this conversation and prioritize the public health of our kids. No legislation is perfect. And all legislation has consequences. Intended and. Unintended. But this legislation is narrowly tailored. Includes exemptions for things like harm reduction. And we've worked hard over. A year to incorporate much of the feedback. That we've heard. I believe truly that imperfect action is. Always better than perfect inaction. I want to be the kind of politician that finds solutions to the. Challenges that face our residents. So I'm going to urge my colleagues to join. Me in voting to override this. Madam President. Thank you, Councilmember Ortega. Thank you, Madam President. Pro tem. First. I want to share that. It's it's been an honor to work with Councilwoman Sawyer on this project in trying to ensure that we are prioritizing public health as we have done and have led on tobacco issues in the past . I am tired of seeing big tobacco using millions of dollars to hire. Minority individuals from our community to defend their efforts, meaning big tobacco, to continue to target our communities and especially our communities of color, to ensure that they grow and maintain their lifelong customers. Who become addicted to these products. And then you heard how we as the public pay for the additional costs in our increased increases to health care because of so many people whose lives are being impacted and these are preventable deaths. This has always been a public health issue that we have focused on by bringing this issue forward and targeting our kids, especially. But at the same time, we're protecting adults. And make no bones about it. The tobacco industry has continued for many, many years to target children. And minority communities to be their lifelong customers to continue to pay the increased costs in tobacco products. But they're paying with their lives, and that's what we're trying to address. So I would just plead with my colleagues to allow this law to be overridden. The veto to be overridden allowed the law to stay in effect. And then the work that some of my colleagues talked about addressing the enforcement side and sadly, I'm I was surprised last week that. So much focus was on the enforcement when we could have been having those conversations at the beginning of this effort. When we started this over a year ago. But those came up on the back end of this process, and they should have been part of the discussions that we were having on the front end. So I just again will be supporting the move to override the veto and hope that my colleagues will support that. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Cashman. Yes, thank you. Madam President. Pro tem. I made my vote last week without. Meaningful comment, so I think it's important that I make comment this week. I have struggled more with determining which way to vote on this bill than I have with any but a very. Few other issues. That I've been faced with in my time on council. The considerations. That have found their way into this discussion are. Varied and complex, and the competing issues hit very close to home for me. I was a small business owner who worked with. Other small business owners. For the better part of four decades. I'm intimately familiar with their. Bedrock contribution to our economy, as well as the pressures that these entrepreneurs face under the best. Of daily circumstance, no less when shifting. Economics or government regulations add more complexity. To their day. That's why I proposed the amendment to delay implementation of this bill should it pass. By a full year from July of 22 to. July of 23. For just over five decades, I have been a parent for the past, nearly to a grandparent, and I've watched my kids, my grandkids and their many friends try to make their way through the minefield of challenges thrown at them, not just by the natural unfolding of life, but by companies who make their living offering products tobacco, alcohol and marijuana among them. Whose presence in the marketplace, I believe, presents more of a threat to my loved ones ultimate well-being than a benefit. Whatever challenges to clarity the above elements to the debate have presented for me, I am crystal clear that we. Have a responsibility to do our best to provide safe passage for our children. I believe good parenting and good government both have a. Role in that effort. This bill was presented to me by the sponsors at being aimed at keeping. Tobacco out of the hands of kids. And it is that focused context that I have. Considered its merits. What I like about this bill is that it reduces the availability of the smaller flavored smoking devices. Menthol cigarets and flavored tipped cigars that are. Appealing to young would be smokers. They would not be available in Denver. My concern about the bill is all of those. Products will remain easily. Available across our borders and many through online retailers with a few quick keystrokes. I'm also concerned that this bill would impact retailers selling larger vaping devices that these discussions have revealed are not particularly attractive to youngsters and that some folks use as a way toward smoking cessation. I would be very pleased with a statewide policy or a federal mandate that we have been told for years is. Coming eliminating flavored to make tobacco products. Excuse me. As we know. Should this bill pass? It does not provide any kind of silver bullet. Excuse me. Should the bill pass. Be it local, statewide or national? It's not a silver bullet to keep kids off tobacco. However, the vote goes this evening. We must work in partnership with our Departments of Excise and License and Public Health and Environment to increase the team of inspectors that are available to enforce the requirement that tobacco products of all sort be available only to those 21 and over. We must insist that anyone wishing to be licensed to sell. Tobacco products in Denver. Be required to employ enhanced verification techniques to reduce the opportunity for those under 21 to take fake I.D., to purchase tobacco. Products. And we must dramatically increase the penalties. For those selling to those under the age. Of. 21 or in any way enabling the transfer of tobacco products to those. Beneath legal age. We must redouble our educational. Efforts to make it ever more clear the harm the consumption of all tobacco products does to young bodies and minds. What don't we know about the impacts of the mayoral veto. Of 21 Dash 1182 was upheld. We don't know how many more kids will go into Denver stores with fake IDs to purchase these products. We don't know how many adults will purchase these products in Denver and pass them. On to underage. Individuals to begin or deepen their tobacco habit. If the veto is overturned in 21, dash 1182 passes into law. We don't know how much tax revenue that previously came into our coffers from flavored tobacco sales will go elsewhere, and we don't know how many businesses will relocate. We don't know how many of the retailers that. Will be restricted from selling flavored tobacco will find. A new business model with which to move forward. We don't know to where and in what numbers kids will. Go elsewhere to find. These products. We don't know what form of underground. Business might spring up to meet the new. Denver need for products that the bill would ban. We also don't. Know. What other municipalities will be encouraged to join Denver. In finding ways to discourage teen tobacco use. Further limiting the supply of kid friendly products. So what it has. Come down to for me is I have no faith that big tobacco that lied to us for so long. Will suddenly develop a social conscience and join in real. Partnership to reduce tobacco use and children. I have no faith that the action from Washington that we've awaited is soon to come. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a decline in high school students current use of e-cigarettes down from. 27.5%. In 2019 to 19.6% in 2020. However. An overwhelming majority nearly. 85% of high school students who used e-cigarettes in 2020 reported they use flavored e-cigarettes. My faith is not high that if 21 dash 1182 does not pass, that a second effort will produce a bill with as strong a commitment to keeping flavored tobacco. Out of the hands of kids. While I recognize the. Challenge this puts on retailers, Mayor Hancock, while expressing his concern. For affected. Businesses, did not say we should not limit supply. He said it would be more. Effective if we. Did it on a metro wide or. Statewide level. I think our chances of leading the way to a positive. Outcome for our kids is to do just that, be among those who. Are leading the way. With that in mind, Madam President, pro tem understanding. That we have other work to be. Done to keep kids from getting hooked on tobacco. I think this bill will do more to lead us in the. Right direction than if we turn it away. I reversed my position. From last week and will vote to support the implementation. Of 21 Dash 1182. Thank you for your patience with my comments. Thank you, Councilman Clark. Thank you, Madam President. I know I did articulate last week that and shared my concerns with the bill that we passed, ensured my preference for what I thought would have been a better path. I continue to really believe that we need to firm up enforcement, significantly, raise the fines for selling anyone who is selling to kids and and really be aggressive and make it a lot easier for the folks who do enforcement to take away and for businesses to lose their license for selling to kids. I believe in that framework. I believe that there are are a lot of people on all sides of this who are very supportive of that. Right. And I just want to say, you know, I've got a world of respect for the folks that I sit up here and serve with. And we don't always agree. We don't always come to the same conclusion. But I believe that everyone up here is committed to keeping tobacco out of the hands of kids. It's a question of how we think we best get there. And I think that there are a lot of, you know, small business owners who believe strongly in that and want that regulation and that control and that enforcement and that accountability. And so. You know, I said last. Week that I really felt like we should tackle that and then we should implement a flavor ban where appropriate within that framework. And that it was I was disappointed that the amendment. To create. A carve out for stores that were 21 plus didn't pass. And I thought that it didn't pass because there. Was that lack of faith. In our current fine structure and our enforcement and and in the ability to take license away. We have found a way to make 21 plus stores work for marijuana to to keep kids out of those stores and to keep kids from accessing marijuana through those stores. And I really believe that if we could get if we can get the enforcement and the fines. And. Taking away of licenses there, then we can also create a pathway for 21 plus tobacco stores. But that's that. That wasn't what made it into. This final bill. So there didn't last week for me there didn't. Appear to be a pathway. To that end to what I thought was a better way. Was a more tactical. And I think I said to the that this issue needs a scalpel to use that scalpel. To really carve this out, protect our kids without, you know, as much of a blunt instrument. But we it does make a difference. And I do think that there is a pathway. I have talked I spoke with the mayor. I spoke with other members of this body and feel that the mayor has taken steps to start working with excise and license and the city attorney's office. To that end, I believe that we. Can tackle this issue with the scalpel that it deserves and protect our kids in a more meaningful way if we take that route. I'm. I'm remain very open to conversations about flavor bans where appropriate as we move forward and solve the problems that I think led to the 21 plus amendment not going through. And I and I hope that we can get there. And I think that this is a this is a better path to that end that I was looking for last week. And so I will be switching my vote and I will not be voting tonight to support the override. Thank you, Madam President. Seeing no one else in the queue. Council members just remember that nine affirmative votes of council are required for the adoption of this motion. Madam Secretary, roll call, please. But. Sawyer I. Black Knight. CdeBaca, I. Clark No. Flynn No. Herndon. No. Hines. All right. Cashman. Can I. Ortega, i. Sandoval. I. Madam President, I. Eight eyes, four nays. The motion to override the veto on Council Bill 21, Dash 1182 has failed. Council Bill 21 Dash 1182 has successfully been vetoed. There are no proclamations.