Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by amending Sections 8.68.020, 8.68.060, 8.68.065, 8.68.075, 8.68.090 and Subsection 8.68.110.A; all relating to smoking in public places, read and adopted as read.  (Citywide)
Motion carries. 25 please. Communication from City Attorney Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code all relating to smoking in public places. Read for the first time and laid over to the next regular meeting of the City Council for Final Reading Citywide. Any public comment on this item? There's a motion and a second. Please come forward if you have public comment for this item. Good evening. Bill Balding, a resident of five. District five. I'm here to talk in favor. Speak in favor of smoke free outdoor dining and shook in Long Beach. I'd like to see that ordinance passed without any amendments or restrictions, no time limits or exemptions. And I'd like to tell you why I think that's very important. So, first of all, residents of Long Beach overwhelmingly support smoke free outdoor dining. 85% of our population is nonsmokers, and the other 15% like to try to quit if they could find out a method that is effective. The up and down the coast of California, cities like Los Angeles, Huntington Beach, Redondo, Laguna Beach have gone smoke free. Their dining patios are completely free of smoke, and the residents support those measures entirely. Residents of Long Beach do the same here. They'd like to see smoke free outdoor dining. The second point is that we have a health equity issue here. 70% of office workers like myself and like you are protected by smoke free. Air ordinances don't have to deal with tobacco in the workplace. But if you're a low paid service worker working in a restaurant, you're forced to breathe in. To a second hand smoke on a daily basis, greatly affecting your health. Third, I'd like to address very quickly the notion that somehow there's a negative economic impact with smoking restrictions. That's absolutely opposite of the truth. The truth is, every time smoking restrictions are put in place, business improves. We know that. You know that because you've gone through that fight here in the seventies and Long Beach when you made bars and restaurants smoke free, I ask you to continue the work that you began then and put Long Beach back in the progressive column in bringing smoke free outdoor dining throughout the city. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Please come forward. Hi. Good evening, Mayor and council members. My name is Amanda Staples and with the American Heart Association. And I've reached out to a number of the officers regarding. Just wanted to touch base and introduce myself. However, what we are looking at this piece of legislation very closely and as is I mean we are in support of is smoke free dining here in Long Beach. With the considerations made, we feel that the policy as is has been introduced here would not address that issue. So we feel as a mission, as our mission is, to ensure folks have longer, healthier lives, that this will be a determinant to that. Smoking is deadly not only to the smokers, but with regards to secondhand smoke. And so we want to just ensure that Long Beach is right there lung protecting those folks that work there and want to enjoy here in Long Beach. I understand that this city is a very tourist and engages in welcoming so many new folks. But I do ask that this legislation be look like be looked at to not only those that visit and come here to play, but those that live and work here. So we ask that that the considerations, considerations be removed, the amendments made be reconsidered, and we hope to continue working with the offices here. So thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Yes. I'm here as one of the co-founders of the Long Beach Farm and Alliance. And since our city is based on this new design. Of putting retail at the bottom and apartments on top of our a lot of our new apartments in a lot of these retails are. Going to help restaurants with outside dining. Which means the smoke would go up upstairs to the apartments. We've seen the commercials every day on TV where they show people smoking down below and the smokes, traveling into people's apartments with children and so on. And this was going to happen to everyday life. We need to have. 100% smoke free dining so people can bring their families, their children. And we're known for being a. Dog friendly city. And it shows now that our dogs are now getting cancer, too, from secondhand smoke. And we do a beach cleanup every four Sunday of the month and we pick up cigaret butts and we're. Losing the battle. We're seeing more cigaret butts on the beach and so on. And some of these cigaret butts will come from the dining. Area where people will be smoking if you let it stay in place. And one of the thing that came up was about the special permits, because children are not out after 1030. Well, Long Beach does not enforce its curfew laws. I hang out. In the Pike Shoreline. Village and down in Belmont Shores. I see. Children out every time on the weekends past. Midnight, coming from the movies. Coming from special events that family events have. We have. Down in the downtown area a lot of. Events going on. Some of the events are like. Gymnastics for youth. And these people come and spend the whole weekend doing these engagements and they're out about hanging out until past midnight. So the idea that having special permits where people can smoke after a certain time, it would not work because children are out during these times. Thank you. Thank you. Our last speaker. Thank you, Mayor Garcia. It's been a long evening, hasn't it? My name is Melinda Cotton and I live in Belmont Shore. I've worked with the Health Department and the Coalition for a smoke free Long Beach for many years. And we thank the Council for bringing forward the outdoor dining ban on smokers dining smoking in the dining areas. I and my friends are very excited about it because Belmont Shore has a lot of children walking along the street and to have smoking in the patios would certainly drift over toward the children and toward them. The problem I think with this is, is it was done late at night without a lot of consultation with the health department and the the Coalition for a smoke free Long Beach. And there's two exemptions that are concerning the one allowing smoking in dining areas after 11. There's still children on the street there, young people still the smoke still travels. And as we've heard, we have many multi-use buildings now that have retail and restaurants on the first floor and homes above. And the people above 11:00 are had their windows open. They're trying to sleep and there will be smoke coming in from them. And then there's the workers themselves, service workers who will be affected by the smoke. And then, I don't quite understand, to allow a site, a restaurant, to have two, ten day periods a year when they can allow smoking in the outdoor area, just open again , the restaurant and the public to smoking. And this is during the daytime hours. There's no limits on it. So we would certainly ask you to reconsider those two exemptions. If you talk to the health department, the tobacco education program, which does a great job and we'd all like to participate in and to try to improve that because as I say, people are really excited to have smoke free outdoor dining. Thank you very much. Thank you. That concludes public comment. Councilwoman Price. Thank you. I'm asking my council colleagues to support this item. This is an item that we've actually been working on for a few years. We have consulted with the health department. In fact, we postponed the item to tonight to ensure that they would be present in order to assist or answer any questions. There are some limited restrictions that applied to a very, very small number of facilities within the city. And those facilities include facilities that we have a lot of in the downtown area. So we did a lot of outreach with business owners as well, and they're really restricted on the time in order to reduce exposure to the children and youth, which for me was the reason that I initiated drafting this item and doing outreach on it a few years ago. So we think that the restrictions are limited in scope to address some of the concerns that were raised by some of our business entities in researching other cities and how they've done it. The smoking ban has been expanded over time in many cities. And so I think one thing that we can do as a city is maybe reevaluate in a year and see if there's an interest on council to expand this to include to to remove any and all exemptions. But I will say that the exemptions as outlined below are extremely limited in scope, affect very few establishments where the primary service is not food service and they do allow for special events permits to be obtained at the discretion of city staff and in regards to exemptions that would apply to this for a limited period of time . So I believe that this is an effort for a city of our size to be able to strike a balance and initiate some policy that is very positive and forward thinking and protects our residents from secondhand smoke and our visitors as well. And certainly I think this is something we can reevaluate in a year to see if we want to expand it further. But I think, again, we're talking about a very nominal, a negligible number of businesses that would even qualify within the exemptions that are listed here. So thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Councilman Austin. Hello. I just wanted to get some some clarification. And just in terms of intent, because I know that there are and I think you you alluded to it. Councilmember Price businesses that that that are tobacco related with this particular item prohibit them from smoking on their patios. You know, we've received some questions about that with cigar lounges in particular. I don't believe this word, but I'll defer to the city attorney on that as that is something we talked about when the item was first brought forth. I'm not sure I got the whole question on cigar lounges. And does this apply to cigar lounges? Yes, it would. So. So cigar lounges would not long be no longer be able to smoke on their patios. Yeah. I think it if it's smoking. Because if the intent is outdoor dining. I think if the I'm sorry, if the if the, if it doesn't meet the definition of eating establishment, then it wouldn't apply, right? So then the answer is no. If it's the cigar lounge. I'm getting confused with the cigar lounge. We we have a lot of issues going on with the scar lounges and alcohol and whether alcohol is served or not. But I believe the answer is this does not. Could could we have Laura Turnbull or Kelly Collopy just answer that definitively? No the ordinances for smoke free dining. And so it does not apply to cigar lounges that do not serve food or alcohol. At this point, yes. Understood. Thank you for the clarification. Thank you. There's a motion in a second. I believe we did public comment on this, so please cast your votes.