Consider Directing Staff to Draft an Ordinance Requiring the Licensure of Tobacco Retailers, Including a Ban on the Sale of Menthol Cigarettes and Other Flavored Tobacco and Enacting an Annual Fee.  (Councilmembers Matarrese and Oddie)  [Not heard on December 19, 2017 or January 2, 2018]
Good evening. My name's Anthony Brown. I'm Operation Dignity resident, and I've been living at APC since March this year. Shortly after the water crisis, I had developed a severe illness of couple facilities and liver and kidney problems. At which time I took part in a community canvass and survey and I got to meet over 140 of my neighbors. Of those neighbors were residents from APC, Vxi and Lindsay. Housing in the back of APC joined with Western Service Workers Association. We held a house meeting and for a continue a weeks of pantry and gathering, collecting data on information on tenants, addressing their issues from the house meeting. Out of those tenants, about 20 or so live in the housing and another 34 were families with disabilities from APC. The issues that we're having there is there's been a lot of non safety and maintenance issues that have been brought up to housing authority ignored and are the tenants are afraid. They have been retaliated against. I have a friend here today who's looking to be homeless due to retaliation eviction because my group, Western Service Workers Association went and advocated on her behalf due to a maintenance issue that actually caused her to go from having bronchitis to a lung disease that's irreversible or curable. Of the tenants that I actually have access to 120 phone numbers that I called on a regular basis weekly to ask them about their issues. They haven't had weatherization, high electric bills, gas bills, and these are low income workers and families with disabilities. We'd like some protection out there in a way to help to to so that we can advocate for each other without having to worry about who moved out in operation. To me, where I live. Every apartment has been restructured. Every apartment I have wood floors where I live. Everything's good. We they take care of us. I actually have managers I can go to to talk about my health, whether mental, emotional or physical. And right across the street, I have my neighbors who can do none of that. They don't see case managers. They don't even know their case managers, and they can't stand up for themselves. I've been holding hands with the with my community there. And there's no one that can stand with this where they're issues I'm taking care of. I'm a veteran, but it's really hard when I look right across the street and I have friends who are getting put on the streets who used to work for APC, who now have no place to live. Okay. Thank you very much for your comments, staff. Could you circle back at some point with that information of of any concerns for safety concerns habitability and also in regards to the water situation, at some point we were supposed to get an update of of the breakdown of who, in fact, suffered injuries and all of that, who all was impacted out there. And that has not come back to us. So thank you for bringing that to our attention. And I look forward to getting the details from staff. And then our last speaker is Andrew's. Thank you. But evening mayor and City Council members and thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this evening. My name is Nai Andrews and I am. Here on behalf of disabled. Residents of Alameda Point that are being. Evicted unlawfully in retaliation for reporting. Uninhabitable living conditions. And we. Need immediate intervention. By the Mayor and City Council. I lived with a mouse infestation in my unit for two years. Mice took up residence in my stove, resulting in two stove replacements. I was cooking on the stove contaminated with hundreds of mouse droppings that exacerbated, excuse me, exacerbated an existing lung condition, causing me to be hospitalized for six days and diagnosed with sarcoidosis. I reported a leak from upstairs into my bathroom. In. July. Of 2017 that was. Neglected by property management, resulting in my. Entire. Ceiling collapsing, nearly collapsing on me, and exposed me. To mold for several. Weeks. After reporting these uninhabitable conditions. My rent was refused and the eviction process was started. And I was also told that I was playing victim. By Doug. Beck's. I was actually I am a survivor of domestic violence, and I endured that for over a year and a half. At. APC with no intervention by property. Management, no. Assistance. I will be locked out of my unit any day now. This eviction will cause. Irreparable. Harm. I have nowhere to go and currently. Am on general assistance due to disability. I have been alienated and ignored by property management, services and case management. That APC does receive. A substantial amount of funding for. Thank you for your time. Thank you. I'd like to ask our city attorney in regards to me the point collaborative. What? Is it possible for this to come back either with data or what can we do in regards to council, regards to the moratorium on unlawful evictions at actually evictions at AMI two point collaborative. For us to have the opportunity to review this, this is actually something I have heard ongoing that I've brought to staff's attention that we have issues raised out there and the repairs are not made. And for from my perspective, this is a serious matter because this is in fact some entity that is supposed to be working with our city. This is not a private developer. So what can let our options? Can this come back? But. Well, I can just say that and I don't think the city managers heard anything. And I don't know if Nannette is still here, but we can certainly reach out to the Alameda Point Collaborative Management and find out what the situation is. I don't know if the Housing Authority has heard anything from them, and I personally have not heard any complaints specific to Alameda Point Collaborative, but they just haven't filtered to me. So we can reach out and find out what the status is. Okay. So this is in regards to an unlawful eviction, in regards to alleged retaliation can so if I if council was interested in having a moratorium on those evictions, I mean, is that something that would be the pathway to do the. Mayor's. Agenda item? Yeah. I was going to say, I, I, I'm satisfied with the answer the city attorney has given us. I think we need to move incrementally and having her look into it would be the first step. And we'll we'll reach out to the last two speakers. We have their contact information we just got and see what we can do. Specifically. Thank you. Nine. I'd be like to hear more. Oh. Okay. Okay. Okay. So that completes our speakers on the public comment non agenda items. And now. Okay. Now we're on the first referral nine, a. Considered directing staff to draft an ordinance requiring the licensure of tobacco retailers, including a ban on the sale of menthol, cigarets and other flavored tobacco, and enacting an annual fee. This item was placed on the agenda at the request of council members matter. Yes. I'll just be brief. The whole idea behind this is to keep tobacco out of our kids. Our kids from smoke starting to smoke. And the best way to do that is to stop these flavored tobacco. I mean, I have pictures of them. They look like candies that you would get, you know, at least when I was a kid. This one is even called Sweet Swisher Sweets. So, I mean. Any normal kid would look at this and say, sweets, you know, and then it's not candy, it's it's addicting tobacco. So in order to do this, I've been working with advocates Adrina Chen, among others, and they suggested that first in the foundation, like the tobacco retailer license. And there's a list of of different things we could do once we do have a tobacco retailer license. As far as regulating that, these products don't get in the hands of our children. They're listed in the in the referral. And I know if Serena just mentioned this to me today, that we don't even have to pay for the development, that the attorney general has grants grant money available. And I think she can share that with staff at another time that, you know, we could actually get financial assistance in doing this. So those are my brief comments before we get to public comment. And I know that, you know, back when he was here the first time on counsel, my colleague Mr. Matarese was starting to work on this. So I'm honored to be able to work with him on this and we'll give the floor to him. Amber Matter SC. Thank you for recognition, Madam Chair. Yes, I agree with my colleague, Councilman Brody, that the primary purpose is to make sure that we limit the access to to of tobacco, to children and make it less attractive. And also to look at how we control some of these enticements and of. Given tobacco's very addictive nature and its huge public health consequences, I think. This is something I really want the council support to direct staff to bring us an ordinance that starts with the framework that's given here in the referral. Right. I'm going to go ahead and call the speakers. And 2 minutes for each Marlene Hird, Gordon and then Philip Gardner. Okay. Evening, mayor and council members. And it is Marlene Hird. I'm the president for the Miracle Youth Club. I was a member of the College of Alameda this club. I'm asking you to support this. We don't want our kids getting addicted at an early age. The other thing I meant is our board of trustees sent you a letter asking your support as well. I want to read one thing in the letter. In the letter it states according to. California Health. Its survey results from Alameda Unified School District 2016 2017. 42% of 11th graders believe that it is either. Very easy or fairly easy to obtain. Cigarets Oh my God. That's what they believe. We need to do it. 11th grade students use electronic cigarets and other vaping devices. In the final quote, the majority of 11th grade smokers reported continued smoking between ages 11 and 17. Councilmembers, please ask, is it worth it in Oakland? Just is. And that's going to go into effect this year. I'm asking your support. Please pass this. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker Gordon. And then Philip Gardner. Good evening, members of the council and public. My name is Bob Gordon, an ally of the Alameda County Tobacco Control Coalition. And as was just stated, our young people are so important, so vulnerable. To the tobacco interests. That addict them with candy flavored poison that's so attractive. And addicts our young people. Now, one of the provisions that our tobacco coalition respectfully asked you to consider would make it so. Tobacco retailer licenses are not granted to pharmacies. And you may not know, but 14 California communities have already done so, starting with San Francisco in 2008. So besides San Francisco, the other communities that have legislatively eliminated sales of tobacco from all drug stores and pharmacies are. Richmond, Healdsburg. Hollister, Berkeley Unincorporated. Santa Clara Unincorporated. Contra Costa Unincorporated. Marin Unincorporated. Sonoma County, Los Gatos, Fairfax, Nevada. Daly City and Palo Alto. So there's a lot of precedent for this. Now, why work on such. A policy in the city of Alameda? We know that our young people frequent local drug stores, and when they arrive at a front counter of a drugstore with their purchases, they often see that huge wall of tobacco and all the candy and fruit flavored and menthol advertising that's associated with it. So community members and their elected officials do have the power to decide that local pharmacies will not sell tobacco and therefore the power to change what a pharmacy is for a whole generation of Alameda, young people. Thank you very much. Thank you. To harbor diphtheria. Hello. I'm sorry. Philip Gardiner. And then Theresa. Good evening. I'm Dr. Philip Gardiner. I work at the. Tobacco Related Disease Research Program for the University of California Office of the President. I have for the last 20 years, I'm also the co-chair of the African-American Tobacco Control Leadership Council. And we've essentially been taking on this fight for a number of years to get flavors out of tobacco. I mean, essentially, you're putting sweetness and poison. And I want to encourage the Alameda City Council to take the bold step of removing them would have flavors in tobacco, for they mask the harsh tastes of tobacco. They allow people to start sooner. We have data that shows that kids between the ages of 12 and 17, over 80% of them begin with flavored tobacco products. This is even more true in the African-American community, where some 95% of youth in that age range start with menthol cigarets. Look, menthol allows you to inhale deeper. The more deeper you inhale, the more nicotine you intake, the more nicotine you intake the degree to your addiction, the harder it is to quit. And unfortunately and disproportionately, African Americans, poor people, women and other groups die disproportionately from tobacco related disease. Unfortunately, this has been the case for some time. I want to encourage you to join other cities around the Bay Area that have taken this step. Oakland. Richmond is taking this up actually next week. San Leandro is restricted flavors. We want to encourage them to include menthol. We want you to include menthol. I would even suggest and we were able to do this in committee in Oakland and if we get a chance here to do a full presentation and actually go over, I like to report on to the docs. That's I'm a scientist. So when you see Science Report, it helps. Let me say that you're going to hear a lot of stuff about it's going to harm people's livelihood. I would suggest it's not about retailers revenues. It's about children's lives. Thank you, Theresa Harbaugh and then Kwasi and then Vivo. Hi. Good evening. I want to express to you that. Banning does not work. I oversee 19 stores right now or a major C store company. We have been under San Francisco's direction. We have been under Contra Costa County's direction, having stores crossing borders. So the one store here has dropped in revenue and sales. Our store just outside those limits has increased tremendously. And they aren't underage sales. None of them are under age cells. The company that I work for has zero tolerance. We do training over and over and over again. We do not sell to underage period. The statistics show that most kids that get cigarets are getting them from a family member. They are not coming from the local drug store. They're not coming from the local liquor store on the corner. They're not coming from 7-Eleven. They're not coming from one of my stores. And Contra Costa County has. We have a very, very proud record that we have absolutely zero in that county of underage sales. And that was for last year, and that was county wide. So I haven't pulled the statistics for over here, but I'm pretty convinced they're going to be very similar. It's not the banning of it that's going to help. It's the education behind it. It's controlling the parents. It's controlling the family members. Thank you. Thank you. At 11:00, we need a motion to continue past 11:00 requires three votes is and we have ten plus speakers remaining. It might actually be closer to 50 with the motion. Just for clarification, this is only to hear 990. 989 being correct. A second all those in favor I oppose. Oh. And so motion carries 3 to 2. So we will continue questi and then vivo. So that motion was 3 to 2. And you all get 2 minutes up to 2 minutes. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Kwasi. I'm here on behalf of the African-Americans Birth Control Leadership Council and. I'm sure that there's nothing I can say that you are or already haven't heard or don't already know. But speaking from personal experience, I've seen what tobacco products do, not just to black youth, but to black people. It's killing us and. I know that you being in position of power, you sitting in those seats like you have the power not just to make change, but to save lives. And that's literally what your vote has the potential to do right here, right now. And it's so discouraging that there's even a conversation whether or not to sell deadly things to people. Right. I just want to say my piece and say that I believe that you are make the right decision. I believe that you have an obligation to make the right decision. And I hope that you do. Thank you. Thank you, Bebo. Then Rosalyn Moya and Rachel Grant Lazarus. Or Lazarus. Sorry. Good evening, city council members. My name is Vivo and I'm a member of the Alameda County Tobacco Control Coalition. Cigaret lighter cigars with kid friendly flavors such as mango and chocolate can be found at any convenience store in Alameda, priced at $0.99 or at most, a dollar 54 packs of 1 to 3 or more. In 2015, a survey of over 40,000 high school and middle aged, middle, middle and high school age students nationwide showed that the cigaret smoking rate was 6.7%. But when cigaret use was included, the rate shot up to 11.12% to 11.2%. So what this means is there is a large amount of teenagers smoking cigarillos and or using tobacco, the tobacco leaf wrappers to create marijuana cigarets otherwise known as blunts. Over 100 studies have shown that increasing the cost of tobacco products is successful in reducing the amount of underage smoke, underage smoking and the smoking rate of young adults . As you may know, Haywood and Queen City have adopted a minimum price of five. Five, five for cigarets. With the idea that this will result in higher prices. But what has happened is that the stores in these cities have started selling packs of five for 90. $0.99 or a dollar each. Here are some examples of colorful packs of Cigarets was purchased in Union City for $0.99. Here we have. Wild berry squeeze. Here we have strawberry cream. And here we have Wild Berry Cherry. Armed with this information, the city of San Leandro chose to address this concern recently by adopting a tobacco retail license that includes a requirement that cigars be sold in. Packs of five. And for a minimum price of $7 before you use the language that San Leandro used in this ordinance. Lastly, New York City, Sonoma County and other communities have also adopted minimum prices for tobacco products. Thank you. Thank you. Roslyn Moya. Then, Rachel. Then Kelsey Norman. Hi. My name is Rosalind Moya. I am a resident here in Alameda and a member of the Alameda County Tobacco Coalition. And I'm here to urge you to protect our youth from tobacco influences, from flavored tobacco, from coupons meant to protect us, protect them from cheap tobacco. And just have I urge you to have a strong TRL here for the city. I just got married and I want to have a family here. And so this is something that I it's very important to me to protect our youth and the next generation. So I want to show you something. This is a sour patch, Candy. This one's an actual candy. And this one right here is E-Liquid. It's an easy juice. It's used for e-cigarettes. And so I just want you to kind of notice some of the similarities there. This one says Can be King batch. And it's not just, you know, once a candy one. This one has 100 milliliters of nicotine in there. And just besides the looks, I also asked them how this tastes, and they said it tastes kind of sweet and sour and it has that fruity smell. I bought this about two blocks away from the high school over here, about a block away from here. And when I bought this, they didn't ask for I.D. and I gave cash. I don't know. The city gets money from this. I didn't get a receipt. And the you know, it's a little strange, but the person that was very friendly was very helpful when I asked for about information about this. It's hard to tell who has nicotine because it doesn't say nicotine anywhere in there. It's all the way in the back at the very bottom where it says this has nicotine and it's just kind of. Thank you. Interesting. You can can you picture for us? Can you possibly send them up here? And we promise to give them back to you. Rachel, thank you. And then Kelsey Norman, if you all could line up, I'm going to start out the names because we need to move it along. Thank you. Good evening, counsel. My name is Rachel Gratz Lazarus. I work with Alameda County Public Health Departments Tobacco Control Program. I'm also an Alameda resident and the mother of two young children here in Alameda. As a public health advocate and a parent, I am deeply concerned about the impact that flavored tobacco, especially menthol, has on the health of our children. These products are clearly marketed to young people as starter products, which is why the FDA banned the sale of flavored cigarets except menthol in 2009. We know that tobacco poses a serious health risk, but tobacco companies have everything to gain from addicting youth. And tobacco companies admit that the base of their business is the high school student. According to City of Alameda. Youth. Decoy Operations in 2012, out of 45 tobacco retailers sampled nine of them, or 20% sold tobacco products to minors. These are products that kill when used as directed. While store owners may be doing their best to comply with the law, the reality is that tobacco products are making their way into the hands of youth. Exactly as tobacco companies intended. Tobacco companies have historically targeted youth, communities of color and LGBTQ communities with highly concentrated menthol cigaret marketing, which is a major driver of today's tobacco related disparities. For example, it's not an accident that 95% of black youth smokers, 61% of Asian youth smokers, and 58% of Hispanic youth smokers smoke menthols. The health of our children needs to come first. Across the country, local governments are standing up to put the health of their residents above industry profits. Locally, Alameda can follow in the footsteps of Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro and San Francisco, which all restricted the sale of flavored tobacco through a tobacco retail license. We know that tobacco retail licenses are an effective and sustainable policy solution to decrease access to flavored tobacco and to prevent youth from experimenting with and becoming addicted to these deadly products. Regarding e-cigarettes, they are not approved by the FDA as a smoking cessation product, and research has found that many people who attempt to quit. Kelsey Naumann I need to move along. I'm sorry. Kelsey Norman Lee Mighty Rodriguez and then Jose James. Good evening, councilmembers. My name is Kelsey Norman and I'm a part of the Alameda County Tobacco Control Coalition. I'm here today to talk to you about flavored tobacco products specifically related to youth. A lot of the previous speakers have mentioned some things, so I'm pretty much just going to talk for a few seconds. Flavored tobacco products are increasingly popular among youth. I know that you've heard this before. The sweet flavors and the cheap prices and the packaging are very appealing to our youth. These flavors, like we said, grape, strawberry, chocolate, cotton candy, these mask, the tobacco's harsh taste. And it's encouraging these young smokers, too. These tobacco companies have everything to gain from addicting young people to start flavored tobacco products. Studies show the earlier you start smoking, the easier it is to get addicted, the harder it is to quit. The best way to prevent tobacco related. Illness and death is to keep youth from starting to smoke in the first place. Creating strong laws that protect youth from accessing these flavored products are crucial to preventing a lifetime of tobacco addiction and ensuring that all of our immediate children get to have the long and healthy lives that they deserve. Thank you so much. Thank you. The mighty Rodriguez and Yazzie dames. And then ride abdala. Good evening, counsel. My name is Lee Mario Zegers, and I am a member of the Alameda County Tobacco Control Coalition. I am here to voice my support for for a referral to develop a tobacco retail license ordinance that includes restricting restricting the sale of menthol cigarets and other flavored tobacco products in the city of Alameda. The tobacco industry spends around 1 million per hour, over 95% of its total marketing budget just to push tobacco products at the point of sale in convenience stores. Knowing that almost half of teenagers visit a convenience store once a week and that teens are more likely to be influenced to use tobacco products by tobacco marketing than by peer pressure. It is disturbing to see that the industry aims to make such products easily accessible to youth and distort their perceptions by making tobacco products seem popular and acceptable. Yes, the California State Tobacco 21 law already passed, but this ordinance would provide a more comprehensive approach to reduce youth smoking by addressing youth tobacco influences and the retail environment. The U.S. Surgeon General reports that tobacco industry advertising and promotion caused youth and young adults to start smoking. And nicotine addiction keeps people smoking past those ages. This issue significantly impacts the health of the youth residing in Alameda, and I urge you all to make a decision that will protect their life. Thank you. Thank you. Jazzy James. And then right out, Dollar. Mayor, vice. Mayor and council member. I'm a retailer here in Alameda. I don't believe that this will stop. I think it would create a black market, which is scary. I've seen in other cities and states and it creates a lot more problems. You know. And they already changed the law at 21 and prices of cigarets are over ten bucks now packed. So I see a lot of. You know, even grown ups, Quentin And everybody's who were into like cannabis and other stuff. But I don't believe that. Taking away menthols from retailers is going to stop. Anything I think is. Going to create a black market, which, again, I've seen and loved. Thank you. Thank you. Right. And then Bob. Good evening, madam. There. Madam Vice Mayor and members of the Council. I'm a retailer here. In the. City of Alameda. I oppose this measure for multiple reasons. One is that there's going to be tax dollars lost for the city. We as a city will lose tax dollars. All it's going to do is it's going to send our our residents who come to purchase from the city of Alameda to other outside cities to purchase whatever tobacco products that they want. As far with regards to the flavor tobacco that you guys have been given by some of the other attendees here today. What needs to be known is that their tobaccos comes in different milligrams and they are clearly labeled. I know maybe the package that you received this evening. It wasn't as labeled. That well, but more often than not, the packages are labeled a lot better with regards to the flavored cigarillos that Councilman O.D. brought forth. What we have to realize is that a lot. Of those the youth are not smoking the tobacco in the. Product. What from personal view that I've seen myself. Is that the. Youth try to purchase these, those. That do try, or people who to purchase. These try to purchases to get rid of the tobacco that's in it and use the leaf for cannabis. Now, with regards to cannabis. We've heard rumor allegedly that Johnson and Johnson is one of the people who. Are pushing for this initiative. And the reason why they're pushing for pushing for this initiative is because they've got involved in the cannabis industry and it's a way to deviate potential customers for themselves away from tobacco towards cannabis. I'm not against cannabis, especially in the medicinal field. It's done a lot of help for especially for people who are suffering from cancer. And my own father is a cancer survivor. So there's that. 16 senators, their state level, has refused to address this issue in the form of SB 1400. You Bob Secon. And then and second. And then Serena Chen. Yeah. SB 49. That was a common. You know, Sacramento, out of 17 senators, only one senator who bring it in, he's the one who was in favor of it. It didn't even the second senator, even for the motion. It didn't go into voting at all. So they were trying to do the same thing. Right now, 23% of California. They have this kind of theater going through the city councils and county governments and 77%, they are not in it. Last month they tried this in San Jose. This is not. It's so controversial. We don't want to get into it. Alameda County. They said, no, we don't want to get into this. Now, our neighboring city, San Leandro, I have seen this in San Leandro. They didn't do anything with the menthol cigarets. They did. Flavored about. But I understand that single. We don't want to sell it. Then in Fremont, Hayward, Union City, Newark, all those cities there sit with the retailer and we make a program and it is working there. It could work here. But if you push us all, this is the way it goes. It's not going to work. Please. We are we as a retailer requesting you involve us in this, we can sit with you and we can go with it. Okay, let's do this. Let's do this. You know, that's all I can say. And. And our school turned out like for one for us. We don't have any for one care. These are our schools. We depend on them. Thank you. Thank you. And second. And then Serena chan. Good evening. Freedom of choice. Approve legal adult product. Do we want to sell to minors? No, we don't want our children. We don't want our grandchildren doing it. Where is the facts? Where are the statistics that the convenience stores are selling it to the minors go on the Internet. It's adults. It's parents. It's their uncle who are giving them this product. It is not us. Get the facts. Black market on the Internet. 56.8% of the cigarets and tobacco that is used in the state of New York is now coming. R is being used from the black market. And if you think that's not coming to Alameda or here, hey, the $2 tax, $0.75 of the $2 tax that hasn't even taken place for a year yet goes to education of the youth. Guys give it a chance. We only went to 21. It's only been a year. The tobacco tax, $2 only went into effect last year. We don't want the miners. Sarina chan is going to speak after me. She was at a San Leandro event where she talked to children who told her that they are not buying the product from from large stores. They're getting it from adults. And this was brought up in a San Leandro council meeting and I do on product a property in San Leandro also. And we own a business right here in San Leandro in Alameda. Guys, we do not want it. We don't want our kids to do it. But you know what? All they have to do is go to Oakland. Oakland didn't ban menthols. They're going to buy it in a smoke shop. Who has the highest rate of selling? Cigarets. Thank you, Marina Chan. And then Paul Cummings. And then Lizzie Viljoen. And then Mrs. Shabazz. Hi. Good evening. Not good morning. My name is Serena Chen. Not to be mistaken for Selina Chen, your new city attorney. District Assistant City Attorney. The topic of tobacco control was like. The Star Wars trilogy. You have a good movie, and then you have a movie where the Empire Strikes Back and then it all resolves itself. So in terms of the good. News, yes, the state of California raised the minimum age of sale of tobacco products. To 21. The state of California defined. A broader realm of tobacco products to be tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. That's the good news. And they did this because they know that almost no one gets addicted before the age of 18. We know that 11,000 California youth under 18 become daily smokers every year. They're getting their tobacco somewhere and they're using those starter products that you have in front of you. So that was the good news that they passed these laws. The bad news is. That. Unless there's local enforcement, those laws mean nothing. So. That's only a very short part of the story, because the last part of the story. Is I have some really good news for you today. The attorney general has announced he has $30 million a year to disseminate to local law enforcement to reduce youth access to tobacco. And it'll be an RFP process which will be released sometime this month. You'll need community supporters to say that we will support you and help you to do this. And basically, cities will have to have a plan on how to reduce youth access to tobacco. And this $30 million fund will be given to disburse to local law enforcement, cities and counties who choose to make that decision to control tobacco. I've emailed that memo to all of you from the attorney general. Thank you. Thank you. Paul Cummings. And then Lizzie Belton. Good evening. My name is Paul Cummings, and I work for Alameda County Public Health Department. I'm the tobacco control program director. And thank you for discussing this this evening. So tobacco retail licensing is something that local jurisdictions can do, and it allows for a couple of things. One is it allows for local communities to decide. The standards that they want from. The retailers that sell. An addictive and deadly product in their communities. And as as Councilmember Otis said, there's a long list of those that that could be considered, and it's worth a community discussion to decide what the city of Alameda might want. The other thing. About tobacco retail licensing is that it allows a local jurisdiction to hold the retailer accountable. So state law when a. A minor is excuse me. When a clerk sells tobacco to an underage person. The clerk is cited under state law. And if that's as far as anybody can help be held accountable with local tobacco retail licensing, you can hold the retailer, the store owner accountable, and you can have graduated sanctions if a store were to violate multiple times. So it allows for for more control at the local level. And penalties can be decided. As you know, as as the community and, you know, maybe with input from retailers. Decides this fit. So there's a lot of things. That that. Are valuable for the city of Alameda to discuss around this. And thank you very much for considering. Thank you, Lizzie and then Rasheed and then Paul second. Hello, counsel. Sorry, I have laryngitis, but I really wanted to come out tonight because I'm a resident and I'm a mother of a little three. Year old boy who's at home in bed right now, who's. Going to grow up in your city, which I'm really excited about, but I'm really not excited about. The idea. That we would move forward without protecting those children from the marketing of really deceptive products that are meant to hook our kids on a deadly product. I think a 20% selling to minor rate on that sting that was mentioned to you is appalling. I'm here also on behalf of the American Heart Association, and I can tell you, as a staff member for the American Heart Association, I sent you all a letter from our president, who's. A local. Cardiologist. Tobacco control is one of our biggest priorities, and that's because the tobacco industry kills nearly half. A million people every year and they have to replace. Those dead bodies. With young people who are going to be lifetime smokers. And we know that because they've said that in their papers and they've said that flavors are their major way of doing it. I don't know what other evidence you need. How many more Alameda teenagers need to get hooked on these products before you limit access? And in terms of whether there might be a black market, I'm really afraid that Alameda might be the black market, that where people were coming over from Oakland and San Leandro were there. It's already gone into effect. And the councils there heard the same lines. And I'll just say to you. Let's make sure we're at peace with our neighbors and protecting our children. And and finally, I just want to say that it's really important to go home at night. And I think this is just a referral for a thing that we can have a further discussion later about the details of all of it. But I really encourage you to put our children above tobacco profits. And any argument that at the bottom of it, when you think about it, is about the profits of the tobacco industry . Thank you, Rashid. And then, Paul, if you want to speak on this item, please submit your is. Ah. I'm so sorry. Pardon me. Second hand. They no joke. I was five years old the first time I smelled smoke. I coughed and I choked. Who'd imagine that one day I'd talk? I didn't get it from a black market, but still I sparked it. I fired up like I seen in Jet magazine or film. I passed it to a friend and he started coughing up phlegm for fourth graders alone, smoking cigarets. Passing it around, seeing who could blow that smoke the best. I was. Those minty flavors brought fire deep within. I was hooked to nicotine and I wasn't even ten. See, on the West End, with the exception of Luis. I was nine years old, buying cigarets from every store. Truly. They claim no tolerance for selling to children. Maybe times have changed. I pledge no snitching, so I'm not going to call out their store names. Here's the deal. From the factories to the field. They used to make us make it. Now my people are addicted. They used to make us pick it. And now my people are addicted. The tobacco harvest. When I think about it, I think about Bogie's finest R.i.p Jarvis. R.I.P. Laura Vargas. Millennials Die In Cancer Related Deaths. Newports ain't cool. They've taken our last breaths. They concerned about their livelihoods, but we concerned we dying in the hood. I know you concerned about I know they concerned about their private wealth, but we're concerned about the community's health. Draft ordinance. Thank you. Thank you, Paul. Second. And then he's our last speaker on this item. And with Rasheed, I'm not going to snitch. And I'm not a professional, nor was I paid to be here like a few of these other people in the if you want, you could watch from Cedar City. They say the same thing, but they just put Alameda in the place of whatever city they're saying. So my first concern is that what's going to happen is everyone's going to buy it on the Internet. Is that Internet stuff? There's no regulations. There's nobody checking it. At least we're checking it. I'm not selling to a ten year old. Do you think I'm going to sell to a ten year old? Come on. Number two, if we did sell and we do a violation and you own a C store, two violations, you lose your store. You think that I'm going to risk losing my store over $20? $10? Come on, let's be real. And if you ask anybody about the black market, like the guy in New York who got killed in the protests or happening, he was actually selling cigarets outside of a store. The fine by the police department, if you ask them, Max, is a small infraction, $50. So what's going to happen is we're going to have people going store to store, store, get a ticket, go on from a store. It's not even a parking ticket. Fine. Okay. Also, the c. Alameda is getting tested. We pay fees. We paid to the state, the fda. The last check was in august. You can look on the website, we have a 95% compliance rate. We are not the problem. As he said, he was passing his cigarets to his friends. Thank you, sir. Also, last thing, we pay for secret shoppers. We have to check and we have to type in an ID agent date before we sell people. San Jose, third largest city, not even going to address it. They have housing issues, other issues. You're going to create traffic. People are driving all over the bridges. And while I drove a Honda, I'm not that wealthy. But if we do something, let's compromise. If anything, that's Korea workshop. Nobody here from the anti-tobacco, they just want everything gone. I believe that we have an age. We're grown, we can make decisions, we drink flavored beer, we drink everything. Do it like Hayward, do it like Fremont, Pleasanton, some other cities that are, you know, they think about it. Let's not just jump into it. Maybe take a year, look at the data because all the data is expired, it's obsolete. None of it works because at the end of the day, not even one year has passed since every initiative has gone into place. Thank you very much. He completes our public comment on the item. And at this point, vice mayor. So I just got my voice back today. I've. I'm sick. Which is why I did not vote to continue this meeting. I'm going to keep it short. I don't have a problem passing this. In fact, tobacco's the only product that we know kills that we were selling lawfully to people, which is bizarre to me. My grandfather died of lung cancer. He started smoking before he was ten years old. Smoked marble, reds. Most of his life stopped when I was a kid. My mom has asthma as a result of it. You know, I hear our retailers and what they're saying, but I also think that this is kind of the public health cost of this is is abysmal in terms of what it's doing to our community members and that there's a reason that we have a lot of different ordinances in place. I do think it's going to become problematic as we see cannabis coming out and the use of some of these products relative to cannabis. And I also, you know, I understand the request for a licensing process. My only concern is I'd like to know how many other licensing fee structures and other things we have coming before staff. And what department I'm looking at Debbie Potter. I have a feeling it's, you know. You know, I don't know what department it's going to be hitting, but I I'd imagine our city attorney's offices and community development are going to be impacted by this. And so, you know, we have a number of other things that are in the pipeline, and I'd like to get an assessment of where this would go relative to that. And we you know, we just reinstituted. We're going to hear it on the next agenda item, a fee for the the rental housing. And that's something that took a long time to put into place. And there are still issues that need to be worked out for it. So, you know, I'd like to know where this would fall into that and what the actual timeline would be in terms of what the staff report is and where it's going to be housed and how many how many man hours are going to be associated with it and all of that, because I think, you know, and obviously that's going to be included as part of the staff report if if council decides to move forward. But I think that to me, that's an important kind of calculation in terms of where this all goes. And you know, in terms of the labeling and stuff, it's a completely separate issue. But, you know, and and I know that there's been talk about what we should have this housed in smoke shops if we're going to ban it and ban it. If if if you're saying that there's no flavored tobacco, then there should be no flavored tobacco, period. Because just what you're doing is you're creating mini monopolies and you're allowing people to whole different, you know, sell different products. I think it's gonna be very hard to enforce. A member. Ashcraft. Thank you, Mayor. I'm actually prepared to direct staff to draft an ordinance as stated here. But there are a couple of things I would like to know. One is I and I would actually leave it to staff to come back to us to tell us where in the matrix of all of the items that we have thrown their way, this could this could fit. And I don't think it needs to come back instantly, because I do think we have some other extremely pressing items, especially around housing and homelessness and avoiding homelessness, some of which involve the same department. And the other part is the enforcement piece. And good news from Serena, if she's still here, that the attorney general has identified $30 million. But I'm also well aware that our police department still isn't fully staffed. And so I would want to also hear from Chief, from Larry about how I mean, it's money to hire an additional officer is only part of the problem if you've heard some of these discussions. So any any ordinance is going to have an enforcement mechanism, and we need to just take all that into account. But I think the the speakers, all of you are very are very compelling. And I did speak on the phone today with Mr. Second, their son, and I understand the concern of the retailers. But if this were a scale on balance, the the health and well-being of especially of our young people is so much more important. And I would hope that your livelihood does not depend on whether or not you're able to market these products. I hope there's other things you're selling that bring in profits. And and it's not an exact analogy, but a year or more ago, the retail chain, including pharmacies, CVS, announced that it was stopping the sale of all tobacco products. And I think it got some major pushback from the tobacco industry at first. But last time I checked, CVS is still up and running, but you don't see cigarets or tobacco products when you go there. So again, I would I would support the directing staff to draft this ordinance and ordinance to come back to us. But I would leave it to staff, including the police chief, to talk about everything that's required. It looks like the city manager's reaching for the microphone, so maybe she wanted to comment on. Both the vice mayor. Both of you have asked for staff resource discussion and some of the things that are ahead of this is minimum wage, the climate action plan. We approve the scope, but we still have the plan itself to do, which is a major effort for safe buildings, heritage tree night sky tax on cannabis, which has a time constraint on it. The Airbnb. Which was a low priority though. Shrub homelessness policy and inclusionary. And so all of most of that falls under community development, which means they also have rent control and cannabis on top of that. And so staff resources are tight. But if there isn't a time constraint on it, because this was labeled as important, not urgent, we can figure out the process. And maybe what we'd do first is come back with some questions for council, just like the community development director Debbie Potter did when she started out with the cannabis as here are some questions for the council and then get direction rather than coming back with a. Ordinance that we have done in a vacuum without council input. Member Mattress. 30. I was. Maybe he could. Leadoff hitter. Okay. Go ahead. Okay. I don't really have a lot to say. I. But I would like the opportunity to speak. Okay. I'm not. Mentioning that. I'm not mentioning anything. I mean, I draft this referral, so I'm not going to say too much about it. Although Malia said, man hours, we have women hours. So we're going to be efficient and work harder and. Person. Hours and get paid half as much. Unfortunately. You know, when we talked about this, my colleague and I and we debated about the urgent versus not urgent, and I understand the the workload that staff has. But, you know, there are other resources. There's the attorney general grant, which we just heard about today. There is Change Lab Solutions, which provides free technical support that's paid for by taxpayers or at least taxpayers who buy tobacco products. So we there are ways to do this that are not as staff intensive. But I do agree with the approach because we will need a little more extensive public hearing than just a referral. And, you know, there are some questions that need to be answered and there's some direction because I believe, you know, I listed a lot of the the options and included in the in the attachments, you know, other different model ordinance provisions. So, you know, I think that they all deserve and merit a discussion that would have to take place before we go through and actually come up with an ordinance. And then we'll have a first reading, second reading and so on. So understanding that, you know, we we looked at this, you know, hopefully when we do a priority workshop because I think, you know, obviously some of those have been in the queue longer. But, you know, in my mind, some of this is more important than a lot of those because, you know, there are statistics that I'm sure the advocates can talk about of how many kids are going to become addicted in the next year or if it takes us two years to do this, or how many people are going to die because of this. You know, one of the one of the commenters in the public, it mentioned this is the only product that if it's used as intended, you know, it ends up killing people. So, I mean, I don't want to wait too long, but I understand the constraints of of staff resources. Member matter. I see. Yes. And just to tail on with Councilman Brody, we did talk about the priority rating. This is important. But it's less urgent than neighbors. Our neighbors who live on the street. It's less urgent than the issues around rent control. And there's a time timing around cannabis, although I disagree that's more important than this. So I think we should give staff direction. We've given them a hint on where it sits in the priority list with this The Matrix here, if that's agreeable to the rest of the council. I have confidence that the city manager will work with the staff to put it in its proper place. And I like the approach of getting input. Questions to the community and questions to us so that when the audience does come back, it's shaped at least by some sort of pre discussion. Thank you. So I am a cancer survivor and I have spent many, many hours at the cancer center. I also am a woman of color, and I'm very familiar with how youth get cigarets. And I also like to make data based decisions. I am concerned about. I am concerned about this approach, but I have researched and I think it's important to have a data based discussion is that education is critical. And I would we have looked at issues in the past where we've had input from our youth, and I would like to have input from Almeida's youth in regards to where they are purchasing Cigarets as my concern with the cannabis discussion of illegal sales, unregulated sales. My research in regards to online sales, which is a growing avenue of where people buy these items, is in fact that they are not regulated, that they come from outside of the United States. I am very concerned about. So so personally, I think it's critical that any any decisions we make. Keeping a look at where the statistics of almeida's youth, where the city of Almeida's youth are purchasing. If it is from if they're getting it from a family member, then and in fact, if in fact the best way to reduce youth smoking is through education, then I think that I would want to look at partnering with the school district and approaches like that as opposed and in regards to the ban. I think historically our country has found that a ban can result in unintended consequences. I strongly support what our state did in regards to increasing the legal age to purchase. And and at this point, we do not have that data as in fact, we all know it's only been a year and a half since that happened. I think it's important we see that data and. And if in regards to the data, 95% from our retailers. That is very, very high and it's different from the 80% and older data. So I think it's important that any decisions we make be based on the most recent data and not data from the past. Because I think it's this issue is so important. We need to know with better confidence, from my perspective, of what is our best approach to reduce access to use. And I'm concerned that this may unfortunately as well intended as maybe not not not achieve that result. So I do have I would like to see much more data and in fact, work with the school district and the youth in this community to figure out our best approach moving forward. And I'd submit it's not the city by ourself that it really is working with our school district and our youth in this community. That being said, we have. I'll make a motion for the referral with the consideration of the comments by all my colleagues. All second. All those in favor. I. I thank you. All right. So the next item is nine. Be considered directing staff to determine whether council can enact an ordinance to pass through a portion of the housing program. Rent fee to tenants. Clarify the city's collection efforts for landlords who do not pay the fee by December 31st, 2017, and clarify that the fee may be passed through as part of the rent increase. This idea was placed on the agenda at the request of Mayor Spencer and Vice Mayor.