Calabasas telling smokers it’s time to butt out

Welcome to Calabasas, a smoke-free city. Not just indoors, but outdoors, too.

The push for a smoke-free city could become a reality if the Calabasas City Council adopts ordinances to regulate secondhand smoke outdoors.

The city council last week discussed the possibility of banning tobacco smoking outdoors, even on city sidewalks. The council even raised the question of ticketing motorists who smoke while a child is in the vehicle.

“Should we decide to do this, I’m in favor of a real enforcement provision,” said Mayor Barry Groveman. “This is all about enforcement. Either we’re doing it or we’re not.”

Currently, state law prohibits smoking in enclosed work places that have employees other than the owner. It’s illegal to smoke within 20 feet of the opening of any public building and illegal to smoke in playgrounds.

“Any other regulation of secondhand smoke, if it is to occur, occurs at the local government level,” said Michael Colantuono, Calabasas city attorney.

A Calabasas resident recently contacted the city about an incident at a restaurant in The Commons shopping center where she couldn’t eat outdoors on a nice evening because she didn’t want to be exposed to secondhand smoke.

The council felt it necessary to consider an ordinance against outdoor secondhand smoke.

“(By doing this), we’re saying we promote health, and we’re encouraging folks to learn the implications of selling cigarettes and the damage that it causes,” said Mayor Pro Tem Dennis Washburn.

Among items up for discussion are:

1. The regulation of smoking in multi-family housing, a ruling initiated by the city of West Hollywood. Such regulation is meant to prevent smoke from drifting from one unit to the next. Like a hotel, there would be “smoking” and “nonsmoking” sections of the complexes.

2. No smoking on city streets because cigarette butts are often thrown into the gutters, which then go into the storm drains and cause pollution.

3. How to make tobacco sales in Calabasas undesirable or uneconomic.

4. Regulations that allow the city to pull tobacco licenses if vendors sell to minors. The city could also, under such an ordinance, pull tobacco licenses if vendors encourage cigarette shoplifting by placing cigarettes in the front of a store.

“(That’s) one of the strategies of the tobacco industry to encourage kids to smoke—it’s to put the product out where (children) can steal it,” Colantuono said.

The city will approach the business community for feedback. Restaurants, for example, might lose business if they can’t offer at least some outdoor smoking and might oppose the city’s new laws.

“I wouldn’t want to enact anything that would have a devastating effect on commerce,” said Councilmember James Bozajian.