Community Corner

Smoking Ban Passes in Oceanside, Wood Fumes, Walks out of Meeting

The measure was approved 3-1 Wednesday night.

By Lola Sherman

A new smoking ban – one affecting outdoor dining and drinking establishments – has been approved in Oceanside, but not before the mayor left the meeting in anger.

The compromise measure – not what the mayor wanted – was approved 3-1 Wednesday night.

When rewritten for future council finalization, it will prohibit smoking in al-fresco dining areas that use the public street or sidewalk.

It will not, as originally devised, affect private property.

The changes wrought by the council mean that cigar lounges may still have special parties and private golf clubs will not be affected.

Council members Jerry Kern and Jack Feller had objected to government over-regulation.

Kern said “California is 49th in freedom” because the state has so many rules affecting individual freedoms.  

“If you don't want to go there (where people smoke), don't go there,” he said.

Merchants already have the right to regulate smoking, he said. “It doesn't take an act of government.” 

“I know people think I'm being kind of extreme,” he said, “but we don't want the heavy hand of government coming down on people because we do not like the choices we make.”

However, fellow council conservative Gary Felien said smoking, unlike other activities, “is a shared experience, and that's what I think makes a difference.”

The council had heard 14 speakers, many from organizations like Vista Community Clinic and American Cancer Society and most in support of the ban as proposed. Local resident Chris Wilson said ”I'm a smoker, but my right to smoke stops when it interferes with someone else's right to breathe.”

Former Solana Beach Mayor Joe Kellejian said 111 cities in California have passed similar laws.

Vista Councilman Cody Campbell also urged passage of the proposal, stating his city will consider something similar soon.

Councilwoman Esther Sanchez, Mayor Jim Wood's usual ally, cast the dissenting vote, but even she bore the brunt of Wood's attempt to get action on the item as originally written. Sanchez and Felien had been negotiating a potential compromise both could approve. She wanted more time for discussion.

“No one on the council wants to represent the populace,” Wood complained. 

“I do not want to hear it from you, Esther, either,” Wood said.  “Vote or do not vote or leave.” But instead he was the one to leave, handing the gavel to Kern, the deputy mayor.

The meeting hadn't quite reached the half-way point in its eventual almost six-hour duration.

“I can understand his frustration,” Kern, a frequent Wood foe, said after the meeting.

Besides restricting the ban to public property and exempting cigar-themed events, the council cut the distance from the restaurant where the prohibition would apply. As proposed it would have been 25 feet.  As modified, it will be 10 feet. The council worried that a 25-foot ban would put the smoker right in front of the business next door.

The council kept a requirement that signs be posted announcing the prohibition.

Felien said he had heard from business owners who did not want to put up the signs, but Sanchez, an attorney and former public defender, said it is hard to cite offenders otherwise.

The law specifies fines of $100 for a first offense, $200 for a second one and $500 for a third.

After the smoking ban was decided, Kern announced the “main event,” adoption of the city's $341-million budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Then both he and Felien noted so many people wanted to talk about a relatively minor thing like the smoking ban and yet only one person, regular commentator Jimmy Knott, seemed to care about the city's spending program.

Knott said residents and merchants in South Oceanside are concerned about increased crime in their area, and he supported Sanchez's move to reopen the Marshall Street Pool for recreation.

The council designated $60,000 to reopen the swimming pool, closed for two years.

Margery Pierce, neighborhood services director, said it will be hard to hire people, since previous employees had been laid off, in time to get the pool open for summer, but she will try.

Police Chief Frank McCoy said thefts are up throughout the city, but other crime is down.

The new budget includes $121 million (up from $116 million this year) for the General Fund, which operates most city services, like police and fire.  Personnel account for 70 percent of the expenses.  Income from property and sales taxes are up over $2.5 million.

Also included in the council's fiscal actions Wednesday was a 15-cent increase in the bill to each household for trash pickup for a new basic monthly total of $19.87.


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