HollisterFreelance.com | New Ordinance Regulates Tobacco Sales in Hollister

New Ordinance Regulates Tobacco Sales in Hollister

May 23, 2006
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Hollister - The City Council passed new regulations last week requiring merchants to get a city-issued license before they sell cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products.

Citing a desire to keep kids away from tobacco, council members voted unanimously to adopt an ordinance regulating tobacco sales during their meeting a week ago Monday. Under the ordinance, retailers who sell tobacco illegally face revocation of their license and fines.

"I support this program 100 percent," Councilwoman Pauline Valdivia said. "I think it's important. I don't think anybody should be smoking, it's hazardous to health."

Samela Perez, Health and Human Services project director for the county, has been a strong advocate for such an ordinance. Last year her department sent underage decoys into local stores to try to purchase tobacco. They found that 33 percent of tobacco merchants peddled the stuff to minors. In March, Perez went before the council and shared the findings and told them that the bulk of violations occurred in Hollister. The council was moved and asked the city attorney to draft the ordinance.

"It only takes one store to addict an entire neighborhood of youth," Perez said to the council just before it voted Monday.

Under the ordinance, tobacco retailers will have to obtain a license through the Hollister Police Department by Oct. 16. The license must be renewed each year. Costs for administering and enforcing the ordinance will be paid with fees that retailers pay when the apply for a license. The fee has not yet been determined. Hollister's code enforcement officer is charged with enforcing the ordinance.

Tobacco retailing without a city-issued license, "self-service" tobacco displays and itinerant tobacco vendors, such as food trucks, are prohibited under the ordinance. It also requires retailers to check the identification of people who appear to be younger than 27 years old before selling them tobacco products.

Hollister code enforcement will check to see if local tobacco retailers are complying with the ordinance at least once a year. In some instance, youth decoys may be used. Retailers who violate the ordinance or violate state and federal laws regulating tobacco sales face having their license revoked for up to five years and fines of up to $1,000.

None of the more than 30 retailers that will be affected by the ordinance were on hand during the Monday meeting. But in an interview before the council passed the regulations Joe Aguilar, who owns Metropolis Tattoo in downtown Hollister, said that he already pays more than $1,000 a year for various licenses to sell and distribute tobacco from his store. If the fee for a city-issued license is too high, Aguilar said he might stop selling tobacco altogether.

Just before the vote, three members of the Hollister Youth Alliance, who had acted as decoys last year for the county's tobacco sting, told council members that it too easy for kids to buy tobacco and encouraged them to pass the ordinance.

Jennifer Mellow, a 15-year-old decoy, told the council that she is worried about her younger siblings using tobacco because it is so accessible.

"I have purchased tobacco from a lot of stores in Hollister that don't even ID me. It's to the point that now stores don't care," she said. "I think they should be reprimanded for selling to youth and minors."

With the passage of the ordinance, Hollister joined the nearly 50 jurisdictions in California, and more than 500 nationwide, that have tobacco retail licensing regulations, according to Berkeley-based American's Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation. Executive director Cynthia Hallet said that such ordinances give local government a record of who sells tobacco in the community. Also, she said, the licensing process ensures that retailers understand what the laws for selling tobacco are.