Chapter 9.65
SMOKING RESTRICTIONS
Sections:
9.65.010 Purpose and findings.
9.65.030 Regulation of smoking in city owned facilities.
9.65.040 Prohibition of smoking in designated enclosed places.
9.65.050 Regulation of smoking in places of employment.
9.65.060 Smoking – Optional areas.
9.65.070 Posting requirements.
9.65.090 Violation – Penalties.
9.65.110 Other applicable laws.
9.65.010 Purpose and findings.
A. The city council does hereby find that:
1. Numerous studies have found that tobacco smoke is a major contributor to indoor air pollution; and
2. Reliable studies have shown that breathing sidestream or secondhand smoke is a significant health hazard for certain population groups, including elderly people, individuals with cardiovascular disease, and individuals with impaired respiratory function, including asthmatics and those with obstructive airway disease; and
3. Health hazards induced by breathing sidestream or secondhand smoke include lung cancer, respiratory infection, decreased exercise tolerance, decreased respiratory function, broncho-constriction, and bronchospasm; and
4. Nonsmokers with allergies, respiratory diseases and those who suffer other ill effects of breath sidestream or secondhand smoke may experience a loss of job productivity or may be forced to take periodic sick leave because of adverse reactions to same; and
5. The smoking of tobacco, or any other weed or plant, is a proven danger to health.
B. Accordingly, it has been determined that the health, safety and general welfare of the residents of, persons employed in, and persons who frequent this city would be benefited by the regulation of smoking in designated enclosed places, including places of employment. (Ord. 1297 §1(part), 1987).
9.65.020 Definitions.
The following words and phrases, whenever used in this chapter, shall be construed as hereafter set out, unless it shall be apparent from the context that they have a different meaning:
A. “Bar” means an area which is devoted to the serving of alcoholic beverages and in which the service of food is only incidental to the consumption of such beverages.
B. “Employee” means any person who is employed by any employer in consideration for direct or indirect monetary wages or profit.
C. “Employer” means any person, partnership, or corporation, including municipal corporation, who employs the services of more than three persons.
D. “Enclosed” means closed in by roof and four walls with appropriate openings for ingress and egress.
E. “Place of employment” means any enclosed area under the control of a public or private employer which employees normally frequent during the course of employment, including but not limited to, work areas, employee lounges, conference rooms and employee cafeterias. A private residence is not a place of employment unless it is used as a child-care or health-care facility. The dining area of a restaurant is not a “place of employment.”
F. “Smoking” means the carrying or holding of a lighted pipe, cigar or cigarette of any kind, or any other lighted smoking equipment, or the lighting or emitting or exhaling the smoke of a pipe, cigar or cigarette of any kind.
G. “Sports arena” means sports pavilion, gymnasium, health spa, boxing arena, swimming pool, roller and ice rink, bowling alley and other similar place where members of the public assemble to engage in physical exercise, participate in athletic competition, or witness sports events. (Ord. 1305, 1987; Ord. 1297 §1(part), 1987).
9.65.030 Regulation of smoking in city owned facilities.
All enclosed facilities owned by the city shall be subject to the provisions of this chapter. (Ord. 1297 §1(part), 1987).
9.65.040 Prohibition of smoking in designated enclosed places.
Smoking shall be prohibited in the following places within the city:
A. All enclosed areas available to and customarily used by the general public and all businesses patronized by the public, Including, but not limited to, retail stores, hotels and motels, pharmacies, banks, attorneys’ offices and other offices;
B. Within all restaurants having an occupied capacity of fifty or more persons, provided, however, that this prohibition does not prevent:
1. The designating of a contiguous area within a restaurant that contains no more than sixty percent of the seating capacity of the restaurant as a smoking area, or
2. The providing of separate rooms designated as smoking rooms, so long as said rooms do not contain more than sixty percent of the seating capacity of the restaurant;
C. Waiting rooms, hallways, wards, and semiprivate rooms of health facilities, including, but not limited to, hospitals, clinics, physical therapy facilities, doctors’ and dentists’ offices, except that health facilities shall also be subject to the provisions of Section 9.65.050 of this chapter regulating smoking in places of employment;
D. Elevators, public restrooms, indoor service lines, buses, taxicabs and other means of public transit under the authority of the city while within the boundaries of the county, and in ticket, boarding and waiting areas of public transit depots; provided, however, that this prohibition does not prevent:
1. Establishing separate waiting areas for smokers and nonsmokers, or
2. Establishing at least forty percent of a given waiting area as a nonsmoking area;
E. In public areas of museums and galleries;
F. Enclosed theaters, auditoriums and halls which are used for motion pictures, stage dramas and musical performances, ballets or other exhibitions, except when smoking is part of any such production;
G. Retail food-marketing establishments, including grocery stores and supermarkets, except those areas of such establishments set aside for the purpose of serving food and drink, restrooms and offices, and areas thereof not open to the public, which may be otherwise regulated by this chapter;
H. Public schools and other public facilities under the control of another public agency, which are available to and are customarily used by the general public, to the extent that the same are subject to the jurisdiction of the city;
I. Sports arenas and convention halls, except in designated smoking areas;
J. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section, any owner, operator, manager or other person who controls any establishment described in this section may declare that entire establishment as a nonsmoking establishment. (Ord. 1297 §1 (part), 1987).
9.65.050 Regulation of smoking in places of employment.
A. It shall be the responsibility of employers to provide smoke-free areas for nonsmokers within existing facilities to the maximum extent possible, but employers are not required to incur any expenses to make structural or other physical modifications in providing these areas.
B. Within ninety days of the effective date of the ordinance codified in this chapter, each employer and each place of employment located within the city shall adopt, implement, make known and maintain a written smoking policy, which shall contain at a minimum the following requirements:
1. Prohibition of smoking in conference and meeting rooms, restrooms, medical facilities, hallways and elevators;
2. Any employee in a place of employment shall be given the right to designate his or her immediate work area as a nonsmoking area and to post the same with an appropriate sign or signs, to be provided by the employer. The policy adopted by the employer shall include a reasonable definition of the term “immediate work area.”
a. In any dispute arising under this smoking policy, the rights of the nonsmoker shall be given precedence.
b. Provision and maintenance of a separate and contiguous nonsmoking area of not less than forty percent of the seating capacity and floorspace in cafeterias, lunchrooms and employee lounges.
C. The smoking policy shall be communicated to all employees within three weeks of its adoption, and at least annually thereafter.
D. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection A of this section, every employer shall have the right to designate any place of employment, or portion thereof, as a nonsmoking area. (Ord. 1297 §1(part), 1987).
9.65.060 Smoking – Optional areas.
Notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter to the contrary, the following areas shall not be subject to the smoking restrictions of this chapter:
A. Private residences;
B. Bars;
C. Bowling alleys;
D. Hotel and motel rooms rented to guests;
E. Retail stores that deal exclusively in the sale of tobacco and smoking paraphernalia;
F. Restaurants, hotel and motel conference or meeting rooms, and public and private assembly rooms while these places are being used for private functions;
G. A private residence which may serve as a place of employment, except when used as a child care or health care facility. Board and care facilities shall provide smokefree living quarters for nonsmoking boarders.
H. A private enclosed place occupied exclusively by smokers, even though such a place may be visited by nonsmokers, and a private enclosed office, excepting places in which smoking is prohibited by the fire department or by any other law, ordinance or regulation. (Ord. 1297 §1 (part), 1987).
9.65.070 Posting requirements.
A. “Smoking” or “No Smoking” signs, whichever are appropriate, with letters of not less than one-inch in height or the international “No Smoking” symbol (consisting of a pictorial representation of a burning cigarette enclosed in a red circle with a red bar across it) shall be clearly, sufficiently and conspicuously posted in every building or other place where smoking is controlled by this chapter, by the owner, operator, manager or other person having control of such building or other place.
B. Every restaurant regulated by this chapter will have posted at its entrance a sign clearly stating that a nonsmoking section is available, and every patron shall be asked as to his or her preference. (Ord. 1297 §1(part), 1987).
9.65.080 Enforcement.
A. Enforcement shall be implemented by the city manager or his designee.
B. Any citizen who desires to register a complaint hereunder may initiate enforcement with the city manager or his designees.
C. Any owner, manager, operator or employer of any establishment controlled by this chapter shall have the right to inform persons violating this chapter of the appropriate provisions thereof. (Ord. 1297 §1(part), 1987).
9.65.090 Violation – Penalties.
Any person violating the provisions of this chapter, or any owner, manager or employee of any businesses patronized by the public as set forth herein who allows the violation of the provisions set forth in this chapter, shall be guilty of an infraction. (Ord. 1769, Amended, 09/12/2006; Ord. 1297 §1(part), 1987).
9.65.100 Nonretaliation.
No person or employer shall discharge, refuse to hire, or in any manner retaliate against any employee or applicant for employment because such employee or applicant exercises any rights afforded by this chapter. (Ord. 1297 §1(part), 1987.
9.65.110 Other applicable laws.
This chapter shall not be interpreted or construed to permit smoking where it is otherwise restricted by other applicable laws. (Ord. 1297 §1(part), 1987).