He is among a growing chorus of anti-smoking advocates in Glendale who say it’s time to join the ranks of dozens of other California cities that have adopted strict limits on smoking in public places.
“I just feel like this is something that we just don’t need for health, but for safety reasons as well,” said Glendale resident Amiee Klem, who is leading an ad hoc group of concerned residents in support of the restrictions, some of whom plan to attend the City Council meeting Tuesday to press for the survey.
The potential move to begin studying possible restrictions comes after the City Council in September approved an ordinance requiring sellers of cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products to hold a city permit as a way to leverage state laws prohibiting sales to minors.
A permit can be suspended up to two times for selling tobacco to minors before it is revoked. At the time, anti-smoking advocates hailed the new rule as an important step toward clamping down on retailers who had been selling to underage buyers.
Those same advocates point to a March 4 police sting operation — in which more than half of the 44 Glendale markets and convenience stores targeted sold cigarettes to decoys aged 15 to 18 — as proof that the city lags behind other cities in their efforts to kick the habit, and needs to catch up.
“When you get that kind of reaction from people, then that’s when the protections go into place,” said Steven Gallegos, a community advocate for Glendale Adventist Medical Center who worked on Glendale’s draft tobacco permit ordinance and has been active in county efforts to curb smoking.
