Citing a desire to keep kids away from tobacco, the City Council
directed the city attorney to draft an ordinance Monday that will
require Hollister retailers to get a license from the city to sell
tobacco products.
Hollister – Citing a desire to keep kids away from tobacco, the City Council directed the city attorney to draft an ordinance Monday that will require Hollister retailers to get a license from the city to sell tobacco products.
Samela Perez, Health and Human Services project director for San Benito County, has been advocating for such an ordinance since her department used underage decoys in a study last year and found that 33 percent of retailers in the county who carry tobacco products sell them to minors. The vast majority of tobacco retailers, and thereby the bulk of offenses, were in the City of Hollister, she said.
“We’re seeing a gradual increase. I don’t think it’s going to stop at 33 percent,” Perez said. “There are no ramifications for selling tobacco to minors.”
According to a memo that City Attorney Elaine Cass sent to the City Council, provisions in the ordinance will include:
n Retailers will be required to obtain a license to sell tobacco products for each location where they are sold.
n Certain retailers, such as mobile vendors, will be prohibited from obtaining a license. The ordinance will also prohibit the opening of new retail shops that sell tobacco as their primary product.
n Retailers will pay a yet-to-be-determined license fee which will cover the cost of enforcing the ordinance.
n If a retailer violates laws governing tobacco sales, they can be fined and their license can be revoked.
Though state law forbids tobacco sales to people under the age of 18 and threatens fines of up to $6,000 if retailers are caught selling to minors, local law enforcement officials say they just don’t have the staff to pursue violators.
“I support the efforts to reduce the amount of tobacco available to kids,” Hollister Police Chief Jeff Miller told the council during the Monday meeting. But, he added, his department doesn’t have the manpower to enforce tobacco laws and must use its limited resources to focus on things like gang crime and drunk driving.
Though at this time it is unclear how an ordinance might be enforced, City Council members said they support a licensing ordinance and wanted to get started with it. They told Cass to report back in a month with a draft.
“I would hate to say that we’re not going to do this because we can’t enforce it,” Councilman Doug Emerson said. “We have to start somewhere.”
Mayor Robert Scattini, who ultimately supported moving ahead with the ordinance, emphasized the importance of figuring out how to enforce it.
“To have this program without enforcing it is like pouring water into a can with a hole in it,” he said. “It all goes out.”
The licensing fee and alternative ways to enforce the ordinance will be discussed as the council reviews the draft that Cass will provide next month.
If an ordinance requiring retailers to obtain licenses to sell tobacco products is adopted by Hollister, about 31 vendors in the city will be affected, according to Perez. Some local retailers fear that the licensing fee would drive small businesses out of the tobacco business, limiting options for the consumer by leaving only major chains able to sell tobacco products.
Joe Aguilar, owner of Metropolis Tattoo in downtown Hollister, said that he already pays more than $1,000 per year for various licenses to distribute and sell tobacco. If the fee is too high for a city-issued tobacco license, he said he might stop selling tobacco altogether.
“If it keeps getting more expensive I might not carry it any more,” Aguilar said. “I don’t need to sell tobacco.”
More than 500 jurisdictions in the nation – with nearly 50 in California – have local tobacco licensing ordinances, according to Berkeley-based American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation. Cynthia Hallet, executive director of that organization, said she encourages Hollister to adopt an ordinance of its own.
“They’d be joining a very large group,” she said. Aside from regulating tobacco sales, she added, such ordinances give jurisdictions a record of who in the community sells tobacco and ensures that retailers understand laws governing the sale of tobacco. “I think it’s been an effective way for cities and health departments to at least know who are the retailers and really educate them about the responsibility not to sell tobacco to minors.”
Making sure retailers know the law is one of the key functions of the tobacco licensing ordinance in the town of Danville, which passed the ordinance a few years ago, according to City Attorney Robert Ewing.
“For us the primary benefit of doing it was when someone gets a permit to sell tobacco it gives us a way to give a copy of the ordinance and applicable requirements,” he said.
Luke Roney covers local government and the environment for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or at [email protected]
