Local smokers can still light up in Santa Maria parks, according to the Santa Maria City Council.
On April 22, the council voted 3-2 (with council members Hilda Zacarias and Mike Cordero dissenting) to shoot down a proposed ban prohibiting smoking and the use of other tobacco products in city parks. The ordinance would have changed Santa Maria municipal code to create designated areas for tobacco use.
During the meeting, Mayor Larry Lavagnino was one of the most outspoken council members against the law, stating he wouldn’t support a total ban, nor setting designated areas for smoking.
In a recent interview with the Sun, Lavagnino explained his stance in greater detail.
“If the city designated smoking areas on the perimeter of the park, people would have to walk to heck and gone to smoke,” he said. “They’re all taxpayers—those who smoke and those who don’t—they all pay bills. And they all deserve to enjoy the park.”
Approving the ban, Lavagnino said, could also start a “slippery slope,” opening the door for more legal limitations.
“Down the road, someone could say, ‘Well, we have this ban on cigarette smoking, and I don’t really like the smoke from barbecues, so why don’t we get rid of that too?’” he said.
Lastly, Lavagnino said the information presented to the council by city staff “didn’t prove to me that secondhand smoke is a problem in parks.”
He cited state law that prohibits the smoking of cigarettes or use of any other tobacco products within 25 feet of a playground or sandbox.
According to a city staff report, the city hasn’t issued any citations for violating the law since its enactment in 2002.
At the City Council meeting, council members Alice Patino and Bob Orach sided with the mayor because they said enforcing a ban—or even a partial ban—would be difficult.
This article appears in Apr 30 – May 7, 2009.