Campbell To Come Down on Tobacco Retailers Selling to Minors

In a 4-1 vote, with Campbell Councilman Jeff Cristina dissenting, the Campbell City Council voted to approve a tobacco retailers permit, which will allow the city to address retailers that sell to minors in a more efficient time frame than that of the state of California.

Currently, tobacco retailers are only required to have a State Tobacco Retailers Permit.

The annual tobacco retailer permit will cost the 49 local businesses that sell tobacco within the Orchard City $50. Each will renew annually in order to sell tobacco products in Campbell and can apply and renew through the mail. The permit will be issued through the city's finance department and will generate $2,450 annually, recovering nearly 100 percent of the cost.

The purpose of this permit is to give the city authority to suspend tobacco sales and fine retailers that sell to minors, Campbell City Associate Planner Steve Prossner said at the Nov. 20 meeting. The permit will also allow the city to revoke the permit for multiple violations as well as add administrative and/or criminal penalties for other violations.

City planners looked to neighboring cities of San Jose, Santa Clara and Saratoga for examples of permits that worked. San Jose, Santa Clara County and the city of Santa Clara have already adopted tobacco retail-licensing policies and Saratoga requires a conditional use permit for all tobacco retailers.

"What we’ve seen is that it provides local control for those that continue to violate," Prossner said. "It's consistent with state law and, based on the economy and diminished staffing levels, any enforcement opportunities [by the state] have been delayed. It takes longer and longer with state regulatory action. [With local permits] We are seeing a faster response to the businesses that are violating."

City staff held a meeting on Feb. 29 to discuss the proposed permit with the 49 local businesses it would impact. Of these, only one business owner showed up and expressed support of the permit, Prossner said.

There was only comment from the audience, a Prospect High School student, that night and four out of the five councilmen voted for the permit.

"I think that the proposal is exactly what the majority of council is looking for," Campbell Councilman Jason Baker said. "A real enforcement mechanism to clamp down." 

Cristina, however did not agree with the proposal.

"I like the idea of having local regulation," he said," but just the general idea of taxing everyone, when two years ago we had two businesses that sold to minors ... it doesn’t seem fair in my eyes."

Campbell City Council first began discussing various smoking bans and a potential retailer permit in March 2011.

The council first asked city staff to further study the potential tobacco retailer permit in Sept. 2011.

According to Santa Clara County Public Health's Fact Sheet on Tobacco Retailer Licensing:

• The 2009‐10 California Healthy Kids Survey found that 15 percent of 11th-graders in the Campbell Union High School District smoked a cigarette in the last 30 days.
• According to a 2010 enforcement operation coordinated by the Campbell Police Department, one in every four city tobacco retailers sold tobacco to minors.
• Nearly a quarter of Santa Clara County middle school students and two‐thirds of Santa Clara County high school students who smoke cigarettes report that it is easy to get cigarettes.

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