ORD 200ORDINANCE NO. 200
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF LA QUINTA,'
CALIFORNIA AMENDING THE LA QUINTA MUNICIPAL
CODE BY ADDING CHAPTER 6.12 RELATING TO THE
REGULATION OF SMOKING IN PUBLIC PLACES
WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of La Quinta ("City
Council") finds that numerous studies have found that tobacco
smoke is a major contributor to indoor air pollution; and
WHEREAS, the City Council finds that reliable studies have
shown that breathing second-hand smoke is a cause of disease,
including lung cancer, in healthy nonsmokers. At special risk
are elderly people, individuals with cardiovascular disease,
and individuals with impaired respiratory function, including
asthmatics and those with obstructive airway disease; and
WHEREAS, the City Council funds that health hazards induced
by breathing second-hand smoke include lung cancer, respiratory
infection, decreased exercise tolerance, decreased respiratory
function, bronchoconstriction, and bronchospasm; and
WHEREAS, the Legislature of the State of California has
declared that tobacco smoke is a hazard to the health of the
general public; and
WHEREAS, the Legislature of the State of California has
declared its intent not to preempt the field of regulation of
the smoking of tobacco and has authorized cities to completely
ban or regulate smoking; and
WHEREAS, the City Council finds and declares that the
purposes of this ordinance are (1) to protect the public health
and welfare by prohibiting smoking in public places except in
designated smoking areas, and by regulating smoking in places
of employment; and (2) to strike a reasonable balance between
the needs of persons who smoke and the need of non-smokers to
breath smoke -free air, and to recognize that, where these needs
conflict, the need to breathe smoke -free air shall have
priority.
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL DOES HEREBY ORDAIN AS
FOLLOWS:
Section 1. Chapter 6.12 is hereby added to the La Quinta
Municipal Code as follows:
Ordinance No. 200
Chapter 6,12. SMOKING IN PUBLIC PLACES
6,12,010 Definitions.
A. "Bar" means an area which is devoted to the serving of
alcoholic beverages for consumption by guests on the premises
and in which the serving of food is only incidental to the
consumption of such beverages. Although a restaurant may
contain a bar, the term "bar" shall not include the restaurant
dining area.
B. "Business" means any sole proprietorship, partnership,
joint venture, corporation or other business entity formed for
profit -making purposes, including retail establishments where
goods or services are sold as well as professional corporations
and other entities where legal, medical, dental, engineering,
architectural or other professional services are delivered.
C. "Dining Area" means any enclosed area containing a
counter or tables upon which meals are served.
D. "Employee" means any person who is employed by any
employer in the consideration for direct or indirect monetary
wages or profit, and any person who volunteers his or her
services for a non-profit entity.
E. "Employer" means any person, partnership, corporation,
including a municipal corporation, or non-profit entity, who
employees the services of one or more individual persons.
F. "Enclosed Area" means all space between a floor and
ceiling which is enclosed on all sides by solid walls or
windows (exclusive of door or passage ways) which extend from
the floor to the ceiling, including all spaces therein screened
by partitions which do not extend to the ceiling or are not
solid, "office landscaping" or similar structures.
G. "Motion Picture Theatre" means any theater engaged in
the business of exhibiting motion pictures.
H. "Non -Profit Entity" means any corporation,
unincorporated association or other entity created for
charitable, philanthropic, educational, character building,
political, social or other similar purposes, the net proceeds
from the operations of which are committed to the promotion of
the objects or purposes of the organization and not to private
financial gain. A public agency is not a "non-profit entity"
within the meaning of this section.
I. "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,
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Ordinance No. 200
but not limited to, work areas, employee lounges and restrooms,
conference and classrooms, employee cafeterias and hallways. A
private residence is not a "place of employment" for the
purposes of this Chapter unless it is used as a child care or
health care facility. The dining area of a restaurant is not a
"place of employment" for the purposes of this Chapter.
J. "Public Place" means any enclosed area to which the
public is invited or in which the public is permitted,
including but not limited to, banks, educational facilities,
health facilities, public transportation facilities, reception
areas, restaurants, retail food production and marketing
establishments, retail service establishments, retail stores,
theatres and waiting rooms. A private residence is not a
"public place."
K. "Restaurant" means any coffee shop, cafeteria,
sandwich stand, private or public school cafeteria, and any
other eating establishment which gives or offers for sale food
to the public, guests, or employees, as well as kitchens in
which food is prepared on the premises for serving elsewhere,
including catering facilities, except that the term
"restaurant" shall not include a cocktail lounge or tavern if
said cocktail lounge or tavern is a "bar" as defined in
paragraph A of this Chapter 6.12.010.
L. "Retail Tobacco Store" means a retail store utilized
primarily for the sale of tobacco products and assessories and
in which the sale of other products is merely incidental.
M. "Service Line" means any indoor line at which one (1)
or more persons are waiting for or receiving service of any
kind, whether or not such service involves the exchange of
money.
N. "Smoking" means inhaling, exhaling, burning or
carrying any lighted cigar, cigarette, weed, plant or other
combustible substance in any manner or in any form.
O. "Sports Arena" means sports pavilions, gymnasiums,
health spas, boxing arenas, swimming pools, roller and ice
rinks, bowling alleys and other similar places where members of
the general public assemble either to engage in physical
exercise, participate in athletic competition or witness sports
events.
6,12,020 Application of Article to City -Owned Facilities
All enclosed facilities owned by the City of La Quinta
shall be subject to the provisions of this article.
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Ordinance No. 200
6,12,030 Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places
Smoking shall be prohibited in all enclosed public places
within the City of La Quinta, including, but not limited to,
the following places, and with the following exceptions:
1. Elevators.
2. Buses, taxicabs, and other means of public
transit under the authority of the City of La Quinta, and
ticket, boarding, and waiting areas of public transit depots;
provided, however, that this prohibition does not prevent the
establishment of a maximum of twenty-five percent (25%) of a
given waiting room as a smoking area.
3. Restrooms.
4. Service lines.
5. Retail stores, except areas in said stores not
open to the public and all areas within retail tobacco stores.
6. All areas available to and customarily used by
the general public in all business and non-profit entities
patronized by the public, including but not limited to,
attorneys offices, banks and other offices.
7. Public areas of aquariums, galleries, libraries
and museums when open to the public.
8. Any building not open to the sky which is
primarily used for exhibiting any motion picture, stage, drama,
lecture, musical recital or other similar performance, except
when smoking is part of a stage production.
9. Sports arenas and convention halls, except in
designated smoking areas.
10. Every room, place of meeting or public assembly,
including school buildings under the control of any board,
council, commission, committee, including joint committees, or
agencies of the City of La Quinta or any political subdivision
of the State during such time as a public meeting is in
progress, to the extent such place is subject to the
jurisdiction of the City.
11. Waiting rooms, hallways, wards and semiprivate
rooms of health care facilities, including, but not limited to,
hospitals, clinics, physical therapy facilities, doctors'
offices, and dentists' offices. In bed space areas of health
facilities used for two or more patients, smoking shall be
prohibited unless all patients within the room are smokers and
request in writing upon the health care facility's admission
forms to be placed in a room where smoking is permitted.
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Ordinance No. 200
12. Polling places.
6 12 040 Regulation of Smoking in Places of Employment
A. It shall be the responsibility of employers to provide
smoke -free areas for nonsmoking employees within existing
facilities to the maximum extent possible, but employers are
not required to incur any expense to make structural or other
physical modifications in providing such smoke -free areas.
B. Within ninety (90) days of the effective date of this
Chapter 6.12, each employer having an enclosed 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. Smoking shall be prohibited in all common work
areas in a place of employment, unless every person who works
in that area agrees in writing that a smoking area will be
designated.
2. Smoking shall be prohibited in auditoriums,
classrooms, conference and meeting rooms, elevators, hallways,
health or medical facilities and restrooms.
3. Separate and contiguous nonsmoking areas of not
less than seventy-five percent (75%) of the seating capacity
and floor space shall be provided and maintained in cafeterias,
lunchrooms and employee lounges or provision and maintenance of
separate and equal sized cafeterias, lunchrooms and employee
lounges for smokers and nonsmokers.
4. In any dispute arising under the smoking policy,
the health concerns of the nonsmoker shall be given precedence.
5. In the event that any nonsmoking employee finds
that the employer's policy, as implemented for that particular
employee, does not provide that employee with a smoke -free
environment in that employee's immediate work area, that
employee may make a written request to the employer to provide
a smoke -free immediate work area. Within sixty (60) days of
receiving such written request, the employer shall provide that
employee with a smoke -free environment in that employee's
immediate work area. The employer may choose the manner in
which it makes available the smoke -free work area and may use,
at the discretion of the employer, one or more measures
including, without limitation, reassignment of the employee to
a different work area, installing appropriate air filtering or
ventilation systems, providing the employee with an enclosed
work area, or prohibiting smoking by other employees whose
ambient smoke enters the employee's immediate work area. If
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Ordinance No. 200
the employer cannot implement a system which is satisfactory to
all affected non-smoking employees, the preferences of the
non-smoking employees shall prevail and the employer shall
prohibit smoking in the workplace.
C. The smoking policy shall be communicated to all
employees within three (3) weeks of its adoption, and not less
than annually thereafter.
D. All employers shall supply a written copy of the
smoking policy upon request to any existing or prospective
employee.
E. Notwithstanding any other provision of this
Chapter 6.12, every employer shall have the right to designate
any place of employment, or any portion thereof, as a
nonsmoking area.
6 12 050 Where Smoking Not Regulated
A. Notwithstanding any other provision of this article to
the contrary, the following areas shall not be subject to the
smoking restrictions of this article:
1. Bars.
2. Private residences, except when used as a child
care or health care facility.
3. Hotel and motel rooms rented to guests.
4. Tobacco retail stores.
5. Restaurants.
6. Hotel and motel conference or meeting rooms and
public and private assembly rooms while these places are being
used for private functions.
B. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section,
any owner, operator, manager or other person who controls any
establishment described in this Chapter 6.12.050 may declare
that entire establishment a nonsmoking establishment.
A. "Smoking" or "No Smoking" signs, whichever are
appropriate, with letters of not less than one inch (1") 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,
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Ordinance No. 200
sufficiently and conspicuously posted in every building or
other place where smoking is regulated by this Chapter 6.12, by
the owner, operator, manager or other person having control of
such building or other place.
B. Every theatre owner, manager or operator shall
conspicuously post signs in the lobby stating that smoking is
prohibited within the theatre or auditorium, and in the case of
motion picture theatres, such information shall be shown upon
the screen for at least five (5) seconds prior to the showing
of each feature motion picture.
6.12,070 violations and Penalties
A. It shall be unlawful for any person who owns, manages. -
operates or otherwise controls the use of any premises subject
to regulation under this Chapter 6.12 to fail to comply with
any of its provisions.
B. It shall be unlawful for any person to smoke in any
area where smoking is prohibited by the provisions of this
article.
C. Any person who violates any provision of this
Chapter 6.12 shall be guilty of an infraction pursuant to
Chapter 1.01.200 of this Code.
6,12,080 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 6.12.
The City Manager shall annually request other governmental
and educational agencies having facilities within the City of
La Quinta to establish local operating procedures in
cooperation and compliance with this Chapter 6.12.
This Chapter 6.12 shall not be interpreted or construed to
permit smoking where it is otherwise restricted by other
applicable laws.
The City Manager shall develop a program to inform citizens
of the provisions of this Chapter 6.12 and to assist owners,
operators and managers to comply.
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Ordinance No. 200
Section 2. Severability.
If any provision, clause, sentence or paragraph of
this Chapter or the application thereof to any person or
circumstances shall be held invalid, such invalidity shall not
affect the other provisions of this Chapter which can be given
effect without the invalid provision or application, and to
this end the provisions of this article are declared to be
severable.
Section I. Effective Date.
This Chapter 6.12 shall be effective thirty (30) days
from and after the date of its adoption.
Section 4. Certification.
The City Clerk shall certify to the passage and
adoption of this ordinance and shall cause it to be posted or
published in the manner required by law.
The foregoing ordinance was introduced at a regular meeting
of the City Council of the City of La Quinta on the 71-h day
of January , 1992, and was passed and adopted by the
following vote:
AYES: Council Member Bohnenberger, Franklin, Rushworth,
Sniff & Mayor Pena
NOES: None
ABSENT: None ng
V
ABSTAIN:None
JOHN ENA, Mayor
City of La Quinta, California
City cierk
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�J,
11:IM
STATE OF CALIFORNIA )
COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE ) ss
CITY OF LA QUINTA )
I, SAUNDRA L. JUHOLA, City Clerk of the City of La Quinta,
California, do hereby certify the foregoing to be a full, true and
correct copy of Ordinance No. 200 which was introduced on the 17th
day of December, 1991 and was adopted at a regular meeting held on
the 7th day of January, 1992, not being less than five days after
date of introduction thereof.
I further certify that the foregoing
(3) places within the City of La
re lution of the City Council.
AUNDRA L. JUHO , City Clerk
City of La Quinta, California
ordinance was posted in three
Quinta as specified in a
DECLARATION OF POSTING
I, SAUNDRA L. JUHOLA, City Clerk
California, do hereby certify that
po ed on January 21, 1992 pursuant
AUNDRA L. JUHOLA, City Clerk
City of La Quinta, Californial
of the city of La Quinta,
the foregoing Ordinance was
to City Council Resolution.