ANAHEIM : Council to Consider Anti-Smoking Rules

The City Council today will consider further restrictions on smoking in public places, including a ban at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Councilman Irv Pickler wants the council to tighten smoking regulations so they more closely match a 1993 county smoking ban. For example, while Anaheim allows smoking in film theater lobbies and in privately rented areas and concourses in public buildings, the county does not. The county law applies only to county facilities and unincorporated areas, such as Sunset Beach and North Tustin.

“The less smoking and secondhand smoke there is, the better,” Pickler said. “I want that ordinance to be as tough as possible.”

City Atty. Jack White warned council members in a city staff report that tighter restrictions on smoking may eventually cost the city much-needed revenue. Some conventioneers may refuse to visit Anaheim if smoking is regulated further, White said.

Last year, the council unanimously imposed a ban on smoking in all city-owned facilities. Included in that ban is The Pond of Anaheim and the seating area at Anaheim Stadium.

The city also has an ordinance, adopted in 1986, that prohibits smoking in elevators, theaters, public restrooms and public sections of hospitals and requires restaurants of 50 seats or more to have nonsmoking sections.

The council meeting begins at 5 p.m. at City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd.