Yorba Linda : Tentative OK Likely for Curbs on Smoking

A City Council that includes at least two members who have stopped smoking will likely give preliminary approval today to an ordinance that would regulate smoking in public places.

And unless the city officials have had a turnabout since their last meeting, when they unanimously approved the ordinance in concept, Yorba Linda will join other cities in Orange County that have regulated public smoking.

Ronald L. Saldana, regional director of the Tobacco Institute, said such ordinances are not the answer. Education, not mandatory compliance, should be emphasized, he said. Saldana also questioned how the ordinance would be enforced.

“You can pass an ordinance but you have no mechanism to educate the business community,” Saldana said.

Councilman Irwin Fried told about 50 residents gathered at a meeting earlier this month that his decision to quit smoking was “the one act in my life that I’m the most proud (of). . . . The very act of being able to conquer your own body is the most difficult thing you could do.”

When the council meets at 6:30 p.m., it also is scheduled to vote on a resolution requesting Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) to introduce legislation making former President Richard M. Nixon’s birthplace a national historic site--a request the Fullerton congressman has said he will fulfill.