OJAI : Council Adds More Smoking Restrictions

The Ojai City Council has voted to further restrict smoking within the city limits.

No one at the public hearing Tuesday spoke against the new law, which limits smoking in public places, bars cigarette sales from vending machines except in bars and outlaws smoking at outdoor restaurant patios.

“The more we restrict it, the better message we send to children that we’re concerned about their health and we’re concerned about their future,” said Gerald H. Leavitt of the American Lung Assn.

Leavitt was one of two men who spoke at the hearing Tuesday night to urge the council to adopt the more restrictive ordinance.

Councilwoman Nina V. Shelley said the new law is designed to protect people from the dangers of tobacco.

“From a point of view of public health, we’re simply trying to legislate the secondhand smoke that comes from others and severely affects the lives of other human beings,” she said.

Councilman Joseph DeVito said nearby smokers at an outdoor table disrupted a recent meal he had shared with his wife at a local restaurant.

“The whole time we were there we were exposed to their smoke,” he said. “That’s not happened once, but numbers of times.”

The new law would go into effect after the council adopts the second reading of the law, scheduled for Dec. 21.

Earlier this month, a handful of people showed up at a City Council meeting to try to persuade council members to ease the proposed smoking ordinance, saying it would hurt merchants.