LOS ALAMITOS : Council to Consider Interim Smoking Ban

The City Council today will consider an ordinance prohibiting smoking in buildings owned or leased by the city despite a recently adopted state law that bans smoking in virtually all places of employment.

City officials said the ordinance is still necessary because the state’s no-smoking law will not take effect until Jan. 1.

“It’s still prudent for the council to adopt the ordinance,” City Manager Robert C. Dunek said.

In addition, Dunek said that under the state law, smoking inside bingo parlors will be allowed only for two years, after which the smoking ban may be extended to those places.

The city ordinance allows smoking in rooms A and B of the Community Center, where local groups hold bingo games, Dunek said. He said the city wants to keep that exemption for as long as bingo games are held there.

But Dunek said that the state law “pretty much accomplishes what the city envisions to do.”

Signed by Gov. Pete Wilson last week, the state law bans smoking and use of tobacco products in enclosed work areas. Exempted are tobacco shops, meeting rooms in hotels and convention centers, and gaming clubs, which include bingo facilities.