Outdoor Smoking Ban at Libraries Rejected

A proposal to ban smoking outside city libraries was rejected unanimously by the City Council Tuesday night.

The city’s Library Board had made the proposal following complaints that smokers were congregating on library walkways and leaving cigarette butts.

Christopher Jarvi, director of Anaheim’s Community Services Department, said the city is also receiving a mounting number of complaints “regarding having to walk past groups of people smoking at the entrances to our buildings and thereby experiencing secondhand smoke.”

But council members said the problem should be handled by the library staff rather than with legislation.

Councilman Lou Lopez said the proposal, which would have banned smoking from parking lots as well, was “too restrictive.”

“There’s got to be an area somewhere, maybe on the side, where people can smoke. I wish people wouldn’t smoke, but what can you do.”

Councilman Bob Zemel said the proposal would violate personal rights. “It’s not something I personally want Anaheim to be noted for,” he said.

The council suggested that signs requesting that people not smoke be posted outside libraries, and that if the problem continued, that the matter be brought back to the council.