Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here
Otherwise, follow the link below to join.
To Our Valued Readers –
Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.
For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.
Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.
Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.
Eighteen-year-olds will still be able to light up in Surprise while the city debates raising the smoking age to 21.
The City Council Dec. 5 decided to hold off on any changes in the smoking ordinance while awaiting an opinion from the Arizona Attorney General’s office about how cities should proceed on smoking laws.
Surprise is considering raising the age like alcohol, licensing businesses that sell tobacco and toughing up enforcement of businesses that violate the law with possible fines.
But at least a couple of City Councilmen want more community outreach before changing the law.
“This is a big change,” District 6 Councilman Chris Judd said. “We’re talking about stripping rights from American citizens. You’re an 18-year-old adult today, but tomorrow you’re an 18-year-old adult, but we’ve taken some of your rights away.
“I personally think this is one of the most un-American things we can do by designating an adult as not an adult.”
District 3 Councilman Patrick Duffy also said nothing should be changed until residents give their input.
“You can go fight in war, but you can’t smoke,” Mr. Dufffy said. “It would be interesting to think what the community thinks about it.”
Ten cities in Arizona have adopted a similar smoking ordinance, and Harold Brady, legal counsel for the city, said the one that Surprise is considering mirrors one recently passed in Flagstaff.
Mr. Brady said the goal is to stop the epidemic of teenagers vaping — but it comes at the expense at 18- to 20-year-olds.
“The further you remove people who are underage 17 and younger from being able to purchase the products, the more success you’re going to have with them getting involved with them permanently the rest of their lives,” Mr. Brady said.
The office of Attorney General Mark Brnovich is preparing an opinion relative to a city’s authority to adopt an ordinance such as this one.
“We haven’t had a lot of time among staff to determine who’s going to be doing what under the ordinance, so, consequently, it’s staff’s recommendation that we go ahead and hold off on adoption of this ordinance until we hear back from the Attorney General’s office,” Mr. Brady said.
The American Cancer Society made a presentation to the City Council in November, where councilmembers indicated they wanted the issue brought back at a later date.
Vaping is targeted in the ordinance which focuses in on a trend growing with younger adults. The ordinance would consider vaping another form of tobacco.
It would basically legislate all products derived from tobacco or nicotine, including electronic smoking devices and substances that may be aerosolized or vaporized by a smoking device.
“Tobacco products are defined very broadly,” Mr. Brady said.
The ordinance would require vendors to ask for ID for anybody who looks under 30 and would require retailers to train their employees about the new law.
Vice Mayor Roland Winters asked Mr. Brady why staff prefered modeling the ordanance after the one in Flagstaff.
“We felt it dealt with the under-21 restrictions appropriately,” Mr. Brady said. “There are only a few cities that have those type of provisions.”
For the enforcement aspect of the law, it would authorize compliance checks and follow-ups. It would also allow for license suspension or revocation for repeated violations or failure to pay penalties.
Mayor Skip Hall wanted tougher enforcement in the ordinance.
“It just seems lenient to me,” Mr. Hall said. “If we’re going to have this ordinance we need to enforce it. I don’t think it can be a gray area. We need to quantify how we’re going to enforce it.”
The mayor also said he wants feedback on how Flagstaff is handling enforcement.
Mr. Judd said he likes the licensing aspect of the ordinance, desping not being in favor of raising the minimum age.
“Why are we trying to strip rights when we should be focusing on the enforcement issue?” Mr. Judd asked.
It’s unclear when Mr. Brnovich’s office will release its opinion and when the CIty Council will take up the matter again.
“We certainly believe the ordinance to be lawful, but it may be prudent to take a step back, wait for the Attorney General’s office to weigh in and then proceed based on that opinion,” City Attorney Robert Wingo told the Council.
Editor’s Note: Jason Stone can be reached at jstone@newszap.com or on Twitter at @thestonecave. Visit yourvalley.net.
Former NAU Lumberjack who loves going to concerts (or I did), watching sports (or I did) and hanging out with friends (oh, never mind). I also enjoy backgammon, surfing and men who are not afraid to cry.
By 
