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The Livermore City Council is set to hold a public hearing to introduce an ordinance amending the portion of the city’s municipal code related to tobacco retail licensing during its regular meeting Monday.
The Livermore Municipal Code makes the sale and possession of flavored tobacco products or vaping products illegal, absent a statutory exception. Despite these laws, some tobacco retailers continue to sell these products, according to the city staff report.
Staff is proposing amendments to Livermore’s current tobacco retailer’s ordinance – which was adopted in 2019 – to include compliance monitoring and inspection authority by city officials and the discretion to utilize administrative fines and penalties.
According to staff, this change would provide officials with a tool to address tobacco retailers who refuse to allow compliance monitoring or inspections.
The fines would be no less than $250 and would not exceed $1,000, or possible revocation of their tobacco retailer license. Additional penalties could include cost recovery fees related to the law enforcement response, the city staff report said.
Law enforcement has faced obstacles to enforcing current tobacco retailer laws because state law requires that in order to make an arrest or issue a citation related to tobacco enforcement, an offense must be committed in an officer’s presence. Staff said their experience has shown that violators rarely sell or openly possess illegal tobacco products in front of a police officer or city staff member, which limits the authority to act on suspected violations.
The goal of updating the ordinance is to mitigate these challenges to enforcing the existing laws.
This discussion comes on the heels of a multi-jurisdictional investigation and subsequent lawsuit filed last September by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office against Livermore-based Apollo E-cigs for allegedly selling illegal flavored tobacco and synthetic cannabis products to people under the age of 21.
The case is still underway, however, in November the DA’s office won a preliminary injunction to halt the company’s online vape sales and suspend its operations for the duration of the litigation.
The tobacco retailer ordinance discussion is one of two public hearings on tap for the council Monday night with the second being a hearing to consider adopting a resolution establishing a preliminary application fee for eligible housing development projects.
The preliminary application was developed to satisfy the requirements of the Housing Crisis Act of 2019 (SB 330) and was designed to be adapted for future housing applications that may be developed by state law, according to the city staff report.
The law allows cities to adopt a fee to account for the time staff uses to review the application. The current proposal is for the city of Livermore to adopt a fee in the amount of $580 to defray staff costs for reviewing the new applications.
According to the staff report, the proposed fee is lower compared to other entitlement application fees because staff review is limited to reviewing the application for completeness, including attachments such as site plans and building submittals.
Staff determined that the estimated average time spent by staff reviewing the preliminary application is three hours of associate planner time, one hour of principal planner time, and one hour of planning admin tech time.
The proposed fee of $580 reflects the sum of the fully burdened hourly rates of those positions, $117.54 for associate planners, $143.61 for principal planners and $82.75 for planning admin techs.
If the City Council approves the fee, it would be added to the citywide fee schedule and will only apply to future preliminary applications upon submission.
In other business
* The council is set to receive the 2023 Climate Action Plan Progress Report presented by Sustainability Program Manager Tricia Pontau, which include progress highlights and status of priority actions related to the city’s Climate Action Plan.Â
* The 2024 Eastern Alameda County Human Services Needs Assessment and Final Report will be presented to the council. The final report will offer findings, recommendations and implementation steps from the multi-city initiative between the city of Livermore, city of Dublin and the city of Pleasanton to evaluate the strengths, needs and recommendations for the human services delivery network for the region as well as the individual cities.
* As part of the city’s consent calendar, which are items considered routine in nature and typically approved by a single vote, the council is set to adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute an agreement with RRM Design Group – in an amount not-to-exceed $535,110 with a term ending Dec. 31, 2026 – to provide design and construction support services for the Springtown Open Space Phase 1 Improvements Project.
The project involves constructing a park at the southern end of the Springtown Open Space between the Springtown Library and Springtown Homeowner Associations facilities. Project improvements also include a disc golf course and shaded benches through the entire open space and tennis/pickleball courts at neighboring Marlin Pound Park.
The Livermore City Council meeting is set for 7 p.m. on Monday (Feb. 26) in council chambers located at 1016 S. Livermore Ave. The meeting will also be live streamed via the city’s YouTube channel. The complete agenda is available here.
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