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File Number: 22-021 The existing ordinance applies to all tobacco retailers within the City, which includes any person who sells electronic cigarettes, electronic cigarette products, electronic cigarette paraphernalia, tobacco products, or tobacco paraphernalia. Prohibited activities include: ·The sale of tobacco or electronic cigarette products without a valid tobacco retailers license; ·Tobacco retailing via a self-service display; ·Tobacco retailing by an individual that is younger than 18; ·The non-sale distribution of tobacco and electronic cigarette products in a public place; ·The sale of cigars in a package at less than $7 per five cigars, except for the sale of single cigars in excess of $5; ·The sale of flavored cigars; and ·The sale of flavored electronic cigarette products, whether such products contain nicotine or not. Licensing Provisions and Enforcement: The ordinance requires that all tobacco retailers obtain a tobacco retailers license from the City. A tobacco retailers license requires the payment of an annual fee in order to fund costs of administration and enforcement of the ordinance, currently set at $500 per year. The fees obtained from tobacco retailers fund a compliance monitoring program operated by the Police Department. If violations are discovered, tobacco retailers are subject to the below penalties: 1. First Violation: Written warning and thirty days to cure the violation. 2. Second Violation: Licensee fined two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) 3. Third Violation: License suspended for 20 days. 4. Fourth Violation: License revoked and license cannot be issued to retailer or the retail location for three years. In addition to administrative penalties, the ordinance permits criminal and civil enforcement by the City. Status of Menthol Cigarette Sales in San Leandro It is worth noting that the existing ordinance does not prohibit the sale of menthol cigarettes, which are presently the only flavored tobacco product that may be sold in San Leandro. The rationale for this carve-out for menthol cigarette sales is that at the time of adoption of the above-referenced ordinance in 2017, it was unclear whether local municipalities had the legal authority to ban the sale of menthol cigarettes due to concerns that such a ban may have been pre-empted by federal regulations of menthol cigarettes. However, since the time of adoption, the legal landscape has settled and it is now clear that local municipalities do indeed have the authority to ban the sale of menthol cigarettes. Following on an Agenda Item 14 referral request that was raised in 2020, the City Council Rules Committee has hosted various discussions about the possibility of modifying local tobacco regulations in San Leandro. The following represents a summary of the related public meetings and discussions that took place related to this topic: October 27, 2020 Rules Committee Meeting: Rules Committee directed staff to develop new regulations with the following provisions: • Ban pharmacies from selling tobacco • Require point-of-sale system at registers for Tobacco Retailer Licenses (TRLs) at new locations only that requires entry of a birth date or scanning of a driver license Page 2 City of San Leandro Printed on 1/14/2022 621