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HomeMy WebLinkAbout101-Staff report.pdfPage 1 of 3 SARATOGA CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: July 7, 2010 AGENDA ITEM: DEPARTMENT: City Manager’s Office CITY MANAGER: Dave Anderson PREPARED BY: Barbara Powell, DIRECTOR: Assistant City Manager Richard Taylor, City Attorney John Livingstone, Community Development Director SUBJECT: Proposed Application for Grant Funds through Santa Clara County’s Tobacco Prevention and Control Program RECOMMENDED ACTION: Accept report and direct staff accordingly. REPORT SUMMARY: Mayor King asked that this item be placed before the Council for discussion. As noted in the June 10, 2010 City Council newsletter, the Santa Clara County Public Health Department (PHD) was recently awarded a two-year, $6.975 million grant in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to reduce adult and youth smoking. The grant will fund a new “Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW)” tobacco prevention and control program. The program will focus on five main strategies: 1. Creating smoke-free skilled nursing, mental health, and youth facilities to reduce secondhand smoke exposure and related health implications; 2. Limiting youth access to tobacco and outdoor advertising close to schools to reduce the number of youth who start smoking; 3. Advocating for an increased statewide tobacco tax in California, which now has the 32nd lowest tobacco tax in the nation, to increase the price of cigarettes and deter tobacco use; 4. Developing a tobacco cessation network and enabling local organizations to provide nicotine replacement therapy in the community; and 5. Advocating for development of tobacco retail licensing in Santa Clara County and its cities to monitor tobacco sellers and provide revenue for tobacco education. According to an April 27, 2010 staff report to the Board of Supervisors from Dan Peddycord, Public Health Director, “PHD will be soliciting bids from the community through a formal Request for Proposal process equaling approximately $3,160,000 for six project areas: 1. Media and Social Marketing 2. Program Evaluation 3. Smoke free facilities, advocacy, outreach and education 4. Youth advocacy to limit tobacco advertising near schools 5. State tobacco tax advocacy and local resolutions 6. Tobacco cessation resources network development”. Page 2 of 3 DIRECTION REQUESTED Staff has requested, but has not yet received specific information and a timeline from PHD in order to determine how Saratoga may potentially access grant funding. However, at this time staff is seeking direction from the Council about whether to pursue a grant to fund: 1. Preparation of an ordinance to restrict tobacco use in public places; and/or 2. The cost to “tailor” the ordinance so that it would be useful/adoptable in other jurisdictions; and/or 3. A public education campaign; and/or 4. Additional Code Enforcement to uphold the provisions of the ordinance. According to the City Attorney, the Public Health Institute (PHI) has developed a model ordinance restricting smoking in outdoor areas. Attached is a one-page summary developed by PHI that can help guide development of the ordinance. Ordinance preparation: • If the City uses the model ordinance “as is”, the cost would be approximately $5,000. • Tailoring the model ordinance would increase the cost, perhaps to as much as $10,000. • A factor that will affect the cost of the ordinance will be the extent to which the Council desires to hold special meetings (study sessions, public hearings) outside of regular Council meetings and, if so, whether the Council desires the City Attorney to participate. Tailoring the ordinance for use by other jurisdictions: • The City Attorney has indicated that Saratoga could offer to supplement the work of PHI through preparation of a narrative of the issues raised during the Council’s consideration of the matter, the points pro and con, and how Saratoga ultimately resolved the issues. • The cost for this process is estimated to be from $3,000 to $6,000, depending upon the scope. Public Education campaign: • The City Attorney suggested that it may be prudent to undertake a comprehensive public education campaign prior to implementation and enforcement of the ordinance, which could reduce the amount of required Code Enforcement once the ordinance takes effect. This could include advertising in the Saratoga News/other newspapers, inclusion of an article in the Saratogan, mailing of informational material to each household, posting of information on the City website, posting of signs in parks and near other public areas and additional means of education. Some known costs for this are: Saratoga News Full page advertisement $839 Half page advertisement $410 All Silicon Valley Half page advertisement $1,700 Newspapers Additional Code Enforcement costs: • According to Captain Terry Calderone, the need for additional Code Enforcement may initially be significant, and then taper off, as time goes on. At this time, it is not possible to estimate how many calls for enforcement would occur once an ordinance was implemented. • As an example, if the City’s Code Compliance Specialist is called out once per week for after hours/weekend Code Enforcement (after hours call out is a minimum 3-hour charge) the cost to the City would be approximately $12,325 annually; additional call outs twice per week would cost approximately $24,650 annually. Page 3 of 3 • If a Sheriff’s Deputy is called to respond once per week -- assuming the call out would take one hour -- (regardless of time or day of the week) the cost to the City would be approximately $8,112 annually; twice per week would cost approximately $16,224 annually. FISCAL IMPACTS: Depending upon the parameters established by the County of Santa Clara, all or a portion of the costs indicated above could be paid for by grant funds. If only a portion of the costs were covered by a grant, the City would need to identify a funding source(s) from which to pay for the items listed above. CONSEQUENCES OF NOT FOLLOWING RECOMMENDED ACTION: Staff would not pursue a grant through the County of Santa Clara to offset costs associated with preparation and implementation of an ordinance restricting tobacco use in public spaces. ALTERNATIVE ACTION: The Council could direct staff to pursue grant funding for all or a portion of the costs associated with the ordinance. FOLLOW UP ACTION: Undertake Council direction. ADVERTISING, NOTICING AND PUBLIC CONTACT: This item was posted as a City Council agenda item and was included in the packet made available on the City’s web site in advance of the meeting. A copy of the agenda packet is also made available at the Saratoga Branch Library each Monday in advance of the Council meeting and residents may subscribe to the agenda on-line by opting in at www.saratoga.ca.us. ATTACHMENTS: Smokefree Outdoor Areas Ordinance Checklist