Item 3A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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ATTACHMENT B MINUTES Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room-Eugene City Hall September 28, 2005 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: George Poling, Jennifer Solomon, Bonny Bettman, David Kelly, Betty Taylor, Gary Pape, Andrea Ortiz, Chris Pryor. Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order and welcomed those present. A. ACTION: An Ordinance Concerning Smoking Areas; Amending Sections 6.225, 6.230, 6.235, and 6.240 ofthe Eugene Code, 1971; Repealing Section 6.232 ofthat Code; and Adding Section 6.245 to that Code Mr. Poling, seconded by Ms. Solomon, moved to request the City Manager to revise Ad- ministrative Rule 6.230 to implement new standards for outdoor smoking areas and to prepare ordinance revisions as appropriate, within a timeframe that allows new standards to be in place before December 31, 2005. Mr. Pape asked about Corvallis' experience in implementing a similar ordinance. Permit Review Manager Keli Osborn replied that the clean air ordinance for Corvallis was countywide and primarily handled by Benton County Public Health, but also administered within the City of Corvallis. She said that for Corvallis, according to staff there, three to five citations had been issued over the past three years and while citations with fines were issued when violations persisted, the usual experience was that businesses that were approached regarding a violation immediately corrected the problem. She said that outdoor smoking areas were not defined in the Benton County ordinance and staff s focus was to keep smokers ten feet or more away from building entrances and exits. She said some businesses might have a sheltered area but smoking areas were not considered enclosed. Mr. Pape asked about Eugene's experience with complaints under its ordinance. Ms. Osborn said that there had been 16 complaints related to the smoking ordinance since the first of the year; 11 related to outdoor smoking areas and 5 related to smoking indoors. She said that since July 2001, the City issued 30 correction orders, levied 12 fmes and gone to appeal hearings 9 times. Mr. Pape requested details abut the nature of the complaints related to outdoor smoking areas. Ms. Osborn said the focus of complaints was whether standards had been met and whether the area was too enclosed, given the 25 percent/75 percent rule now in place. She said the tracking system identified a complaint as related to not meeting standards but did not provide specific details; 15 of the 16 complaints received in 2005 were confidential. Mr. Pape questioned whether there was actually a problem with the outdoor smoking areas. He realized there could be problems related to compliance but was not certain that the existing ordinance failed to meet the need to protect workers and patrons in bars, taverns and restaurants. MINUTES-Eugene City Council Work Session September 28, 2005 Page 1