After Mayor Richard Bloom changed his vote Tuesday, the Santa Monica City Council scuttled an anti-smoking ordinance that would have banned smoking in all new apartments in the beachside city. Bloom, who supported the ordinance during its first reading on July 10, decided to oppose it along with Mayor Pro Tem Gleam Davis, causing the ordinance to fall far short of the necessary four votes it needed to pass. Council members Kevin McKeown and Pam O’Connor also opposed the ordinance.
“I think the Council and the ultimate decision making will benefit from further discussion,” said Bloom, who will be stepping down from the Council in order to run for a seat in the State Assembly. “I am very resolute that we do pass something that moves this issue forward,” he said, but added that there were unanswered questions about the effect the ordinance would have on medical marijuana users and on condo owners.
“I think we should bring it back when all seven of us are here,” said Davis, who wasn’t present at the July 10 meeting. “We’re not taking a step back. What we’re doing is giving additional thought to what we would like to do in this regard.” She proposed a substitute motion that would bring the staff report from the original meeting back to the council when all the members are present. The motion failed. “I still think it’s best that we adopt this non-smoking ordinance,” said Council Bob Holbrook. “It’s just time that we made home and living spaces safe for people.” Holbrook, who is a pharmacist, said that his motivation was a public health one.
The ordinance, which would have also forced tenants to designate their apartments either smoking or non-smoking and would have prevented new tenants moving into an apartment from smoking in it, has been an embattled one. During the July 10 meeting, McKeown turned the debate to the rights of renters, arguing that the ban would turn smokers into “second-class citizens.” He added that the requirement for smokers to designate their apartments as smoking apartments would cause their neighbors to “demonize” and eventually “displace” them.
“We might as well hammer a big yellow ‘S’ on (smokers’) front door,” he said at the July 10 meeting. McKeown reiterated his position against the “designate and disclose” portion of the ordinance but said that he would be in favor of improving public health in the city. Bloom, Davis, McKeown, and O’Connor voted against the ordinance. O’Day and Holbrook both supported it. Council member Bobby Shriver, who originally voted for the ordinance, was absent Tuesday. A second substitute motion -- put forward by Bloom -- to hear from staff once further research had been conducted, but without the stipulation that all seven members of the council be present, passed 5 to 1.
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