LIHU‘E — First, smokers got kicked out of restaurants, bars and enclosed public establishments. Now, they are getting pretty close to being confined to parking lots at county parks. The Kaua‘i County Council’s Parks and Recreation Committee on Thursday approved
LIHU‘E — First, smokers got kicked out of restaurants, bars and enclosed public establishments. Now, they are getting pretty close to being confined to parking lots at county parks.
The Kaua‘i County Council’s Parks and Recreation Committee on Thursday approved by a 3-2 vote a bill that outlaws any tobacco products at county parks. The bill was originally a straight ban, but an amendment introduced on the floor let smokers breathe some relief — the bill as it is allows tobacco in the parking lots of county parks.
“As the introducer of the bill, I think I tried to educate myself. I’ve been in the public, I’ve been walking around,” said Councilman Dickie Chang, who said he has been talking to local residents and many of them are supportive of the bill. “Beach parks, in my opinion, are for families.”
Chang also said some of the people he talked to were “disappointed” with him for introducing the bill, but when he explained to them his reasons they seemed to understand.
“I think we all try to do what’s right … for the future of all our residents,” he said. “In the long run, when we are all looking to betterment — which includes, obviously, health — for our people, I am supportive of the bill as is.”
Bill 2437 is not yet final; it still needs approval from the seven-body full council and a subsequent signature from Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.
Committee Chair Tim Bynum and committee members JoAnn Yukimura and Nadine Nakamura supported the bill. Committee members KipuKai Kuali‘i and Mel Rapozo voted against it.
When the bill reaches full council, it will need a simple majority of four votes to get to Carvalho’s desk for his approval. But in order to safeguard against a potential veto from Carvalho, the council needs a super majority of five votes.
Chang, who is not a Parks and Recreation Committee member, has demonstrated his support for it. Council Chair Jay Furfaro would be the seventh vote in the full council.
Carvalho has never vetoed a council bill in his four-and-a-half years in office.
Before being elected mayor, Carvalho was the county’s Park and Recreation director. His successor at the department, Lenny Rapozo, told the council a law banning tobacco in county parks would be “very difficult” to enforce, and that’s aside from the fact that the county only has six park rangers (plus an additional two positions added in this year’s budget).
“It’s difficult as it is (to enforce all rules),” said Lenny Rapozo, adding that on the Big Island a similar ban is enforced solely by the police department.
Kaua‘i Police Chief Darryl Perry said the bill would be easier to enforce if it were a straight ban, but when the council starts specifying measurements for how far away from others people could smoke, it makes it harder to enforce.
After hearing Perry’s testimony, the council opted not to add distance limits to the bill, and amend it to allow smoking in the parking lots of county parks.
What’s in a cigarette?
The current law banning smoking in bars and restaurants is specifically about smoking, not just tobacco, Mel Rapozo said.
He said if the county approves this new law, the state would be required to prove in court that someone caught smoking at a county park was really smoking tobacco, not grass or paper.
“It sounds really stupid, but unfortunately it is like that in court,” said Rapozo, adding that, as far as he knows, there is no facility on the island that would examine a cigarette and prove it is filled with tobacco.
Perry said KPD would have to send cigarette butts off island for lab tests to identify the substance as tobacco.
Kuali‘i said the state would probably not be able to collect fines without a confirmation that the substance was tobacco, and Perry confirmed that.
However, under questioning by Yukimura, Perry said he has never come across a cigarette-smoking citation related to the current ban in bars and restaurants, either in Honolulu or on Kaua‘i.
He suggested that the council include an “education component” in the bill, targeting offenders. To him, the bill wasn’t about punishment or bringing in revenues, it was about changing behaviors.
Public testimony swayed to both sides of the issue while it was in first reading and at the committee level. There was more testimony supporting the bill at first reading, but when it reached committee, smokers reached out to the council. Smokers were mostly in favor of a compromise allowing them designated space to smoke at county parks.
At the end of Thursday’s business day, Bill 2437 was posted for second and final reading at full council Wednesday. The council meeting starts at 9 a.m. at the council chambers in the Historic County Building in Lihu‘e.
