Goleta City Council Approves Flavored Tobacco Ban Ordinance
Council Also Authorizes $3.9 Additional Roadway Paving Funding and Adopts Eviction Moratorium
GOLETA, CA, September 22, 2021 – Starting in December of this year, the City of Goleta will no longer allow the sales of flavored tobacco products within City limits. After hearing several hours of public comment on both sides of the issue at last night’s public meeting, the Goleta City Council voted 4 to 1 in favor of an ordinance that will ban the sale of flavored tobacco in each of its 32 licensed tobacco retail locations. The City is the latest in a number of neighboring jurisdictions to take this action including the County of Santa Barbara and the cities of Carpinteria, Santa Maria and Guadalupe.
City of Goleta Mayor Paula Perotte said, “We have taken this action to protect the health and safety of our vulnerable youth. Testimony from countless parents, teachers and medical professionals convinced us that this action is both justified and necessary.”
Joining over 100 other cities and counties that have adopted a similar ban, the local ban is independent of SB 793, which is a state-wide ban that was passed by the California Legislature in August 2020 but must be voted on by the public to go into effect; it will be on the November 2022 ballot. In the meantime, local entities must pass their own bans if they want flavored tobacco to not be sold within their jurisdiction.
The Council also approved the construction contract for the 2020-2021 Pavement Rehabilitation Project and authorized an additional $3,900,000 from the General Fund for additional roadway paving work throughout the City. The added work included the much-needed pavement rehabilitation on Cathedral Oaks Road from Glen Annie Road to Los Carneros Road. With the additional funding approved, the project will pave nearly $6 million dollars’ worth of roadways throughout the City, including paving roadway segments on Cathedral Oaks Road, Glen Annie Road, Calle Real, Hollister Avenue, and Kellogg Avenue. Paving work is anticipated to start in one-two months.
Goleta Deputy Public Works Director James Campero said, “Public Works staff bid the paving project with bid alternates to provide the City flexibility to award additional roadways if we received good bids. Fortunately, we received very advantageous bids and we are very thankful to have a City Council and community that supports taking advantage of such great bids. We will be constructing nearly $6 million worth of paving work, which is a major step in the right direction to repairing our City’s roadway system.”
Council also approved the adoption of an urgency ordinance to set the City’s residential eviction moratorium to expire at the same time as the State-wide eviction moratorium, which is currently set to sunset on September 30, 2021. If this date is extended by the State, the City’s residential eviction moratorium will also extend to the same date. With respect to the City’s commercial eviction moratorium, the City Council set a 6-month repayment period of October 1, 2021, through March 31, 2022, for any deferred rent. The ordinance also required commercial tenants to pay 25 percent of deferred rent by January 1, 2022, and full repayment to be completed by March 31, 2022.
If you missed the meeting, you can watch a rebroadcast any time on the City website at http://cityofgoleta.org/goletameetings or on City TV Channel 19 Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.