La Quinta Municipal Code Ch. 6.18 Smoking in Public Places

A. "Bar" means an area which is devoted to the serving of alcoholic beverages for consumption by guests on the premises and in which the serving of food is only incidental to the consumption of such beverages. Although a restaurant may contain a bar, the term "bar" shall not include the restaurant dining area.

B. "Business" means any sole proprietorship, partnership, joint venture, corporation or other business entity formed for profit-making purposes, including retail establishments where goods or services are sold as well as professional corporations and other entities where legal, medical, dental, engineering, architectural or other professional services are delivered.

C. "Dining area" means any enclosed area containing a counter or tables upon which meals are served.

D. "Employee" means any person who is employed by any employer in the consideration for direct or indirect monetary wages or profit, and any person who volunteers his or her services for a nonprofit entity.

E. "Employer" means any person, partnership, corporation, including a municipal corporation, or nonprofit entity, who employs the services of one (1) or more individual persons.

F. "Enclosed area" means all space between a floor and ceiling which is enclosed on all sides by solid walls or windows (exclusive of door or passage ways) which extend from the floor to the ceiling, including all spaces therein screened by partitions which do not extend to the ceiling or are not solid, office landscaping or similar structures.

G. "Motion picture theatre" means any theater engaged in the business of exhibiting motion pictures.

H. "Nonprofit entity" means any corporation, unincorporated association or other entity created for charitable, philanthropic, educational, character building, political, social or other similar purposes, the net proceeds from the operations of which are committed to the promotion of the objects or purposes of the organization and not to private financial gain. A public agency is not a "nonprofit entity" within the meaning of this section.

I. "Place of employment" means any enclosed area under the control of a public or private employer which employees normally frequent during the course of employment including, but not limited to, work areas, employee lounges and restrooms, conference and classrooms, employee cafeterias and hallways. A private residence is not a place of employment for the purposes of this chapter unless it is used as a child care or health care facility. The dining area of a restaurant is not a "place of employment" for the purposes of this chapter. J. "Public place" means any enclosed area to which the public is invited or in which the public is permitted, including but not limited to, banks, educational facilities, health facilities, public transportation facilities, reception areas, restaurants, retail food production and marketing establishments, retail service establishments, retail stores, theatres and waiting rooms. A private residence is not a "public place."

K. "Restaurant" means any coffee shop, cafeteria, sandwich stand, private or public school cafeteria, and any other eating establishment which gives or offers for sale food to the public, guests, or employees, as well as kitchens in which food is prepared on the premises for serving elsewhere, including catering facilities, except that the term restaurant shall not include a cocktail lounge or tavern if said cocktail lounge or tavern is a bar as defined in subsection A of this section.

L. "Retail tobacco store" means a retail store utilized primarily for the sale of tobacco products and accessories and in which the sale of other products is merely incidental.

M. "Service line" means any indoor line at which one (1) or more persons are waiting for or receiving service of any kind, whether or not such service involves the exchange of money.

N. "Smoking" means inhaling, exhaling, burning or carrying any lighted cigar, cigarette, weed, plant or other combustible substance in any manner or in any form.

O. "Sports arena" means sports pavilions, gymnasiums health spas, boxing arenas, swimming pools, roller and ice rinks, bowling alleys and other similar places where members of the general public assemble either to engage in physical exercise, participate in athletic competition or witness sports events.

(Ord. 200 § 1, 1992)

All enclosed facilities owned by the city of La Quinta shall be subject to the provisions of this chapter.

(Ord. 200 § 1, 1992)

Smoking shall be prohibited in all enclosed public places within the city of La Quinta, including, but not limited to, the following places, and with the following exceptions:

1. Elevators;

2. Buses, taxicabs, and other means of public transit under the authority of the city of La Quinta, and ticket, boarding, and waiting areas of public transit depots; provided, however, that this prohibition does not prevent the establishment of a maximum of twenty-five percent (25%) of a given waiting room as a smoking area;

3. Restrooms;

4. Service lines;

5. Retail stores, except areas in said stores not open to the public and all areas within retail tobacco stores;

6. All areas available to and customarily used by the general public in all business and nonprofit entities patronized by the public, including but not limited to, attorneys' offices, banks and other offices;

7. Public areas of aquariums, galleries, libraries and museums when open to the public;

8. Any building not open to the sky which is primarily used for exhibiting any motion picture, stage, drama, lecture, musical recital or other similar performance, except when smoking is part of a stage production;

9. Sports arenas and convention halls, except in designated smoking areas;

10. Every room, place of meeting or public assembly, including school buildings under the control of any board, council, commission, committee, including joint committees, or agencies of the city of La Quinta or any political subdivision of the state during such time as a public meeting is in progress, to the extent such place is subject to the jurisdiction of the city;

11. Waiting rooms, hallways, wards and semiprivate rooms of health care facilities, including, but not limited to, hospitals, clinics, physical therapy facilities, doctors' offices and dentists' offices. In bed space areas of health facilities used for two (2) or more patients, smoking shall be prohibited unless all patients within the room are smokers and request in writing upon the health care facility's admission forms to be placed in a room where smoking is permitted;

12. Polling places;

13. Restaurants, subject to the provisions of Section 6.18.045.

(Ord. 205 § 1, 1992; Ord. 200 § 1, 1992)

A. It shall be the responsibility of employers to provide smoke-free areas for nonsmoking employees within existing facilities to the maximum extent possible, but employers are not required to incur any expense to make structural or other physical modifications in providing such smoke-free areas.

B. Within ninety (90) days of the effective date of the ordinance codified in this chapter, each employer having an enclosed place of employment located within the city shall adopt, implement, make known and maintain a written smoking policy which shall contain at a minimum the following requirements:

1. Smoking shall be prohibited in all common work areas in a place of employment, unless every person who works in that area agrees in writing that a smoking area will be designated.

2. Smoking shall be prohibited in auditoriums, classrooms, conference and meeting rooms, elevators, hallways, health or medical facilities and restrooms.

3. Separate and contiguous nonsmoking areas of not less than seventy-five percent (75%) of the seating capacity and floor space shall be provided and maintained in cafeterias, lunchrooms and employee lounges or provision and maintenance of separate and equal sized cafeterias, lunchrooms and employee lounges for smokers and nonsmokers.

4. In any dispute arising under the smoking policy, the health concerns of the nonsmoker shall be given precedence.

5. In the event that any nonsmoking employee finds that the employer's policy, as implemented for that particular employee, does not provide that employee with a smoke-free environment in that employee's immediate work area, that employee may make a written request to the employer to provide a smoke-free immediate work area. Within sixty (60) days of receiving such written request, the employer shall provide that employee with a smoke-free environment in that employee's immediate work area. The employer may choose the manner in which it makes available the smoke-free work area and may use, at the discretion of the employer, one (1) or more measures including, without limitation, reassignment of the employee to a different work area, installing appropriate air filtering or ventilation systems, providing the employee with an enclosed work area, or prohibiting smoking by other employees whose ambient smoke enters the employee's immediate work area. If the employer cannot implement a system which is satisfactory to all affected non-smoking employees, the preferences of the non-smoking employees shall prevail and the employer shall prohibit smoking in the workplace.

C. The smoking policy shall be communicated to all employees within three (3) weeks of its adoption, and not less than annually thereafter.

D. All employers shall supply a written copy of the smoking policy upon request to any existing or prospective employee.

E. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, every employer shall have the right to designate any place of employment, or any portion thereof, as a nonsmoking area.

(Ord. 200 § 1, 1992)

A. All restaurants shall maintain a nonsmoking enclosed serving area of not less than (i) fifty percent (50%) as of September 1, 1992 and (ii) seventy-five percent (75%) as of September 1, 1995. Alternatively, all restaurants may provide separate rooms for smokers and nonsmokers provided that the rooms designated for smoking do not contain less than the stated above percentages and time frames. Notwithstanding the above, restaurants may allow smoking in private dining areas which shall be defined as a confined area or areas occupied on a reserve-only basis.

B. No ashtrays may be located upon any table in the nonsmoking area. Patrons shall be advised prior to being seated of their right to be seated in either the smoking or nonsmoking section of the restaurant.

C. This Section 6.18.045 shall become operative September 1, 1992.

(Ord. 205 § 2, 1992)

A. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter to the contrary, the following areas shall not be subject to the smoking restrictions of this chapter:

1. Bars;

2. Private residences, except when used as a child care or health care facility;

3. Hotel and motel rooms rented to guests;

4. Tobacco retail stores;

5. Hotel and motel conference or meeting rooms and public and private assembly rooms while these places are being used for private functions.

B. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section, any owner, operator, manager or other person who controls any establishment described in this section may declare that entire establishment a nonsmoking establishment.

(Ord. 205 § 3, 1992; Ord. 200 § 1, 1992)

A. Smoking or No Smoking signs, whichever are appropriate, with letters of not less than one (1) inch in height or the international No Smoking symbol (consisting of a pictorial representation of a burning cigarette enclosed in a red circle with a red bar across it) shall be clearly, sufficiently and conspicuously posted in every building or other place where smoking is regulated by this chapter, by the owner, operator, manager or other person having control of such building or other place.

B. Every theatre owner, manager or operator shall conspicuously post signs in the lobby stating that smoking is prohibited within the theatre or auditorium, and in the case of motion picture theatres, such information shall be shown upon the screen for at least five (5) seconds prior to the showing of each feature motion picture.

(Ord. 200 § 1, 1992)

A. It shall be unlawful for any person who owns, manages, operates or otherwise controls the use of any premises subject to regulation under this chapter to fail to comply with any of its provisions.

B. It shall be unlawful for any person to smoke in any area where smoking is prohibited by the provisions of this chapter.

C. Any person who violates any provision of this chapter shall be guilty of an infraction pursuant to Chapter 1.01.200 of this code.

(Ord. 200 § 1, 1992)

No person or employer shall discharge, refuse to hire or in any manner retaliate against any employee or applicant for employment because such employee or applicant exercises any rights afforded by this chapter.

(Ord. 200 § 1, 1992)

The city manager shall annually request other governmental and educational agencies having facilities within the city to establish local operating procedures in cooperation and compliance with this chapter.

(Ord. 200 § 1, 1992)

This chapter 6.18 shall not be interpreted or construed to permit smoking where it is otherwise restricted by other applicable laws.

(Ord. 200 § 1, 1992)

The city manager shall develop a program to inform citizens of the provisions of this Chapter 6.18 and to assist owners, operators and managers to comply.

(Ord. 200 § 1, 1992)