Marin County Municipal Code Ch. 6.09 Prohibition of Alcohol Beverage Sponsorship and Sponsorship Signs Of…

The primary purposes of this ordinance are to promote the health, welfare and safety of persons under twenty-one years of age exposed to certain publicly visible sponsorship and sponsorship signage of alcoholic beverages and to project a wholesome, family-oriented image that does not promote the purchase or consumption of alcoholic beverages at the Marin County Fair by persons less than twenty-one years of age.

(Ord. 3444 § 1 (part), 2006)

The board of supervisors of the county of Marin, after completing a legally noticed public hearing, finds the following:

(a) WHEREAS, Sections 25658 and 25658.5 of the State of California Business and Professions Code makes it unlawful for a person under the age of twenty-one years to purchase or attempt to purchase alcoholic beverages and makes it unlawful for any person to sell any alcoholic beverage to any person under the age of twenty-one years;

(b) WHEREAS, according to local, state and federal surveys, alcohol is overwhelmingly and consistently the most widely used drug at all adolescent age levels. A child who begins alcohol use prior to age fourteen is four times as likely to experience alcohol dependence than one who refrains from alcohol use until age twenty or older;

(c) WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court has recognized repeatedly that children deserve special solicitude because they lack the ability to assess and analyze fully the information presented through commercial media. Although much of the case law specifically deals with obscenity, it is clear that children deserve special solicitude on issues including alcohol advertising;

(d) WHEREAS, the federal courts and independent studies have recognized that there is a positive relationship between both alcoholic beverage advertising and consumption of the advertised products;

(e) WHEREAS, an extensive set of research studies supports the federal courts' judicial notice that alcoholic beverage advertising may predispose young people to drinking. These and other studies have shown that:

(1) Male youth with greater exposure to alcohol advertisements in magazines, on television, and at sporting and music events are more aware of the advertising and more likely to remember the advertisements they had seen.

(2) Youth who are more aware of televised beer advertisements hold more favorable views on drinking and express intentions to drink more often as adults than do children who are less aware of these ads;

(f) WHEREAS, $1.9 billion was spent on alcohol advertising in measured media (television, radio, print, outdoor, major newspapers and Sunday supplements) in 2002, and, working from alcohol company documents submitted to them, the Federal Trade Commission estimated in 1999 that the alcohol industry's total expenditures to promote alcohol (including through sponsorship, Internet advertising, point-of-sale materials, product placement, brand-logoed items and other means) were three or more times its expenditures for measured media advertising, suggesting that the alcohol industry spent a total of $5.7 billion or more on advertising and promotion in 2002;

(g) WHEREAS, outdoor alcohol advertising, alcohol sponsorship, and alcohol sponsorship signs are unique and distinguishable types of product promotion and brand marketing that subject the public to involuntary and unavoidable forms of solicitation;

(h) WHEREAS, alcohol sponsorship and signage are permitted at certain events held in public places in the county of Marin including municipally sponsored events such as the Marin County Fair; persons under the age of twenty-one years attend events held in public areas, including municipality-sponsored events; sponsorship and signage at these events subject children attending these events to a high degree of involuntary and unavoidable forms of solicitation; sponsorship signs appear at events in public places in publicly visible locations, including, but not limited to, sides of tents, event stages, signs attached to poles, posts or other figures, and freestanding signboards. Sponsorship signs also appear at events in the form of logo-identified staff, stage sponsorship, and giveaways, and there is no practical way for parents to monitor or limit the exposure of their children to the sponsorship signs at these events; and, accordingly, children attending these events are inundated with sponsorship signs simply by attending the events;

(i) WHEREAS, this ordinance does not attempt to enact such a blanket ban on advertising of alcohol as was prohibited in the U.S. Supreme Court case 44 Liquormart v. Rhode Island and thus leaves advertisers with numerous alternative venues available to them, including but not limited to sponsorship of events on private property, television, radio, magazines, newspapers, and point-of-sale;

(j) WHEREAS, this ordinance only restricts the "time, place and manner" of alcoholic beverage sponsorship and sponsorship signs at the municipally-sponsored Marin County Fair, which is attended by a significant number of persons under the age of twenty-one years (estimated to be over twenty-five thousand annually); it does not directly regulate the sale of alcohol and does not unduly burden legitimate business activities or persons licensed by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to sell alcoholic beverages;

(k) WHEREAS, the county of Marin has made numerous and substantial efforts to enforce underage drinking laws; yet, despite these efforts, alcohol use by Marin County's youth remains a serious problem in the county, contributing significantly to the incidence of adolescent crime, addiction, sexual assault, and driving after drinking;

(l) WHEREAS, the county of Marin affirmatively opposes the acceptance of alcohol sponsorship and sponsorship signs in connection with the municipality-sponsored Marin County Fair, where persons under the age of twenty-one years are admitted;

(m) WHEREAS, Healthy Marin Partnership, Marin County Office of Education, Bay Area Community Resources, Marin County Drinking Driver Program and Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol Program Youth Coalitions strongly endorse a restriction on alcohol industry sponsorship and alcohol industry sponsorship signs at the Marin County Fair as a means to promote consistent educational messages to children and to reduce youth alcohol-related problems; and

(n) WHEREAS, the county of Marin board of supervisors therefore determines that this ordinance regulating alcohol beverage sponsorship and alcohol beverage sponsorship signs at the Marin County Fair is a reasonable and necessary means to protect and promote the health, safety, and general welfare of the youth of the county of Marin.

(Ord. 3444 § 1 (part), 2006)

(a) "Alcoholic beverage" means alcohol, or any beverage containing more than one-half of one percent of alcohol by volume, which is capable of use for beverage purposes, either alone or when diluted.

(b) "Marin County Fair" means the annual Marin County Fair traditionally held over the fourth of July at the publicly-owned Marin County Fairgrounds located adjacent to the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, CA.

(c) "Member of the alcoholic beverage industry" includes licensed manufacturers, brewers, distillers, distributors, wholesalers, and sellers of alcoholic beverages.

(d) "Sponsorship" means a business arrangement between the county of Marin or an event organizer under contract with the county, on the one hand, and a member of the alcoholic beverage industry, on the other, whereby the member of the alcoholic beverage industry contributes funds, goods, or services to an event to be held at the Marin County Fair in return for recognition, acknowledgement, or other promotional consideration.

(e) "Sponsorship signs" means any manner of advertising, promotional, or sponsorship signage, or any representation, image, artwork, photograph, logo, graphic, device, display, regalia, insignia, indicia, design, slogan, trade name, brand name, product name, permittee or licensee name, advertising specialties, marketing services, or other materials of a member of the alcoholic beverage industry, indicating the participation of the member of the alcoholic beverage industry in the sponsorship of all or part of the Marin County Fair, including the sponsorship or naming of all or part of the event at the Marin County Fair, wherever located, whether indoor or outdoor.

(Ord. 3444 § 1 (part), 2006)

(a) No member of the alcoholic beverage industry may sponsor the Marin County Fair, erect or cause to be erected any type of alcohol beverage sponsorship signs at the Marin County Fair.

(Ord. 3444 § 1 (part), 2006)

(a) Any person or business entity that violates any provision of this ordinance shall be guilty of an infraction and, upon a finding of such a violation by the county administrative officer or his/her designee, shall be subject to administrative assessment of civil penalties.

(b) Causing, permitting, aiding, abetting or concealing a violation of any provision of this ordinance shall constitute a violation of such provision.

(c) Each day of violation is a separate offense.

(d) Penalties for violations are as follows. First violation: five hundred dollars, with an additional fifty dollars per day for each day that the violation continues. Second violation: one thousand dollars, with an additional one hundred dollars per day for each day the violation continues. Third and subsequent violations: two thousand dollars, with an additional two hundred dollars per day for each day the violation continues.

(e) In addition to the other remedies provided in this section, any violation of the ordinance codified in this chapter may be enforced by a civil action brought by the county of Marin. In such action, county may seek, and the court shall grant, as appropriate, any or all of the following remedies:

(1) A temporary and/or permanent injunction;

(2) Assessment of the violator for costs of any investigation, inspection, or monitoring survey that led to the establishment of the violation, including but not limited to reasonable costs of preparing and bringing legal action under this subsection, and attorney fees;

(3) Costs incurred in removing, correcting, or terminating the adverse effects resulting from the violation;

(4) A finding, after two or more violations of this ordinance involving the same sponsorship sign, that the sponsorship sign constitutes a public nuisance.

(f) Other remedies as set forth in the county of Marin Zoning Code (Title 22) shall also apply to this ordinance, if applicable.

(g) A party found in violation has a right to seek a Writ of Mandamus and/or Prohibition to the Marin Superior Court in order to obtain review of a finding of violation.

(Ord. 3444 § 1 (part), 2006)

If any provision of this section or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect any other provision or application of this section, which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this section are severable.

(Ord. 3444 § 1 (part), 2006)

The ordinance codified in this chapter shall be and is hereby declared to be in full force and effect as of thirty days from and after the date of its passage and shall be published once before the expiration of fifteen days after its passage, with the names of the supervisors voting for and against the same in the Marin Independent Journal, a newspaper of general circulation published in the County of Marin.

(Ord. 3444 § 1 (part), 2006)