Chapter 9.20
SMOKING IN PUBLIC PLACES AND PLACES OF EMPLOYMENT
Sections:
9.20.005 Definitions.
9.20.010 Application to city and borough-owned facilities.
9.20.015 Prohibition of smoking in public places.
9.20.020 Prohibition of smoking in places of employment.
9.20.025 Reasonable distance.
9.20.030 Where smoking is not regulated.
9.20.035 Declaration of establishment as nonsmoking—Prohibition of children in places where smoking is permitted.
9.20.040 Posting of signs.
9.20.045 Mineralization.
9.20.050 Enforcement.
9.20.055 Violations and penalties.
9.20.060 Other applicable laws.
9.20.070 Popular name.
9.20.005 Definitions.
The following words and phrases, whenever used in this chapter, shall be construed as defined in this section:
A. “Business” means a 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.
B. “Employee” means a person who is employed by an employer in consideration for direct or indirect monetary wages or profit.
C. “Employer” means a person, business, partnership, association, corporation, including a municipal corporation, trust, or nonprofit entity, that employs the services of one or more individual persons.
D. “Enclosed area” means all space between a floor and ceiling that is enclosed on all sides by solid walls or windows (exclusive of doorways), which extend from the floor to the ceiling.
E. “Health care facility” means an office or institution providing care or treatment of diseases, whether physical, mental, or emotional, or other medical, physiological, or psychological conditions, including, but not limited to, hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals or other clinics, including weight control clinics, nursing homes, homes for the aging or chronically ill, laboratories, and offices of surgeons, chiropractors, physical therapists, physicians, dentists, and all specialists within these professions. This definition shall include all waiting rooms, hallways, private rooms, semiprivate rooms, and wards within health care facilities.
F. “Place of employment” means an area under the control of a public or private employer that employees normally frequent during the course of employment, including, but not limited to, work areas, employee lounges, restrooms, conference rooms, meeting rooms, classrooms, employee cafeterias, hallways, and vehicles. A private residence is not a “place of employment” unless it is used as a child care, adult day care, or health care facility.
G. “Public place” means an enclosed area to which the public is invited or in which the public is permitted, including, but not limited to, banks, educational facilities, health care facilities, laundromats, public transportation facilities, reception areas, restaurants, retail food production and marketing establishments, retail service establishments, retail stores, shopping malls, sports arenas, theaters, and waiting rooms. A private residence is not a “public place” unless it is used as a child care, adult day care, or health care facility.
H. “Restaurant” means an eating establishment, including, but not limited to, coffee shops, cafeterias, sandwich stands, and private and public school cafeterias, which gives or offers for sale food to the public, guests, or employees, as well as kitchens and catering facilities in which food is prepared on the premises for serving elsewhere.
I. “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.
J. “Service line” means an indoor line in which one or more persons are waiting for or receiving service of any kind, whether or not the service involves the exchange of money.
K. “Shopping mall” means an enclosed public walkway or hall area that serves to connect retail or professional establishments.
L. “Smoking” means inhaling, exhaling, burning, or carrying any lighted tobacco product in any form, with the exemption of religious ceremonies.
M. “Sports arena” means sports pavilions, stadiums, gymnasiums, health spas, boxing arenas, swimming pools, roller and ice rinks, bowling alleys, and other similar enclosed places where members of the general public assemble to engage in physical exercise, participate in athletic competition, or witness sports or other events.
(Ord. 05-29 § 4 (part), 2005.)
9.20.010 Application to city and borough-owned facilities.
All enclosed facilities, including buildings and vehicles owned, leased, or operated by the city and borough of Sitka shall be subject to the provisions of this chapter. (Ord. 05-29 § 4 (part), 2005.)
9.20.015 Prohibition of smoking in public places.
Smoking shall be prohibited in all enclosed public places within the city and borough of Sitka including, but not limited to, the following places:
A. Aquariums, fish hatcheries, galleries, libraries, and museums.
B. Areas available to and customarily used by the general public in businesses and nonprofit entities patronized by the public, including, but not limited to, professional offices, banks, laundromats, hotels, and motels.
C. Areas and/or buildings that host youth agencies.
D. Bingo facilities.
E. Convention facilities.
F. Elevators.
G. Facilities primarily used for exhibiting a motion picture, stage, drama, lecture, musical recital, or other similar performance.
H. Health care facilities.
I. Licensed child care and adult day care facilities.
J. Lobbies, hallways, and other common areas in apartment buildings, condominiums, trailer parks, retirement facilities, nursing homes, and other multiple-unit residential facilities.
K. Polling places.
L. Public transportation facilities, including buses and taxicabs, under the authority of the city and borough of Sitka and ticket, boarding, and waiting areas of public transit depots.
M. Restaurants.
N. Restrooms, lobbies, reception areas, hallways, and other common-use areas.
O. Retail stores.
P. Rooms, chambers, places of meeting or public assembly, including school buildings, under the control of an agency, board, commission, committee or council of the city and borough of Sitka or a political subdivision of the state when a public meeting is in progress, to the extent the place is subject to the jurisdiction of the city and borough of Sitka.
Q. Service lines.
R. Shopping malls.
S. Sports arenas, including enclosed places in outdoor arenas.
T. Vessels inspected by the U.S. Coast Guard which are day boats with no overnight accommodations and are larger in capacity than a “six-pack” but have a capacity of less than one hundred fifty passengers.
(Ord. 05-29 § 4 (part), 2005.)
9.20.020 Prohibition of smoking in places of employment.
A. Smoking shall be prohibited in all enclosed facilities within places of employment without exception. This includes common work areas, auditoriums, classrooms, conference and meeting rooms, private offices, elevators, hallways, medical facilities, cafeterias, employee lounges, stairs, restrooms, vehicles, and all other enclosed facilities.
B. This prohibition on smoking shall be communicated to all existing employees by the effective date of the ordinance codified in this chapter and to all prospective employees upon their application for employment.
(Ord. 05-29 § 4 (part), 2005.)
9.20.025 Reasonable distance.
Smoking shall be prohibited near entrances, windows and ventilation systems of all work sites of public places where smoking is prohibited by this regulation. Any individual who owns, manages, operates or otherwise controls the use of any premises subject to jurisdiction under this regulation shall establish a no smoking area which extends a reasonable distance from any entrance, windows and ventilation systems to any enclosed area where smoking is prohibited; such reasonable distance shall be a distance sufficient to ensure that persons entering or leaving the building or facility shall not be subjected to breathing tobacco smoke and to ensure that tobacco smoke does not enter the building or facility through entrances, windows, ventilation systems or any other means. All smoking trash receptacles shall be placed outside the no smoking area in order to discourage smoking within the established boundaries. (Ord. 05-29 § 4 (part), 2005.)
9.20.030 Where smoking is not regulated.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter to the contrary, the following areas shall be exempt from the provisions of Sections 9.20.015 and 9.20.020:
A. Private residences, except when used as a licensed child care, adult day care, or health care facility.
B. Private vehicles.
C. Marine vessels, except vessels inspected by the U.S. Coast Guard which are day boats with no overnight accommodations and are larger in capacity than a “six-pack” but have a capacity of less than one hundred fifty passengers.
D. Hotel and motel rooms that are rented to guests and are designated as smoking rooms; provided, however, that not more than twenty percent of rooms rented to guests in a hotel or motel may be so designated.
E. Private and semiprivate rooms in nursing homes and long-term care facilities that are occupied by one or more persons, all of whom are smokers and have requested in writing to be placed in a room where smoking is permitted.
F. Outdoor areas of places of employment except those covered by the provisions of Section 9.20.025.
G. Any bar, defined as an establishment that 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 those beverages, as long as such bar is in a “stand-alone building” and the bar shares no common entries, exits, or internal doors with any public places subject to Sections 9.20.015 and 9.20.020.
H. Private clubs, including but not limited to the Elks, Moose, and American Legion, as long as each such private club is in a “stand-alone building” and the private club shares no common entries, exits, or internal doors with any public places subject to Sections 9.20.015 and 9.20.020.
(Ord. 05-29 § 4 (part), 2005.)
9.20.035 Declaration of establishment as nonsmoking—Prohibition of children in places where smoking is permitted.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, an owner, operator, manager, or other person in control of an establishment, facility, or outdoor area may declare that entire establishment, facility, or outdoor area as a nonsmoking place. Smoking shall be prohibited in any place in which a sign conforming to the requirements of Section 9.20.040 is posted. Children under the age of eighteen shall not be permitted in any place of employment under Section 9.20.020, or club or bar where smoking is allowed under Section 9.20.030(G) and (H). Furthermore, no cessation of smoking within the smoking facility shall render this section inapplicable unless such facility permanently deems and declares themselves to be a nonsmoking facility. Once the declaration of an establishment, facility, or outdoor area as smoking has been made under this section, it shall not be changed for temporary or special functions. (Ord. 14-02 § 4, 2014: Ord. 05-29 § 4 (part), 2005.)
9.20.040 Posting of signs.
A. “No Smoking” signs 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 and conspicuously posted in every public place and place of employment where smoking is prohibited by this chapter by the owner, operator, manager, or other person in control of that place.
B. Every public place and place of employment where smoking is prohibited by this chapter shall have posted at every exterior entrance a conspicuous sign clearly stating that smoking is prohibited.
(Ord. 05-29 § 4 (part), 2005.)
9.20.045 Nonretaliation.
No person or employer shall discharge, refuse to hire, or in any manner retaliate against an employee, applicant for employment, or customer because that employee, applicant, or customer exercises any rights afforded by this chapter or reports or attempts to prosecute a violation of this chapter. (Ord. 05-29 § 4 (part), 2005.)
9.20.050 Enforcement.
A. This chapter shall be enforced by the Sitka police department or by other officials so authorized by the city and borough administrator.
B. Notice of the provisions of this chapter shall be given to all applicants for a business license in the city and borough of Sitka.
C. Any citizen who desires to register a complaint under this chapter may request/solicit enforcement from/with the Sitka police department.
D. The public works department, fire department, or their designees shall, while an establishment is undergoing otherwise mandated inspections, inspect for compliance with this chapter.
E. An owner, manager, operator, or employee of an establishment regulated by this chapter shall inform persons violating this chapter of the appropriate provisions thereof.
F. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, an employee or private citizen may bring legal action to enforce this chapter.
G. In addition to the remedies provided by the provisions of this section, the city and borough administrator or any person aggrieved by the failure of the owner, operator, manager, or other person in control of a public place or a place of employment to comply with the provisions of this chapter may apply for injunctive relief to enforce those provisions in any court of competent jurisdiction.
(Ord. 05-29 § 4 (part), 2005.)
9.20.055 Violations and penalties.
A. A person who smokes in an area where smoking is prohibited by the provisions of this chapter shall be guilty of an infraction, punishable by a fine not exceeding fifty dollars.
B. A person who owns, manages, operates, or otherwise controls a public place or place of employment and who willfully fails to comply with the provisions of this chapter shall be guilty of an infraction, punishable by:
1. A fine not exceeding one hundred dollars for a first violation.
2. A fine not exceeding two hundred dollars for a second violation within one year.
3. A fine not exceeding three hundred dollars for each additional violation within one year.
C. Each day on which a violation of this chapter occurs shall be considered a separate and distinct violation.
(Ord. 05-29 § 4 (part), 2005.)