Local News in Brief : Huntington Beach : City Hall Smoking Ban Considered by Council

A policy that would essentially ban the public from smoking anywhere in City Hall except the cafeteria and stairwells is under consideration by the City Council.

Huntington Beach City Manager Paul Cook said Tuesday that he withdrew a smoking policy he had drafted from the council’s agenda because city employees who smoke “think the policy I came up with was . . . a little favorable to the nonsmokers.”

Cook said some smoking workers believed they weren’t allowed any input into the proposed rules.

So the City Council will vote on a new policy at its March 7 meeting. By then, Cook said, he will have met with smoking employees to negotiate some possible compromises.

Two years ago, Huntington Beach adopted a smoking policy in City Hall that established places for workers to smoke but let various department supervisors determine a location. Cook said those who had private offices could smoke there but “the nonsmokers felt they were still being polluted by smoke, and they felt they wanted a stronger policy.”