City Spends Months Debating Smoking Ban in Public Parks, Discovers Smoking Was Already Banned in Public Parks

In August, a troop of Turlock,
California, Girl Scouts asked the city council to consider a ban on
smoking in public parks. Months of sporadic—and occasionally
heated—debate followed. The Scouts said they were seeking the ban,
in part, to reduce
childrens’ exposure to secondhand smoke, though the girls also
asked that e-cigarettes and smokeless tobacco be included in the
ban. 

Then, last week, Parks, Recreation & Public
Facilities Superintendent Erik Schulze piped up. It turns
out smoking
in Turlock’s public parks has been illegal for more than a
decade:

“In our research over the last month we were trying to figure
out why our sports complex—the soccer fields—had a no smoking ban
but none of our other parks did. Due to our research we came across
a council resolution from back in 2003 and within that council
resolution there was a banning of smoking in parks and parking
lots—all parks and parking lots…For whatever reason after the
council took action on that item there was never any enforcement,
never any signs posted.”

Oops.

Looks like the Girl Scouts learned some valuable lessons about
local government, though perhaps not the ones their troop leaders
intended when the set out.