After months of research and debate, Turlock officials seem poised to enact a controversial smoking ban. There’s just one problem: They already did.
The city has been wrangling over a proposed smoking ban in public parks since a group of girl scouts requested it in August. But, this week, officials learned that the council had already enacted such a ban back in 2003. They just forgot it existed.
Turlock spokesman Maryn Pitt is blaming the snafu on personnel changes.
“We’ve had a great deal of turnover of our managers when this policy, which was part of a comprehensive package, was proposed,” Pitt said.
Though the law has been on the books for more than a decade, it went largely unenforced. While park signs make mention of littering and Crime Stoppers, No Smoking signs were apparently never put up and the ban faded from memory.
Red-faced officials now say they’ll review the policy and possibly vote to reaffirm it. They’ll also consider adding e-cigarettes to the ban. Those are relatively new, so we’re pretty sure that hasn’t been done before.
Read more about Turlock’s forgotten smoking ban here.