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Gonzales council introduces ordinance to ban flavored tobacco and single-use e-cigarettes; public hearing set for June 16
Summary
Council introduced Ordinance 2025-150 to amend the city’s tobacco retail licensing ordinance to prohibit flavored tobacco products and single-use electronic smoking products; public-health advocates supported the change and a June 16 hearing was scheduled.
The Gonzales City Council introduced Ordinance 2025-150 on June 2, which would amend the city’s Tobacco Retail Licensing ordinance to prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco products and single-use electronic smoking devices. The council set a public hearing on the measure for its June 16 meeting.
Staff read the ordinance title and asked the council to consider waiving full reading and scheduling the hearing. The ordinance is described in staff materials as an amendment to Ordinance No. 2019-115.
Kendra Howell of the Blue Zones Project spoke in support, calling the change a “straightforward opportunity” to strengthen the local ordinance and align it with county policy. “We identified it early on as a pretty straightforward opportunity as part of their work to be a Blue Zones project community,” Howell said.
Gonzalo Coronado of the Monterey County Health Department’s tobacco control program also recommended the change, saying it closes exceptions left by the 2022 state law (which had specified exceptions for hookah/shisha, premium cigars and loose-leaf pipe tobacco) and that the county and other cities have taken similar steps.
The council approved a motion to introduce the ordinance and set the public hearing for June 16; the motion carried unanimously. No changes to the ordinance were adopted on June 2; the council will hear public comments and a staff report at the scheduled hearing.
