Last Updated: 4:43 p.m.
Mirroring Flagler Beach, which passed a similar ordinance two years ago, the Flagler County Commission today approved on first reading a prohibition on smoking or vaping in any public park or public recreation area, with a notable exception: unfiltered cigars. While the ban applies to county-owned portions of the beach, it does not apply in most portions.
The proposed ordinance passed with little discussion on a unanimous vote of the commission. Second reading is expected in two weeks. The prohibition will be in effect shortly after that. It does not apply in Palm Coast parks, where Tobacco-Free Flagler’s educational signs encourage non-smoking, but without the authority of an ordinance.
Forrest Hahn, the father of four and president of Flagler Babe Ruth baseball, commended commissioners for the ordinance, which he had encouraged two years ago. “to help protect our athletes in Flagler,” he said. Terry Williams of Tobacco-Free Flagler was also grateful, reflecting on the considerable work necessary to get the commission to this point. “It seems like it was something that was never going to happen, and I’m just glad to see it has,” she said. “Palm Coast I’m working on, and will keep working on. But I just thank you. It’s a hard thing to get done. I don’t know why, but it’s been difficult.”
While the ban will apply on portions of county-owned beach, such as Jungle Hut Road, Bay Park, 16th Road and Varn Park, an earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that the ban also extended to the remaining portions of the beach. It does not: those portions are privately owned up to the mean high water mark, while the rest of the beach is state owned, so the county’s ban would not apply there. County Attorney Al Hadeed called it an “anomaly,” especially since the intent of the state law was to help localities keep their beaches cleaner of discarded smoking materials.
Spaces where people could smoke have been shrinking since the 1985 Florida Clean Air Act, which prohibited smoking in places such as government buildings, elevators, public transportation, hospitals, day care centers, stairwells and lobbies while preserving designated smoking places, including in restaurants and public arenas. Voters in 2002 eliminated all indoor workplace smoking, and in 2018 extended the ban to vaping in indoor workspaces. In early 2022, lawmakers passed a bill allowing local governments to extend the ban to public parks or the state’s 825 miles of beaches–with that cigar exception.
Different explanations have been given for the exception. When Flagler Beach passed its ban in 2022, the city clerk said it did not apply to cigars because cigars don’t leave polluting filters behind, as cigarette butts do, hence the prohibition on filtered cigars. But the Tampa Bay Times reported last year that the cigar exception was a political maneuver to save the bill from getting killed by cigar lovers.
“State Rep. Randy Fine, a Brevard County Republican who sponsored the 2022 bill that became law, said he initially wanted to allow local governments to ban all forms of smoking,” the paper reported. “After pushback from colleagues who he described as ‘fans of the cigar industry,’ he said he agreed to create the carveout. He knew previous efforts to pass such a law had failed, and he didn’t want an insistence on allowing cigar bans to kill his.” The same exemption was carved into the Senate version of the bill because Sen. Jason Brodeur, the paper reported, had said that if campers at county parks could burn campfires, they should be able to smoke cigars.
The Flagler County prohibition goes further than Flagler Beach’s. That city’s ordinance was silent on vaping and marijuana. The county’s ordinance will not be. The county ban applies to “cigarettes, filtered cigars, or pipes, or use [of] any other devices to inhale smoke from burning tobacco products or to inhale vapor from vapor-generating electronic devices,” the ordinance’s wording reads, “unless such activities occur in an area designated for smoking or use of vapor-generating electronic device by posted signage. Provided however, this
prohibition does not apply to the smoking of unfiltered cigars.”
County Commissioner Donald O’Brien noted the wording’s silence on marijuana. If voters approve the recreational marijuana amendment proposed on the November ballot, “I want to make sure we have language in here that prevents the smoking or vaping of marijuana,” O’Brien said. That wording will be added. “Nothing legally that stop us from including it now,” County Attorney Al Hadeed said.
“Even when it’s legal, it’ll be illegal at the federal level, right?” Commissioner Leann Pennington said. It is illegal now, though FBI agents are not exactly crawling public parks and beaches to catch smokers in the act (there are no records of such dragnets in recent years), and the federal government is preparing to reclassify marijuana as what would amount to an over-the-counter medicine like Tylenol, leaving it to the 26 states where it is currently illegal to decide how to regulate it. In Florida, only medical marijuana is legal. A ballot proposal in November requires approval from 60 percent of voters to legalize recreational marijuana.
Nevertheless, it’s been illegal to smoke even medical marijuana in Florida’s public outdoor settings or in indoor workplaces–including such public settings as streets or sidewalks.
As for Palm Coast, “I would imagine that would have to be something that would have to be initiated by City Council,” a city spokesperson said today.
Jay Tomm says
Why are cigars exempt? Vaping harms no one else, also why is that banned? Seems to be more woke lib polices creeping into Flagler to me!
Sally says
Why not cigars???????????????????????????????? It’s still a MANS WORLD when rules are made like this. It’s sounds like discrimination at its best.
Jane K says
Cigars??? Ludicrous !
John McDonnell says
Why not cigars? What was the rationale for not prohibiting cigar smoking? Totally ridiculous!!
The Sour Kraut says
Cigars stink worse than anything else! Ban them from the beach to give residents and visitors a more pleasant beach experience!
Laurel says
Fine with me, smoking cigarettes is a drug addiction, so we don’t need to be exposed to it by having to breath it. I hate it when people use the beach as an ashtray.
The cigar thing is favoritism. Those things can take your breath away even from a distance! Ugh! A very small minority gets the carve out? I wonder if more people will start smoking cigars.
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
Yes on 3!
Kat says
Cigars are the most noxious secondhand smoke that there is, count on our legislature to vote for their own interest above ours. God forbid we wouldn’t want to alienate a cigar, loving lawmaker.
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
Vaping? No way. Smoking a literal piece of dogshit wrapped in a tobacco leaf? Sure, puff away like daddy warbucks.
Deborah Coffey says
Wokers GIVE freedoms; they don’t take them away.
Deborah Coffey says
The only reason I can think of is that someone on the Commission has a relative in the cigar business. It’s like the benches all across sidewalks in Palm Coast where no one ever walks and certainly never sits on.
Please read says
Read the article. The state law doesn’t allow for them to include cigars.
The Sour Kraut says
Do it in your home and don’t leave until you are straight. Like that is going to happen.
Deez Nutz says
Ok cool. So cannabis rolled inside of a cigar is still ok since it’s considered a cigar. Phewww!
Bob Ziolkowski says
Pipes are just like cigars but those are not permitted?! And yes, cigars are the worst…I hated them when I was a cig smoker many years ago. Cigar favoritism is real though. I took 6 complaints here at my condo to get the person below me to stop puffing on his balcony, bit if it was a cig he was smoking they would have called out the firing squad and evicted his dead body.
YankeeExPat says
Excuse me Mr. Bronkowitz, that’s Donkey Shit!
What next ? says
I can see the hear to the Sheriffs Office now.
Ed P says
I walk my dog daily on the beach, rarely missing a day, rain or shine.
I’m wondering if there are bigger issues to legislate. Or maybe not legislate.
Back in 1971, The 5 Man Electrical Band gave us a glimpse into the future with their song- Signs
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
Reread the article why cigars are exempt, then tell us how it’s such “more woke lib polices creeping into Flagler to me!”
Jane Gentile Youd says
Insanity is the new norm in Flagler County !
Jackie says
Please voters this should tell you who needs to be voted out of office. They make up rules for their own benefits not the publics.
HayRide says
I am not a smoker, but this has got to be one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard
CourruptingFlagler says
Thats a bet, ill be smoking my black n milds in the parks with no repercussions(since they technically are a cigar) but may the world fall apart and if a blue raspberry vape get blown into the wind
Skibum says
The comment by Terry Williams of Tobacco-Free Flagler got my attention. He said of the new smoking ordinance “It’s a hard thing to get done. I don’t know why, but it’s been difficult.” Well, Terry, I’ll tell you why. Florida is 30 years behind the curve on everything.
You have got to be kidding says
Yes on 3 ! Then we can legally have home rolled “cigars” affecting everybody else to make them “feel better”
Linda R Morgan says
I think of that song often. “do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the signs?”
T says
Cause the rich smoke them so it’s ok
T says
Uneducated it sucks I know you should learn.
T says
The rich when again they get there cigars republicans calming to save freedoms then take them away
Read article says
The state would not allow cigars to be banned.
DMFinFlorida says
@ Skibum 30 years behind, or doing everything possible to drag us back another 20 beyond that!
Pat Stote says
Funny, I think of that I’m off every day