NCTD changes no smoking rules after suit

The North County Transit District board of directors voted Thursday to tweak the agency’s no-smoking rules after being sued by an Oceanside resident who said enforcement was too lax.

The agency had two ordinances dealing with smoking — one that prohibited people from lighting up or vaping on buses, trains and district buildings and another that spelled out enforcement rules. The board unanimously voted to combine the two and to give its personnel greater discretion on whether to issue citations or just a verbal warning when they catch people smoking.

“The prohibition on smoking remains,” said Lori Winfree, an attorney for NCTD. “The only thing this modification does is consolidate the prohibition and enforcement into one ordinance and then gives code enforcement officers various methods of enforcement (such as) the ability to ask someone to put out their cigarette and leave the property.”

The agency provides Breeze bus service and Sprinter and Coaster rail services to more than 12 million passengers each year in North County.

Hoping to protect bus and train passengers from secondhand smoke, the agency adopted its smoking ban in 2008. But according to Pamela Myers, an Oceanside resident who rides the train daily on her commute to work, NCTD did little to enforce the ban.

Myers said she was routinely ignored when she asked NCTD personnel to crack down on smokers at the Oceanside Transit Center.

Two years ago, Myers sued the agency and won, alleging the agency wasn’t upholding its own rules.

She said Thursday she believes the agency has a responsibility to protect its customers from second-hand smoke, and the changes to the ordinance do the opposite, by making it easier for the district to avoid citing people.

The previous ordinance said NCTD personnel had a “duty to enforce” the smoking ban and the new ordinance says they have “the authority to enforce.”

“They are not trying to protect people,” Myers said. “They are trying to protect their legal liability. That’s what this is about.”

Officials said the agency simply doesn’t have the personnel to stop every person from smoking. Winfree said the previous ordinance was too restrictive requiring personnel to either cite or arrest a smoker. She said the new language gives NCTD employees the ability to give people verbal or written warnings.

Judy Strang, the executive director of the San Dieguito Alliance for Drug-Free Youth, said she would like to see more enforcement. She said she sent two of her grandsons to the Oceanside Transit Center several days this week and they were able to find people smoking on the premises each day.

Strang said the two were able to find enforcement officers who took action when they were notified but that those officers should be more proactive about stopping people from smoking.

Myers said secondhand smoke triggers her asthma and that she has had to be hospitalized several times. She won her suit in February and Superior Court Judge Harry Powazek awarded her $6,000.

“The court does recognize the difficulty NCTD has in enforcing the nonsmoking ordinances ... given the size of their staff and the number of properties,” Powazek wrote in his ruling. “However, the plaintiff has met her burden of proof in providing credible evidence that despite the (no smoking) signs and the additional efforts of NCTD, she continues to suffer damages as a result of her exposure to continual violations of the nonsmoking provisions and adequate enforcement.”

The agency appealed the ruling but its appeal was denied.

NCTD Executive Director Matt Tucker said the agency will continue its enforcement efforts but it is impossible to stop every single person from smoking on its properties.

“These guys (enforcement officers) are pretty busy out there,” Tucker said.