County health agency funding anti-tobacco youth groups

Over the past few years, teenagers from across the San Gabriel Valley have been lobbying their cities for tougher regulations on tobacco sales.
They've formed groups such as Azusa Youth Against Smoking, Glendora Youth Against Smoking and the Alliance to Keep Youth Tobacco Free.

They attend city council meetings - presenting studies about tobacco sales to minors and pleading council members to help keep tobacco products away from children.

They put together Facebook pages, go to community events and set up booths, pass out fliers and survey residents on how they feel about youth access to tobacco.

If these groups seem like the outgrowth of a grass-roots effort against tobacco use, they aren't. And some city officials worry they are exaggerating their findings.

All of the community groups are funded by grants from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health's Tobacco Control and Prevention Program.

Linda Aragon, director of the program, said the grants of $100,000 per year are made available through Proposition 99, a tobacco tax enacted in 1988.

The goal is to convince city councils to pass ordinances requiring businesses that sell tobacco to have special licenses that cost a fee. The money col lected from the fees would be used pay for more police enforcement against stores that sell tobacco to kids under 18.

"In terms of addressing youth access to tobacco, we have eight community-based organizations working on this issue," Aragon said. "If there's not a local coalition, they develop a local coalition to address the issue."
In the San Gabriel Valley, two organizations are largely responsible for that effort.

The Search to Involve Pili pino Americans, a Fili pino- American advocacy orga nization, helped put together the Alliance to Keep Youth Tobacco Free, which operates in El Monte and West Covina. Dakota Communications, a Los Angeles-based public rela tions firm, organized the Azusa Youth Against Smoking and the Glendora Youth Against Smoking.

Aragon said she believes the "community-based" approach is more effective than if the Department of Pub lic Health were to issue adviso ries and recommendations to local cities.

"Their community is coming up to them and showing there is an alarming problem," she said. "I think it's a way to engage the community."

Fran Delach, city manager of Azusa, which has been targeted by the program, isn't so sure. He said city officials were never told Azusa Youth Against Smoking was backed by a county department.

"This mercenary-type tactic that was being used was, I think, wrong," he said. "It's not a problem that the issue be brought forward. I just think the whole way it was done was in poor taste or in poor ethics." Diego Gomez, a community organizer with the Azusa group, said he's not sure why city officials didn't make the connection.

"That's the first thing we say. On all the paperwork we have, it says we are funded by Prop. 99," he said.

Delach also had a problem with an undercover operation the group conducted that showed 44 percent of Azusa retailers were willing to sell tobacco products to minors - the highest percentage among surveyed San Gabriel Valley cit ies. The next highest city was Glendora, where 34 percent of retailers were willing to sell tobacco to minors, according to the organization's surveys. The figure in West Covina came in at 28 percent and in El Monte it was 20 percent.

But Delach didn't trust those figures. So he asked the Police Department to conduct its own study. Its findings were sub stantially lower.

"I believe it was around 20 percent," Delach said. "It was a huge difference. When the dust all settled, we don't think the problem was nearly as serious as the group claimed."

Even so, the community group's presentations to the Azusa City Council might just be working. They've swayed Mayor Joe Rocha. He said he supports the idea of requiring a $50 license to sell tobacco products in the city.

"They are people and kids who I know and trust who came forward with that infor mation," he said. "They found an uncomfortable percentage of retailers selling to minors."

Another mayor who may be coming around is Andre Quintero of El Monte. He said he's met with members of the Alliance to Keep Youth Tobacco Free and found some of their evidence compelling.

"All I know for sure is that the American Cancer Society has determined we're F-rated when it comes to tobacco poli cies," he said. Doug Tessitor, mayor of Glendora, wasn't familiar with Glendora Youth Against Smoking, despite their lobbying efforts. He said he didn't quite see the point of what they're doing.

"I think it's admirable that youth are trying to address this 'problem' - if it is a problem," he said. "Even 20 percent is too high, but I don't know why adding additional laws would change that significantly. If that isn't being enforced what makes them think this would be?"

Aragon said many cities have successfully adopted licensing for tobacco sales. In Burbank, sales to minors dropped from 26 to 4 percent after licenses were required, she said.