A tobacco compliance sweep conducted late last month by the city of Palmdale’s Neighborhood Services Department resulted in five administrative citations issued for violations of sales of tobacco products within the city.
Funded by a $435,000 tobacco law enforcement grant, the inspections were made by City staff and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Palmdale station deputies. Six retail tobacco locations were visited and citations were issued to five of the vendors for violations of single cigarette sales, expired business license, expired tobacco permit, failure to post required “We ID Under 27 for Tobacco Sales” signs, unauthorized sale of drug paraphernalia, and failure to verify required tobacco training.
“The city Palmdale is committed to conducting inspections at all 80 licensed retailers during the course of the program and will provide undercover or other types of enforcement operations for at least 75 percent of the licensed tobacco retailers,” said Sara Shreves, Community Compliance supervisor. “These operations will be chosen at random, unless there is credible information about specific retailers not following state and local ordinances. The city’s main objective is complete conformity to state and local ordinances and to prevent the illegal sale of tobacco products especially to our youth.”
The city’s Neighborhood Services Department will be overseeing the compliance program, which includes coordination between City staff, LASD, and local school districts.
For more information, call (661) 267-5181.
