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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 11, 2025 Page 3 1 Ms. Mg Linh Nguyen, Youth Advocate with Ramsey County Youth Action Team, read a 2 prepared statement. She has seen firsthand the damages of tobacco use. She is in favor of the 3 Ordinance. 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Ms. Sylvia Amos, 1918 Thomas Avenue North, is in support of the proposal. She is President of the Women's Auxiliary Baptist Convention and a Community Organizer for MN Nonsmokers. Tobacco costs the community a lot in lives and money. $824 is spent for every adult and child in MN. 6500 lives are lost every year to this deadly product. Her family has been affected by the use of menthol tobacco. Lives should be put above profits. Mr. Ephraim Olani, Executive Director of Sub -Saharan African Youth and Family Services (SAYFSM) of MN, stated their mission is to address the most pressing health challenges in the African communities. He lived in St. Anthony for 8 years. He is a member of Nativity Lutheran Church. He fully supports the efforts of the City Council. There are strong tobacco ordinances in Minneapolis and St. Paul, among other communities. He is in support of this Ordinance. Councilmember Elnagdy thanked all for the information. Councilmember Randle stated his opinion on this is known to Council. He agrees the tobacco companies target blacks and especially urban blacks. He is the only one in his family who does not smoke. It is a choice if people want to smoke or not. He has an issue when being told what he can and what he cannot do. He does not agree with the number of fines and asked if they push that hard about marijuana. He can make up his own mind if he wants to smoke or not. Mayor Webster stated Councilmember Randle was very open and honest about his feelings at a Council work session. Previously he was in favor of changing the age to purchase tobacco items to age 21. During the first session of the Mayor's Youth Council, concerns expressed were similar to those of adults, including safety, knowing neighbors, picking up trash, and ways to stop their peers from starting to vape. Councilmember Doolan thanked the youth for coming to the meeting. Youth are concerned about other youth and she is concerned about youth becoming addicted. Mayor Webster closed the public hearing at 7:54 p.m. Councilmember Elnagdy asked Ms. Anderson about the fee schedule for penalties for license violations and why the fee is not increased for the third violation. Ms. Anderson stated there is no cap to fees. Mayor Webster stated the current St. Anthony fees were lower than the recommendations. Ms. Anderson stated Roseville's ordinance is the same as the one proposed for St. Anthony. Councilmember Doolan asked if there were any occurrences of a 2nd or 3' violation and Mr. Yunker stated there were not. She was interested in the slide showing changes between 2022 and 2023. She asked if products are becoming more addictive. Ms. Anderson stated the amount of nicotine and how it is absorbed has increased, which increases addictiveness.