The Birth of AB 13

Friedman reintroduced AB 2667 as AB 13 in the next legislative session in December 1992, and it was assigned to Friedman's Labor and Employment Committee in February 1993. The bill was cosponsored by the CRA, AHA, AFL-CIO, and CMA.^[38] The AHA, ALA, and ACS supported the bill because they wanted smoke-free workplaces. Groups

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representing the tourism and hospitality industries and the Tobacco Institute opposed AB 13.^[39] ANR opposed the bill because of objections to preemption. ANR was also concerned that CalOSHA would be a less responsive enforcing agency than local health departments or similar agencies that enforced local ordinances.^[40] The anti-tobacco activist group Doctors Ought to Care, the City of Lodi, and the California State Association of Counties also opposed the bill because of preemption.^[41-43] Trying to address ANR's concerns over enforcement, Friedman amended the bill to remove “appropriate local law enforcement agencies” (police) as the enforcement agency so that local health departments could enforce the law, including levying fines for violations.^[44]

These differences of opinion still appeared moot. Despite the broadened support for the bill, it was still viewed as unlikely to pass. AHA lobbyist Dian Kiser wrote her local affiliates, “Frankly, the chance of passage of AB 13, like AB 2667, is minuscule.”^[21] Rather than treating preemption as a policy issue, supporters of the bill fell back on the argument that since AB 13 was “100 percent smoke free,” the issue of preemption was not important.

AB 13, unlike AB 2667, passed out of the Labor and Education Committee. Newspapers credited AB 13's passage out of committee to a 1992 EPA report on secondhand smoke as well as Governor Pete Wilson's decision in early 1993 to end smoking in all state government buildings.^[39][45]

At the first hearing of the Ways and Means Committee, Friedman added two amendments in a continuing effort to respond to concerns about preemption and enforcement. The first clarified the severability clause to insure that, if AB 13's smoke-free mandate were weakened, communities could pass and enforce future ordinances as well as enforce existing ordinances. The other was his amendment to allow local governments to designate a local agency to enforce the law rather than specifying local police.^[46] While AB 13 was being considered by the Ways and Means Committee, the League of California Cities, which had remained neutral on AB 2667, changed its position and announced support for AB 13 on the grounds that the bill would allow local governments to pass restrictions on tobacco in areas not covered by the bill.^[47]