The San Jose Mercury News reports:
It was Friday, Jan. 9, and Kirk Buckman was working the day shift out of Belmont. "I carry a badge," Buckman said. "It's shiny and gold. Pretty neat."There seems to be no limit on the intrusions of government by authoritarian personalities that run Belmont,California.No word yet on when Belmont will ban eating cookies in your own home because it's a health issue.
As code enforcement officer for the community development department, Buckman is the tip of the legal spear that Belmont has enacted to break up the Peninsula city's smoke ring.
A controversial ordinance that became law Friday extends the ban on smoking even to residents' apartments and condos.
"I'm more like the stick than the — what was it you called me? — the pointy tip," Buckman said, sitting by the phone as he waited for the first sniff of statutorily sanctionable smoke. "But it's all part of the job. They enact 'em. I'm paid to enforce 'em."
The law is the first of its kind in California, going far beyond the statewide prohibition against lighting up in businesses, restaurants and bars. In Belmont, it is now illegal to smoke inside any multistory, multiunit dwelling. The City Council says enforcement should be "complaint driven," which means neighbors have to rat each other out before officer Buckman can bring evildoers to the nicotine-stained bar of justice.
If "providing education," as Buckman calls it, doesn't work, "we go from there." The fine for each citation is $100. No ifs, ands or butts.
