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Attachment A Regular City Council Meeting Monday, January 11, 2021 Page 21 895 Councilmember Groff explained the concern he has with the amendment is that it 896 is ignoring the input of Mr. Nichols about the black, indigenous, and people of color 897 part of this as those groups have been targeted for decades with the menthol prod- 898 ucts, as well as the LGBTQ+ community. He did not like that part of it, noting the 899 City had many letters from the health community regarding this in support of this 900 and he thought the City Council needed to take health organizationsÓ studies seri- 901 ously. He also thought the Council should stick with the full ban and take a strong 902 stand on this, noting it is the direction to go to prod the State to eventually make a 903 ban Statewide, which is the ultimate goal. He indicated he did not feel comfortable 904 with that amendment. 905 906 Councilmember Etten asked if Ms. Engman could speak to the specifics of neigh- 907 boring cities because she has expertise on that. 908 909 Ms. Katie Engman explained LauderdaleÓs and Falcon HeightsÓ current ordinances 910 allow for the sale of flavored tobacco at adult-only tobacco stores. Neither of those 911 communities have an adult-only tobacco store. They are one of the first communi- 912 ties to adopt this and brought that exemption in, kind of as a loophole, but again as 913 seen, these loopholes continue to be exploited. In Lauderdale, tomorrow night the 914 City will be closing that loophole so none of their vendors will be allowed to sell 915 menthol, mint, wintergreen, or flavored tobacco in the store. She noted St. Paul 916 does allow sales in adult-only tobacco stores and when that city did their menthol, 917 mint, wintergreen restrictions, there were 14 tobacco stores and there are currently 918 39. The City is doing some future work to address this large concern of increasing 919 tobacco stores. She stated Shoreview was also one of the very first communities to 920 address flavored tobacco products and left out mint, menthol, and wintergreen be- 921 cause they were ahead of Minneapolis and St. Paul and wanted to take the safe 922 route. Since Minneapolis and St. Paul have gone forward as well as other commu- 923 nities across the State and nation, they have learned a lot. She has been told by City 924 staff and elected officials in Shoreview that they will be addressing this menthol 925 restriction in the first quarter 2021. 926 927 Councilmember Strahan indicated she wanted to make sure as the Council makes 928 this decision, that none of the Council have mentioned, is that repeatedly vendors 929 mentioned social access to tobacco. She did not think the Council could ignore that 930 someone has purchased these things from a vendor, from a store, in some way. As 931 long as there is access from someone, then young people in the schools will con- 932 tinue to have them. If these are restricted to adult-only locations and the sales are 933 capped, that means there are many fewer opportunities. But still, socially, young 934 people are finding ways to get these products and continue that process. The con- 935 cern is long-standing addiction to this very pervasive problem that they were start- 936 ing to make some headway on as a Country. 937 938 Councilmember Etten thought it was a good point Councilmember Strahan brings 939 up regarding the social aspect. He was going to support this amendment because it