Flavored tobacco ban high drama for supes

In a cutting speech Tuesday, Supervisor Malia Cohen urged her colleagues to stand behind the flavored tobacco ban they passed unanimously in June and not be swayed by a petition sponsored by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. — a company she called “a notorious killer.”

It was the dramatic high point of the board’s first meeting after the summer recess, during which the supervisors also passed laws to create an Office of Cannabis and to cap the number of marijuana dispensaries in Supervisor Ahsha Safai’s District 11 to three.

The board voted to keep its ban on selling e-cigarettes, menthol cigarettes, and fruitand candy-tinctured tobacco products. The petition received 34,000 certified signatures — well over the 19,040 required to put the matter to voters. Since the supervisors refused to repeal their ordinance, it automatically goes to the June ballot.

Also on Tuesday, Safai introduced an ordinance, cosponsored by Mayor Ed Lee, to set up an assistance fund for tenants forced to leave buildings because of hazardous conditions. He said it was prompted by a horrifying discovery Fire Department officials made in January, when they walked into the cramped basement of a laundry in the Excelsior and found about two dozen people living there.

“When I found out they were living in dungeon-like conditions I was absolutely mortified,” Safai said. His law would make those tenants, and others like them, eligible for city rent subsidies up to the fair market rate. It would also require the owners of such dilapidated properties to reimburse the city for the subsidies, or a face a lawsuit and nuisance abatement liens.

Supervisor Mark Farrell called for a hearing on Nov. 28 to discuss the tax sale of Presidio Terrace, a tony private street that was put up for auction because the homeowners’ $14 annual property tax bill had been sent to the wrong address for 30 years. It was sold for $90,100 to a San Jose couple in 2015.

“I want to get to the bottom of the Presidio Terrace sale,” said Farrell, whose district includes the street. He suggested that the board consider putting forward legislation to “close any loopholes and make sure this doesn’t happen again.”