69´«Ã½

The licenses had expired.  

It's a revelation that frustrates the Cayuga 69´«Ã½ Health Department, which is responsible for inspecting smoke shops and ensuring that the businesses are following state and local laws. In January, three smoke shops — 69´«Ã½ Express Smoke Shop, 69´«Ã½ Express Smoke Shop Jr. and Panda Smoke and Vape — were hit with fines totaling more than $150,000 for several violations. The violations included selling flavored vaping products, which is illegal in New York, and selling tobacco products to underage customers. 

The penalties for two of the businesses — 69´«Ã½ Express Smoke Shop and Panda Smoke and Vape — included a year-long suspension of their state tobacco licenses. But when the health department initiated the process to suspend the smoke shops' tobacco registrations, they were informed by the state Department of Health that the licenses had lapsed. 

According to Eileen O'Connor, who heads the local health department's environmental health division, the state Department of Taxation and Finance will launch enforcement actions against the smoke shops for operating with expired licenses. However, that could take up to a year and the fines are "not large," she said. 

"As you can imagine it's very frustrating for our office because we spend all this time going into places, noting violations, have numerous hearings, bringing it in front of the board here and it seems we cannot get enforcement," O'Connor told the Cayuga 69´«Ã½ Board of Health at its monthly meeting on Tuesday. 

Another challenge with enforcing the laws is, at least in the case of the two smoke shops, they do not own property. In other matters involving property owners, O'Connor explained that they can get compliance by assigning fines to property.

The county is considering its options. Rich Graham, the chief assistant county attorney, said his office is working on a complaint against Panda Smoke and Vape to enforce the fines. Since August 2022, the Aurelius business has been fined $155,500 for several violations. Graham hopes a judge will declare the smoke shop a public nuisance — a ruling that would allow the county to shut down the repeat offender. 

Graham also said they are exploring amendments to the county's local law that covers tobacco sales. 

"That law was initially adopted several years ago," he said. "Both the law and the circumstances have changed since then, so we think it's probably good effort to take a look at it, revise it, bring it up to date and perhaps enhance some of the enforcement mechanisms within the local law." 

The board of health passed a motion supporting changes to the local law that would prevent unlicensed smoke shops from operating in the county and include closure as a penalty for repeat violators.

Any amendments to the local law must be approved by the Cayuga 69´«Ã½ Legislature.