Store Owners Upset by Tobacco Decoy Operation

Source from:  BY DAVID CASTELLON dcastell@visalia.gannett.com September 3, 2008  09/04/2008

Rozi's Market officials were proud of a late-July letter from the Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency praising them for not selling tobacco to minors. Last week, however, the business' name appeared on a published list of eight businesses that, according to the county agency, were willing to sell tobacco to minors during a decoy operation. Were the operators surprised? "Actually, we're fairly upset," said Roxanne Robinson, a spokeswoman for the business at 831 S. Lovers Lane. The appearance on the willing-to-sell-to-minors list makes it looks like "we're not responsible human beings," Robinson said. That doesn't square with the July 29 letter, which reads as follows: "We are very happy to inform you that your store was NOT among those that sold tobacco to a minor. We applaud your store's efforts in helping us decrease the sale of tobacco products to the youth in our community." On Tuesday, however, Allison Lambert, an HHSA spokeswoman, said workers at the eight businesses identified last week were willing to sell tobacco to young decoys. "The list is correct," she said. She said she does not know why Rozi's and another business on the list, Double D Mini Mart at 1500 W. Houston Ave., received letters of congratulations. "We're not quite sure where the hang-up was," Lambert said. That list was the result of a decoy operation conducted by the county's Tobacco Awareness and Education Project, which is run by HHSA and funded through state tobacco taxes. Selling tobacco to anyone younger than the age of 18 is illegal, and in June, officials sent a group of underage teens to 55 stores in Visalia, Lindsay and Dinuba to see whether employees would sell them cigarettes. No police were involved in the program, so none of the stores was cited. Instead, the violators - all Visalia businesses - were sent letters informing them of the violations, said Jeninne Roden, director of the project. That was the plan, anyway. Some fail to receive letter Another business on the list of eight, Caldwell Chevron at 3717 W. Caldwell Ave., failed to receive a letter from the agency, said Shine Saran, treasurer for the partnership that owns the station. "I have nothing to indicate [the Caldwell store] should be on the list," Saran said. "We want to know when this happened and who was working then." If the business appeared on the list by mistake, Saran wants to know that, too. "I've been yelled at [by superiors]," he said. As of Tuesday afternoon, he said, HHSA officials had not gotten back to him to clear up the matter. Lambert, however, said that Roden - out of town for training Tuesday and unavailable for comment - told her by phone that she gave educational material to two Caldwell Chevron employees. Tom Dwelle, general partner for Nella Oil Co., which owns the Flyers chain of gas stations and convenience stores, said the company got a congratulatory letter for its East Mineral King Avenue store complying with the tobacco-sales law. He got no letter for the Flyers at 1930 S. Mooney Blvd., one of the eight businesses on the non-compliance list. "We have a carefully detailed training program [on cigarette and alcohol sales]," he said. "We get popped every now and then, but we're pretty ... serious about it." Other stores on the willing-to-sell list: Fast N Esy 3 market, 5205 W. Goshen Ave. Save Mart, 5201 W. Goshen Ave. Scotty's Donuts, 1600 W. Houston Ave. Walgreen's, 5328 W. Cypress Ave. Operators of those stores were unavailable for comment Tuesday or declined to be interviewed. HHSA officials have acknowledged making one error since the findings of the tobacco-sting program were released last month. They originally announced that 12 of the 55 stores were willing to sell tobacco to minors, but after inquiries by the Times-Delta, they acknowledged that the actual number of violators was eight. "[It] has come to our attention that the survey results and reporting methods need to be re-analyzed," Angie Tipton, HHSA's unit manager for health promotion, stated in an e-mail to the Times-Delta. "Health department staff is currently reviewing the files, and I will personally get back to you when we can clarify and answer your questions fully." She did not return a phone call Tuesday afternoon. Enditem