A PROPOSED ban on smoking in Garden Grove parks has been tabled (Shutterstock).

By Jim Tortolano
Orange County Tribune

After a long and involved discussion and argument, the Garden Grove City Council shifted course Tuesday night on a proposed smoking ban in city parks and voted to table the matter for six months.

The vote was 4-2, with Mayor Stephanie Klopfenstein, Mayor Pro Tem George Brietigam and councilmembers Cindy Ngoc Tran and Joe DoVinh in favor and councilmembers Yesenia Muneton and Ariana Arestegui opposed. Councimember Philip Nguyen was absent.

In September of 2025, the council voted 5-0 with Brietigam absent and DoVinh abstaining to direct the city attorney to bring back a proposed ordinance to ban the smoking of tobacco and other products – including “vaping” from city parks and adjacent parking lots.

“The residents of Garden Grove deserve parks with clean air,” Muneton said at the time. But two supporters – Klopfenstein and Tran – switched sides on Tuesday.

“I’m not really against this,” said Brietigam, but suggested that the ordinance might not be needed because smoking near children’s play areas is already banned by state law and provisions about littering tobacco products were already covered by anti-littering ordinances.

DoVinh was the loudest voice in opposition, suggesting that such a ban might lead to lawsuits from the American Civil Liberties Union and widespread public pushback.

He said he wanted to see the council make revisions – perhaps two or three times – in the proposed ordinance, which he ridiculed for its legal language.