Ordinance committee advances tougher vape‑shop penalties and new licensing checks; staff tables criminal-statute bar

The Norwalk Ordinance Committee on Jan. 20 advanced amendments aimed at curbing illegal sales at vape and smoke shops, approving language to stiffen civil penalties and moving changes to public hearing while tabling a related proposal to add criminal‑statute bars to license issuance.

Brian (city staff) told the committee the city had set up licensing and registration for vape retailers following enforcement requests from police but that many noncompliant entities had not registered. To increase compliance, staff proposed raising the fine to $250 per day for ongoing violations and allowing suspension or revocation of licenses for repeat offenses. "We wanted to increase the fines to $250 per day because that would be an ongoing violation every 24 hours," Brian said.

Chief Walsh provided enforcement context: he said the city identified roughly 44 vape and smoke shops for review, has conducted undercover buys and arrests of employees tied to illegal sales, and described a small set of repeat 'bad actors' who have been arrested multiple times. "There are some that have been chronically arrested... We have come across several shops that have actually built in hidden compartments to sell illegal products," the chief said, attributing the problem in part to limited state tools for closing illegal operations.

Council members pressed for data on how many shops are licensed and what the enforcement timeline and grace periods have been; staff said a registration grace period that ended in September had allowed compliant applicants time to register and that staff and police will provide detailed counts to the committee.

Staff also proposed adding criminal‑statute-based automatic disqualifiers (citing statutes identified in discussion). Council member Hassan moved to table that portion of the ordinance so staff can provide details on how expunged convictions, Clean Slate provisions and background checks will be handled; the committee agreed to table the criminal‑statute section for follow up. The penalty and licensing language (excluding the tabbed criminal-statute addition) was advanced to public hearing.