RESIDENTS SOLICITED FOR TOBACCO BATTLE.

Byline: Teresa Jimenez Daily News Staff Writer

When it comes to battling cigarette use, the state has found that creativity is key: A cowboy on a billboard tells his partner that he misses his lung, and a woman in a romantic embrace worries about her partner's secondhand smoke.

Now the city wants to see what kind of creativity its residents have.

Rather than dole out grant money to local health organizations and let them come up with anti-smoking campaigns, city administrators want local businesses, youth organizations, charity clubs and other groups to pitch their proposals.

``What we're looking for is innovative ways of addressing the problem,'' said Pam Matsuoka, youth outreach program coordinator for the city. ``We think there may be people out there with great ideas but no money to implement them.''

The City Council on Tuesday is expected to approve $20,000 for the program. The money comes from a $79,764 grant the city received in April 1997 from the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.

The city used most of the Tobacco Control Services Grant to help local businesses comply with state Assembly Bill 13, which restricted smoking indoors, Matsuoka said. Santa Clarita has received the grant again this year, in the amount of $225,056, which will be used to expand the business outreach program, she said.

The city's own grant program comes on the heels of a city and William S. Hart Union High School District teen drug survey that showed cigarette use has increased considerably since 1989.

Among seventh-graders, for example, only 1 percent in 1989 stated they had smoked a cigarette within the last month. In 1991, 12 percent said they smoked in the last month. And in 1997, 20 percent said they had smoked.

The city's Tobacco Control Services Coalition, made up of representatives from the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital and the Hart district, proposed the grant program before the study was completed, Matsuoka said. But it does have good timing, she said.

``Part of it is the importance of the issue,'' Matsuoka said. ``Everyone knows that tobacco is a gateway drug.''

Under the proposed program, one group may be awarded all of the $20,000 grant money, or 10 groups may split it, Matsuoka said.

``We don't know what we're looking for, and we don't know what's out there,'' Matsuoka said. ``We don't want to limit anyone with a budget. We want them to be creative. We want something that will make us say, wow, we haven't thought of that.''

The only restriction, Matsuoka said, is that applications must be received by Aug. 26. To receive an application, call Matsuoka at [phone].