By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News
dlevinthal@dallasnews.com / The Dallas Morning News
Dan X. McGraw contributed to this report.
Smoke 'em while you can, as lighting up in a Dallas bar could be illegal by year's end.
That's because top Dallas City Council members, including Mayor Tom Leppert and two key committee chairmen, have confirmed they're prepared to back a yet-to-be-drafted ordinance banning smoking in bars and taverns - among the city's final public havens for tobacco lovers. They cite health factors as an overriding reason.
A formal ordinance proposal should come before the council's quality of life and government services committee by August, with a full council briefing to follow, said council member Pauline Medrano, the committee's chairwoman.
Enactment of a comprehensive smoking ban would bring Dallas in line with Texas cities such as Houston and Austin, as well as entire states such as New York and California, which have outlawed smoking in most public places.
"I'd like us to move forward," Mr. Leppert said of expanding the city's smoking ordinance. "I think there's good support on the council. It's probably the appropriate time we do something."
Said Ms. Medrano, "Dallas is ready. We were on the forefront five years ago, and now you see Houston and other cities with stronger laws than us. It's time for us to go forward."
Since last year, interviews of City Council members have long indicated a willingness to expand Dallas' current smoking ordinance. Approved in 2003, it outlaws the practice in public buildings, restaurants, bingo halls and most workplaces, but exempts bars, taverns, pool halls and tobacco shops.
But to date, no council member had been willing to force the smoking issue, instead focusing on a bevy of others, such as economic development initiatives, the Trinity River Corridor project and public safety.
In January, Mr. Leppert suggested area cities should together pass similar smoking ordinances - a de facto regional law - although the idea got little traction.
So while the mayor intends to encourage nearby municipalities to strengthen their smoking ordinances, Dallas shouldn't wait for them, he said. Mr. Leppert and his council colleagues weren't immediately certain if a Dallas smoking ordinance expansion proposal would affect pool halls, tobacco shops or bars that specialize in smoking, such as cigar bars and hookah lounges.
For Jamee Green, executive director of the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association, Dallas should simply put a smoking law expansion on hold.
A Dallas smoking ordinance that includes bars and taverns could create inequity among her members because some municipalities' smoking laws are more restrictive than others, she argued.
"We don't see it as a good thing for business unless it's a statewide policy," Ms. Green said. "We're still thinking we'll support legislation for a statewide ban next year."
And if Dallas decides to move forward with an expanded ban, officials should expect pushback, said Gary Nolan, spokesman for the Citizens Freedom Alliance, a New Hampshire-based organization that lobbies nationally for smokers' rights.
"No one is compelled to go into a bar or restaurant, either as a customer or an employee," said Mr. Nolan, who said his organization would campaign against an expanded Dallas smoking ordinance.
Some bar patrons said Monday they were skeptical that a smoking ban would be enforced, but said it could seriously damage bar business.
"It would kill this place, or people would be walking outside every five minutes," said Jamie Nicodemus, a smoker sitting at the bar at Lakewood Landing on Live Oak Street.
At the Lakewood Tavern, a nonsmoking bar, manager Vicki LaGrange said most of her customers come into her bar because they don't like the smoke elsewhere. Still, she disagrees with a citywide ban.
"Business owners should have the right to choose for themselves," she said. "Then let the market decide for itself what the public wants."
At least for now, North Texas on balance remains a relatively free market for smokers, municipalities together composing a patchwork quilt of laws governing where, when and how people may smoke in public.
To Dallas' north, for example, Addison's smoking laws are among the area's most permissive, as diners are still allowed to puff away in restaurants. Neighboring Plano, meanwhile, features some of the area's toughest anti-smoking laws.
Even so, council member Ron Natinsky, chairman of the body's economic development committee, says he doubts many Dallas bars or taverns would lose business if City Hall strengthens its smoking ordinance.
"I don't think it'll have any economic effect much at all," Mr. Natinsky said. "There will be some squawking, and some people who say it will. But it's time we do it."
Even Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway, who months ago advocated against expanding Dallas' current smoking ban, says he's changed his mind.
"Once you've been educated, and look at the cancer-smoking causes, you see the problem," Mr. Caraway said Monday. "I'm ready to move on this."
Staff writer Dan X. McGraw contributed to this report.
THURSDAY, MAY 17, 2007
TEXAS STATE CAPITOL
(SOUTH STEPS)
12:45 PM
Smoke-Free Texas is working with Senator Rodney Ellis in the Texas Senate to restore the Smoke-Free Texas Workplace Law (HB9/SB368) to its original intent. They maintain their commitment to smoke-free provisions, including but not limited to the following:
Smoke-free public and workplaces (restaurants, bars, sports arenas, healthcare facilities, facilities of the state or local government)
No smoking within 15 feet of entrances
No ventilation language
No language that will allow local communities to opt out of the state law or language that will pre-empt the state law.
Smoke-Free Texas encourages you join them in their efforts at the Smoke-Free Texas Rally.
Make your voice heard!
THURSDAY, MAY 17, 2007
TEXAS STATE CAPITOL
(SOUTH STEPS)
12:45 PM
Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst's support is highlighted in the following Austin American Statesman article: Download file.
- Graci Garces, Grassroots Director
Smoke Free Texas
- Graci Garces, Grassroots Director
Smoke Free Texas
The new rules would restrict smoking to private homes and designated hotel rooms and could be some of the toughest in North Texas.
Violators to the ordinance could be fined $2,000.
Anyone wishing to speak on the proposed smoking ordinance is invited to attend the meeting. The hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the council meeting chambers in Southlake Town Center at 1400 Main Street.
Officials will hold the second vote on the proposed ordinance after the hearing.
]]>The report, from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in London, appears in the online peer-review journal, Biomed Central.
Its author is a respected scientist and mathematical modeller, Jim Smith.
"The mortality risk to populations exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl accident may be no higher than that for other more common risk factors such as air pollution or passive smoking," says his report.
Source: Tobacco.org
Crownover said the bill, filed Wednesday, would help protect employees all over Texas from the risks associated with second-hand smoke.
“It’s not about whether you should or should not smoke,” Crownover said. “It’s about respect for our workers.”
The bill comes on the heels of a similar bill filed in the Senate last week.
Some business owners, though, said the bill infringes on their rights and could lead to more stringent regulations.
“I’m not saying I’m for or against smoking,” said Bob Harmon, co-owner of Sweetwater Grill & Tavern in Denton. “But my concern is if they’re going to tell us that restaurants can’t have smoking, are they going to tell us what we can put on our menus?”
Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, who sponsored the Senate version of the bill, could not be reached for comment Thursday. However, in a Feb. 1 news release, Ellis said the legislation is needed because 53,000 Americans die every year from lung cancer due to first- and second-hand smoke.
“Now is the time to act,” he said in the news release. “Cities across the state are moving on this issue. It’s time for Texas to move forward.”
Other local business owners have concerns about the legislation, but are open to the debate.
“I think if it’s statewide, it won’t be that detrimental to most of us,” said Ken Willis, co-owner of two Denton restaurants: Ruby’s Diner on the Square and Beth Marie’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlor & Soda Fountain. “To me, it makes more sense to do it that way than town by town,” he said.
Restaurants in cities bordering other states might find themselves in a competitive situation where smoking customers opt to cross state lines, Willis added.
“They might get kind of screwed, especially border towns like Texarkana,” he said.
Crownover said she understands that some people will oppose the legislation, but pointed to a recent statewide poll by Baselice and Associates that showed 66 percent of Texans would favor a “comprehensive law to eliminate smoking in all indoor workplaces.”
“I think there will be opposition during the transition,” Crownover said. “But, like not smoking on airplanes, people will warm up to the idea.”
Similar laws are already on the books in 16 states, including California, New York, Massachusetts and Kentucky.
Denton Chamber of Commerce President Chuck Carpenter said that “no smoking” rules are already in place in most work places, so that limits the number of businesses this would affect.
“It looks like your main impacted classifications would be where alcohol was predominantly served,” he said. “And remember, we’re a college town.”
The chamber doesn’t have an official opinion on the issue, he said.
Violating the law, be it user or employer, would be a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $500.
Crownover represents District 64 in the House, which includes portions of Denton County — Denton, Lake Dallas, Corinth, Shady Shores, Hickory Creek, Lakewood Village, Little Elm, Oak Point and The Colony north of 121.
]]>May 14, 2006
DAVID TEWES - Victoria Advocate
A proposal to expand Victoria's smoking ban got the approval of 70 percent of the people voting in Saturday's election and the new prohibition will go into effect next month.
It will make it illegal to smoke in any building open to the public or within 12 feet of an entrance to a public building. A public building is defined as any building other than one used as a private residence.
]]> Miles Risley, the city's senior assistant city attorney, said the expanded ban will take effect 30 days after approval, or on June 13.Complete returns that won't be official until canvassed by the city council Tuesday showed 4,830 people voted to approve the smoking ban. Another 2,098 voters were against it.
The city council voted late last year to adopt a smoking ban for Victoria's restaurants. That was followed by a council decision earlier this year to let the voters - not the politicians - decide if they wanted to expand that ban to all buildings open to the public.
Neurologist Leon Gilner with Smokefree Victoria, which sought voter approval of the ban, said the results were about what he expected based on a telephone poll the organization was conducting. He said voters clearly wanted a change.
"I think it was an idea whose time had come," he said. "I think Victorians understood the message. They wanted a smoke-free city and said it loud and clear."
He said the Smokefree Victoria campaign was a clean grassroots effort. But he said for the most part those against the ban operated clandestinely.
"I think their message was one of confusion and disorientation," Gilner said. "I don't think people bought that at all. If anything, it worked against them in the long run."
Anita Staffeldt with Advocates for Choice, a Victoria group opposed to smoking bans, said she was disappointed with the results.
"I thought it would be closer than that," she said. "I don't think people really caught that the issue was not so much smoking or non-smoking, but interference with the right of businesses to determine their own policy."
Staffeldt predicted that the ban would prompt businesses to move outside the city limits, where smoking in public buildings is not banned. She said that could hurt sales tax income, which is what city officials are hoping to use to pay for the sports complex approved by voters Saturday.
"I still think the election is illegal under the city charter," Staffeldt said.
Saturday's election on the smoking ban took place despite a last-minute legal challenge that started in the court of appeals and ended up in the Texas Supreme Court.
Victoria businessman Chip Dence and East End Lumber Co., of which Dence said he is a partner and part owner, initiated the challenge in the 13th Court of Appeals in Corpus Christi. He sought to stop the election and to stop the city from using the smoking ban ballots.
The appeals court denied the requests and the decision was appealed to the Texas Supreme Court, which also denied both requests.
Dence has said the proposed ban is more than just a smoking issue. He said it's also a private property rights issue because it would make him a criminal for smoking in his own office.
• David Tewes is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6515 or dtewes@vicad.com, or comment on this story at www.VictoriaAdvocate.com.
]]>Laredo Morning Times, March 28, 2006
Soon smokers across Laredo will no longer be able to enjoy a cigarette with their meal. In fact, they will also be asked to refrain from smoking while drinking if it's at a bar within city limits. The Laredo City Council voted to ban smoking in all public places, including resta-urants and bars and any other enclosed public facility. The vote was 5-3, with Councilmen Hector "Tito" Garcia, Johnny Amaya and Juan Chavez voting against approval.
"You today are taking one important step toward safeguarding our future," Dr. Hector Gonzalez, director of the Laredo Heath Department, told the council after the vote.
]]> Smoking will be allowed 10 feet from entrance of an enclosed place of employment, at tobacco specialty retail stores and public streets and sidewalks. The ordinance will not go into affect until some time after the final reading of the ordinance has been approved, and Gonzalez said there would be an educational phase for the public to become aware of the ordinance.Several members of the public spoke in favor of the ordinance and there were no comments against it. Mayor Betty Flores submitted letters from a few dozen doctors who approved of the ordinance.
Walter Alvarez said he moved to Laredo about 6 months ago and has witnessed bans in Lubbock, Arlington and El Paso. Alvarez said a study in El Paso has shown there was no affect on the revenues of local establishments because of the ban. "I really want all of us to put our concern for health above the concern for local business profits," Alvarez said.
Sandra Hernandez, of Doctors Hospital, said she worries about her son and other children with asthma going to restaurants that allow smoking. "Children can have an asthma attack on the spot," Hernandez said. "Please do what you can."
Patricia Keck, of the Laredo Independent School District Health Services Department, agreed with Hernandez and said asthma is the primary reason for a smoking ban. "Asthma is the No. 1 cause for school absenteeism," Keck said.
Local attorney George Garcia said that the number of people smoking has been on the decrease, and the few smokers should not dictate what the rest of the public does. "People who go to bars are still going to go to bars," Garcia said.
Councilman Gene Belmares later agreed, saying, "I think people go to bars because that's an avenue of entertainment. They choose to go there because that's where their friends are." Belmares was greeted with applause when he added that nobody who goes there says, "I like the smoke in there." Flores had to bang the gavel so that the council could resume discussion. Belmares did say he'd prefer the distance from the front door be shortened from 15 feet to 5 feet, but Councilman Juan Ramirez said he wouldn't go for that. Ramirez said he would compromise with a 10-foot limit.
Councilman Garcia said he was against a total ban because kids do not go into bars, and people have the choice to go into those types of places. Councilman John Galo said he was still concerned about infringing on the community's rights, but he would suppport either a total ban or no ban at all - nothing in between. Belmares, citing other protective laws, such as seat belts, responded that, "it always comes down to people won't accept responsibility for themselves so government has had to step in."
The ordinance states that a proprietor or any person in control of a public place who fails to comply with the ordinance will be subject to a fine of up to $200 for each day the violation continues and suspension or revocation of any license or permit issued by the city for up to 30 days.
It also states that any person who knowingly or intentionally smokes in an area where smoking is prohibited to will be subject to a maximum fine of $200 and a minimum fine of $50. For the second offense the range increases to $200-$500; and on the third offense, the person could be fined up to $1,000.
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