Smoking Law Adopted That Protects Workers

Any employee in Anaheim soon can demand--and get--a work area free of cigarette smoke under a law passed Tuesday night by the City Council.

After months of revisions, the council voted 3 to 1 (with Mayor Don Roth abstaining) to adopt the ordinance regulating smoking in both public areas and private workplaces.

The law requires employers to:

- Implement a written smoking policy and bar smoking in conference rooms, restrooms, hallways, elevators and other common areas.

- Designate at least half of employees’ cafeterias and luncheon areas as non-smoking.

- Allow every employee the right to designate his or her immediate work area as non-smoking. In any dispute, the rights of the non-smoker would prevail.

The law goes into effect in 30 days. Employers must have written policies 90 days after that.

“I feel we have something here that is common sense,” Mayor Pro Tem Irv Pickler said. He said that the Chamber of Commerce had an opportunity to give its opinion but that instead “they told us, ‘Don’t stick your nose in our business.’ ”

“We gave the industry an opportunity, and I think they blew it,” Pickler said. The chamber had criticized mandatory smoking regulations and told the council in a letter that such a law would be an “unacceptable invasion into the private sector.”

Voluntary Program Urged

Allan B. Hughes, executive director of Anaheim’s Chamber of Commerce, said after the meeting that his group did give its opinion--that the chamber suggested that the city follow the county’s lead and adopt a voluntary instead of a mandatory program.

“Members of the City Council chose to ignore that input,” Hughes said.

While the ordinance’s regulation of the workplace is considered one of the stiffest in Southern California, the portion of the new law that affects Anaheim’s restaurants and the Convention Center is a watered-down version of the original plan.

Facing stiff opposition from many restaurant owners, the council changed the ordinance to read that owners of establishments with a capacity of at least 50 people designate “an adequate amount of seating capacity” for non-smokers. The ordinance does not define “adequate.” An earlier version required restaurants to provide half of their space to non-smokers.

Another change affects the Anaheim Convention Center. In the ordinance adopted Tuesday, smoking is banned in movie theaters but “may be prohibited” in auditoriums or enclosed facilities open to the public. In an earlier version, smoking was prohibited “in every publicly or privately owned theater, auditorium, or enclosed facility which is open to the public.”

The question of regulating smoking will be left up to the various tenants of the Convention Center. The change was made after several businesses had told the council that they would have trouble bringing conventions to Anaheim if smoking was banned in the Convention Center.

Anaheim Stadium

The new law also leaves smoking rules pertaining to Anaheim Stadium to the discretion of the tenants of suites and executives’ boxes. The law does not address smoking in the bleachers.

Roth said that he is satisfied with the revisions regarding restaurants and the Convention Center and that such a compromise should have been reached with the business community. Roth, along with Councilman Ben Bay--who voted against the ordinance--said the city should have implemented a voluntary program.

“You have singularly picked out one segment of industry and laid it on them. . . ,” said Bay, who called the new law “restrictive overcontrol by government.”

In another action regarding smoking, the council voted 3 to 2 against banning smoking in the council’s chamber. Pickler and Councilwoman Miriam Kaywood voted for the ban.

Kaywood has complained of Bay’s cigarettes and more than once requested that smoking be banned throughout the chamber and not just part of it.

The smoking issue also played a role in the firing last week of an employee who wrote a letter on his company’s letterhead in support of the non-smoking ordinance.

Tom Tarbell, who reportedly was fired from Kwikset Powdered Metal Products, watched the council members’ discussion on Tuesday afternoon and later praised them for their decision. “Private industry has not dealt with the problem,” Tarbell said.

Fired by Firm

Tarbell said he was fired by his personnel director, a member of the Chamber of Commerce who had spoken before the council against the non-smoking ordinance, after writing a letter on company stationery in support of the ordinance. His boss, Pat Patterson, last Friday declined to discuss Tarbell’s dismissal. During Tuesday’s meeting, Councilwoman Kaywood pointed to Tarbell’s firing as an example that a voluntary program would not work.

Other county cities that have adopted non-smoking ordinances--some regulating the workplaces and others leaving such programs up to local business communities--are Laguna Beach, Yorba Linda, Brea and Newport Beach.