Anaheim : Council to Ponder Ban on Smoking in Chamber

The city already has a law regulating smoking that is considered one of the stiffest in Southern California. Now the City Council will once again consider banning smoking in the council chamber.

Today, council members are scheduled to vote on the request by Mayor Pro Tem Miriam Kaywood, a staunch supporter of laws regulating smokers.

Mayor Ben Bay is the only smoker on the council. Bay declined to comment last week on the renewed proposal to ban smoking. Councilman Irv Pickler has said he supports it.

Councilman Fred Hunter said he did not know how he would vote, but he criticized the “timing” of Kaywood’s request and linked the issue to the council’s pending decision on who will replace Don R. Roth.

Today will be the first time the council meets without Roth, who resigned for a successful run for a seat on the county Board of Supervisors. The four members on the council are split on who should be appointed to replace Roth.

Hunter, chairman of the American Cancer Society in Anaheim, said he is against smoking but added, “I think this is a move on her (Kaywood’s) part to get me to go against Ben Bay and put me in the middle.”

Hunter said he is “aligned with Ben Bay” on choosing businessman Bill Ehrle to replace Roth. Kaywood and Pickler have voiced strong opposition to appointing Ehrle.

But Kaywood has denied that her motives for renewing the smoking ban proposal are political. She said she raised the issue after reading the latest U.S. surgeon general’s report, released Dec. 16, which called for smoke-free work environments after concluding that involuntary smoking can cause lung cancer in nonsmokers.

Last March, the council adopted an ordinance which allows every employee in the city to designate his or her immediate work area as nonsmoking. In any dispute, the rights of the nonsmoker would prevail.