Rancho Mirage Softens Anti-Smoking Ordinance, but Not Enough for Its Foes

A compromise anti-smoking ordinance adopted by the City Council here failed Friday to placate restaurant owners, but a tobacco company withdrew its threat to move a golf tournament it sponsors to a neighboring resort.

Barraged by complaints from restaurateurs and other merchants, the council voted 4 to 1 late Thursday to amend an ordinance that would have banned smoking in offices, public buildings, restaurants and hotels, except in private rooms and bars.

Under the compromise, smoking would be allowed in one-third of a restaurant’s seating capacity. Restaurants would also have to install air-filtration systems by the end of the year and post signs designating tables set aside for nonsmokers. In bars, smoking would be allowed only within 15 feet of a counter where alcoholic beverages are served.

The ordinance would allow employers to set aside a small area for smoking, provided that the area had an air-filtration system and was separated from the rest of the building by a physical barrier.

Public Places

Otherwise, smoking would be prohibited in most public places and the workplace, including stores and banks. If approved in a final vote set May 21, the measure, one of the toughest anti-smoking measures in the nation, would become law in 30 days.

The compromise was intended to pacify business owners who worried that a total ban would drive smoking customers elsewhere, resulting in restaurant closures and layoffs. Instead, it seemed to widen the rift between the City Council and local merchants.

“I’m happy that we did not get a 100% ban,” said Dominick Zangari, president of the Rancho Mirage Restaurant & Merchants Assn. and owner of Dominick’s restaurant here. “But I am not happy with the figures they gave us. I can’t live with those figures. I’d have to put my restaurant up for sale.”

At Thursday’s council meeting, which lasted until nearly midnight, Zangari sought a minimum 50-50 split for smoking and nonsmoking customers.

On Friday, Gary Paulus, a spokesman for the Restaurant & Merchants Assn., issued a terse response to the compromise and threatened to seek a referendum on the issue.

“While we are appreciative of the council’s move to show some accommodation to the business community, there is no question that the ordinance approved by the council will have a detrimental impact on Rancho Mirage business,” Paulus said in a prepared statement.

“The association will, therefore, immediately explore all avenues to further modify the proposal, including the possibility of a legal challenge and various ballot measure options. A meeting of the association members will be held next week to decide a specific course of action.”

In an interview, Paulus said, “We are going to see if there is enough strength in the community for a possible vote on the issue by the people in a special election.”

At the same time, RJR Nabisco Inc., parent company of the nation’s second-largest cigarette maker, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., and sponsor of the Nabisco Dinah Shore Golf Tournament played each spring here, backed away from its threat to move the event and the 80,000 people it attracts to a neighboring resort, such as La Quinta.

“I think we are going to work out our problems, which means we will stay in Rancho Mirage,” said Ray Mulligan, executive director of the tournament. “Our position was that under a 100% ban on smoking, we would have to review our options. We didn’t want to go where we were not wanted.”

The City Council heard more than four hours of raucous pro and con testimony on the issue Thursday night. The meeting was frequently interrupted by jeers and clapping from the 500 people who crowded into the meeting at an Eisenhower Medical Center auditorium. Hundreds more were turned away for lack of room.

Opposition to the law was voiced by members of the Restaurant & Merchants Assn.; the Tobacco Institute, an industry lobbying arm, and residents who see it as a financial threat to the community and infringing on an individual’s freedom of choice.

Thursday afternoon, while the council conducted a study session on the ordinance, about 100 people staged a noisy demonstration in front of City Hall.

Behind a banner saying, “Save Our Jobs--Keep Freedom of Choice,” the demonstrators chanted and held up signs reading: “California’s Newest Ghost Town--Rancho Mirage.”

Backed Proposal

A grass-roots coalition representing physicians, the American Lung Assn., the American Cancer Society and concerned residents backed the proposal, contending that they are fighting for their right to breathe clean air. They argued that nonsmokers throughout the Coachella Valley would be attracted to Rancho Mirage restaurants if smoking was banned entirely.

“I think it would be shameful and detrimental for the people of Rancho Mirage if it went on the ballot that way,” responded Councilwoman Anita Richmond. “There would be an infusion of huge amounts of money from the American tobacco industry against a few hundred thousand dollars the people could raise.”