Broad Ban on Smoking Considered : Government: City Council to ponder a ban on smoking in restaurants, bars and hotel rooms. Critics say it would hurt tourism.

The San Diego City Council will consider banning smoking in bars, restaurants, hotels and other enclosed public places, but opponents warned that the prohibition would cripple the city’s tourist industry.

The ban was one of three smoking-related issues the Public Services and Safety Committee unanimously agreed Wednesday to send to the council for further action. Council members will also discuss whether to ban cigarette vending machines in public places and increase the penalty for violating the city’s current limited smoking ordinance from an infraction to a misdemeanor punishable by a fine and jail.

Under the current ordinance enacted two years ago, San Diego restaurants are required to reserve at least 50% of their seating for nonsmokers.

The city’s restaurant and hotel associations are against a total ban on smoking, but don’t oppose the committee’s other recommendations.

Richard Ledford, spokesman for the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau, said a smoking ban could discourage Asian and European tourists from vacationing in San Diego. He said that about 17% of the 12 million annual overnight visitors to San Diego are international tourists.

Ledford, a nonsmoker, said tourists spent about $3.5 billion in San Diego County last year, including about $600 million from foreign visitors.

“That’s a pretty heavy hunk of visitors that comes to town. Of course, not everybody who comes to town is going to smoke,” Ledford said. “ . . . But don’t opt for a 100% ban when one of the things that attracts someone to the community is service. And service to a Japanese or European tourist means having a cigarette with their meals.”

Skip Regan, vice president of the Hotel-Motel Assn. and general manager of the Glorietta Bay Inn, noted that “an extraordinarily high percentage of Japanese and Europeans smoke.”

“We’re very sensitive to the health damage that results from smoking. But we’re also hosts to people from all over the world, and it’s not appropriate for us to tell them ‘We don’t want you to smoke, period,’ ” Regan said.

The proposed ban would apply to rooms in hotels and motels.

Critics of the proposal said they would support a 100% prohibition on smoking only if the California Legislature passed a no-smoking law that could be applied statewide.

“We can agree with the community that smoking should be banned in all public places, but we disagree that the city level is the place to do this. This should be done statewide, not city by city or county by county,” said Paul McIntyre, a nonsmoker and executive director of the San Diego Restaurant Assn.

Councilman Ron Roberts voted to send the smoking ban to the council for further debate, although he expressed reservations about the plan.

“The 50% law seems to be working pretty good,” he said. “I’m a little reluctant to go to a complete ban right now. . . . The motel and restaurant industry is reeling right now because of a bad economy. The last thing they need right now is anything that will further cause them to lose business.”

In 1988, Roberts was the first public official to call for a smoking ban at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. The council eventually outlawed smoking at the stadium except in designated areas.

Councilman Bob Filner said tourist industry opponents of the ban fear that diners and bar patrons who smoke would take their business to other cities within the county if San Diego became the only city to impose a total smoking ban.

“Restaurant owners do have some legitimate concerns. But since this is a health issue, we have to figure out how to get there (enact a total ban) without putting people out of business,” Filner said. “There is an exemption procedure in the proposed ordinance for small businesses if an owner can prove economic hardship.”

However, Filner said that if smoking is forbidden in enclosed public places in San Diego, “that could be used as a competitive advantage by advertising San Diego as a smoke-free city.”

“Look at the airlines. People complained initially, but now they’re all smoke free. There was a lot of complaining, but people are still flying,” Filner added.

The anti-smoking proposal was pushed by a coalition of health groups, including Americans for Non-Smokers’ Rights and local chapters of the American Lung Assn. and the American Cancer Society.

Public hearings will be held in three or four weeks, but the council is not expected to act on the three proposals until late August or early September at the earliest.

Currently, San Luis Obispo is generally acknowledged to have the toughest anti-smoking ordinance in the United States. The law, which has been in effect for almost two years, is largely self-enforcing, said Debbie Hossli, administrative analyst for the city.

San Luis Obispo bans smoking in all enclosed public places and it “is working just fine,” Hossli said. She said there is about 98% compliance by business owners. The first infraction carries a $100 fine and the second a $200 fine, Hossli added.

A third violation carries a $500 fine and business owners can be prosecuted and jailed for up to six months. However, Hossli said nobody has been prosecuted under the ordinance.