Moorpark Smoking Ban Under Debate

Moorpark could be the first city in the county to ban smoking from nearly all enclosed public places.

The City Council discussed the move last week but delayed any decision until all the businesses in the city could be notified of the possible ban by mail, and residents alerted through newspaper advertisements.

“If you read the body of information that’s out there now on smoking, it’s overwhelming,” Mayor Paul Lawrason said at Wednesday’s council meeting. “I can’t in good conscience continue not to be affected by these overwhelmingly disturbing reports that are coming from the medical community.”

Lawrason agreed to postpone further consideration of the ordinance until a public hearing May 19, but said he would not be willing to table the matter indefinitely.

“I’m not in favor of studying it and thinking about it and not doing something about it,” he said. “I think the time is now.”

The proposed local law, a toughening of existing anti-smoking restrictions, would make it illegal to light up in elevators, buses, taxicabs, restrooms, retail stores, restaurants (with the exception of some outdoor seating and indoor cocktail lounges), theaters and all areas of public assembly.

Additionally, Moorpark employers would be forced to post notices informing workers that smoking is prohibited in all enclosed facilities without exception.

Bars would be exempt from the ordinance, but the council directed city staff to come up with a definition of what constitutes a bar and how such an establishment differs from a restaurant cocktail lounge. Council members also asked City Atty. Cheryl Kane to research the legality of the proposed ordinance.

Nan Waltman, a senior health educator with Ventura County Public Health, spoke before the council in support of the ban earlier this month, and said the city would be the first in the county to implement such a ban.

But some local merchants and the Chamber of Commerce have argued that if Moorpark takes action before neighboring cities, customers who want to smoke will opt for shopping, dining and drinking somewhere else.

Francis Okyere, president of the Moorpark Chamber of Commerce, appeared before the council Wednesday and read a letter he sent the city earlier this month, objecting to an immediate ban.

“The chamber agrees that smoking is hazardous to one’s health and should be banned,” Okyere wrote. However, his letter stated, “it is also our deep concern as well as that of the restaurant owners that if smoking was not banned in neighboring communities, then restaurants in Moorpark would lose customers to the surrounding areas.”

Okyere suggested that the council push for a countywide ban, to prevent merchants in Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks from gaining an advantage over smoke-free Moorpark merchants.

The most vocal critic of the proposed ban has been John Gustafson, co-owner of the Whistle Stoppe bar and restaurant on High Street.

Gustafson on Wednesday presented the council with a petition signed by 213 of his patrons who he said oppose the proposed ban. Under the proposed ordinance, the bar section of Gustafson’s business would be unaffected by the ban, but he would have to seal off a doorway to the adjacent restaurant area if he wanted to continue to allow people to smoke in the bar.

“Smoking and the bar have gone together from Day 1,” he said before testifying before the council. “I believe in the free market system and the freedom of choice.”

“I’ve visited your establishment and I’ve had a good time there,” Councilman Bernardo Perez told Gustafson. “What you don’t know about are the times that I haven’t come because of the smoking environment.”

The majority of the sparse lunchtime crowd in the Whistle Stoppe one day last week came with their smokes at the ready.

Larry Anderson, 56, has been smoking since he was about 18 and doesn’t take kindly to the council’s move to legislate his trademark Kools out of his hand.

“I think the whole country’s going crazy on this nonsmoking thing,” he said Thursday, sitting at the bar and enjoying a beer and a smoke.

“Stop people from driving cars before you stop them from smoking. The smog in L.A. is 10 times worse than smoking,” Anderson said. “I work in a machine shop, in all kinds of fumes. Cigarettes are probably the last thing that’s gonna harm me.”

Anderson, who lives in Van Nuys, has worked in Moorpark for the past three months, after his employer, Rapstine Enterprises, relocated from Chatsworth. He said about half of his roughly 15 co-workers and his boss smoke and would not appreciate the council clamping down on their habit.

“I think they’ve gone far enough with having nonsmoking areas in all these places. They don’t need to go any further. Enough is enough.”

Jack Chapel, a Moorpark resident since 1954, was also drawing air through a cigarette at the Whistle Stoppe on Thursday.

“I think flies are probably a bigger health problem to somebody eating than an hour in a restaurant with a smoker,” Chapel said. “Economically, it’d be a hardship for the town, a restriction like that.”

“I’ve been in this town since 1947 and this is the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard,” said P. J. Jolly. “I live in Moorpark and spend my money here, but if they tell me that I can’t come in, enjoy a cigarette and have a glass of tea, I’ll go elsewhere.”