WESTLAKE VILLAGE : Extending Smoking Ban to Be Studied

The Westlake Village City Council will hold a study session Wednesday to consider whether to expand the city’s smoking ban to restaurants and other public spaces.

City Councilwoman Bonnie Klove, a supporter of a ban, wants the city to join more than 40 cities in California, including Los Angeles, which have recently outlawed smoking in restaurants.

“Having had cancer . . . I am very, very strong in that opinion,” said Klove, who said her husband also had fought the disease. “I don’t want to be contaminated by someone else’s smoke.”

Klove said she favors an ordinance that bans smoking in restaurants and workplaces. Currently, the law in Westlake Village mirrors one drafted for Los Angeles County years ago, said City Manager Ray Taylor.

Restaurants are required to set aside a portion of their premises for nonsmokers, and smoking is prohibited in some other public places such as buses, elevators, museums, libraries and hospitals.

Klove said she expects the proposal to be widely supported by council members and local restaurant owners. But she said she expects some debate over whether smoking should be allowed in bars inside restaurants.

“I would like to see that happen, but I know the expense is high,” she said.

Beverly Holdgrafer, manager of the Lake View Cafe in Westlake Village, said a smoking ban would only be an issue if it put some businesses at a competitive disadvantage.

But “if everyone is affected, I do not think it would be a problem,” she said.

Concern over the dangers of secondhand smoke has prompted a wave of legislation to ban restaurant smoking in the past year, mostly in California, but in other parts of the nation as well. Los Angeles instituted its ban in June, and Calabasas and Agoura Hills have also passed bans.