Ban on Smoking Finds Few Supporters on Simi Valley Council : Legislation: Only Mayor Greg Stratton backs the idea of such restrictions, arguing that it would help protect the health of residents and employees.

Despite a city staff report chronicling the trend toward tougher smoking restrictions, most Simi Valley council members said they consider such smoking bans as anti-business.

“This is a tremendous violation of property rights,” Councilwoman Sandi Webb said, referring to a smoking ban proposed to the council. “I worry about the underlying precedent of placing this kind of restriction on business.”

Like other cities, Simi Valley has been approached by anti-smoking activists to prohibit smoking in restaurants, bars, businesses and most other public places. Citing the mounting evidence of health risks from secondhand smoke, activists have persuaded Moorpark and Thousand Oaks to adopt tough restrictions and other cities to consider them.

At the request of the Simi Valley council, the city attorney prepared a five-page report that outlined the debate over the health risks of secondhand smoke--a document that did not sway most council members from their reluctance to toughen the city’s anti-smoking law.

In fact, Webb suggested the city consider repealing its existing smoking ordinance, a law enacted in 1987 that limits, but does not forbid, smoking in many public places. For example, it confines smoking to specially designated areas of restaurants and businesses.

“Honestly, I think that what we have now is adequate,” Councilman Bill Davis said. “There have been no problems with it.”

He said he has received several dozen calls from constituents urging him to oppose an outright ban on smoking--a position he favors.

Councilwoman Barbara Williamson agreed: “I don’t think government should tell any businessman how to run his business.”

Only Mayor Greg Stratton supports the idea of a smoking ban, arguing that it would help protect the health of residents and employees.

“My feeling right now is that smoking in a public place is no longer considered acceptable by most people in our culture,” Stratton said. “It’s an unhealthy habit whose time has come and gone, sort of like spittoons.”

A review of the city’s current smoking ordinance was spurred by a group of anti-smoking activists who asked the council in August to consider a tougher ban.

Alan P. Zovar of Oak Park, coordinator of the Coalition for Smoke-Free Air, said he organized the effort in Simi Valley after helping enact smoking bans in Los Angeles, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks.

In appealing to the council in August, the anti-smoking group cited studies by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency that found that secondhand smoke poses a health risk to nonsmokers.

“We are intent on getting as many communities as possible to go smoke-free,” Zovar said. “This is first of all an issue of worker injury due to secondhand smoke.”

Other groups have launched similar efforts with the county and Ojai, which are considering instituting smoking bans.

Zovar said he was disappointed that the Simi council was not more receptive to his efforts.

“There are some city councils that are progressive and informed on this issue, and there are some that are not as progressive and not as informed about the dangers of secondhand smoke,” Zovar said.

But in an interview, Webb said she studied secondhand smoke arguments and found them unpersuasive.

Restaurant owner Gregory Katrakazos said he opposed the ban because he feared that it would drive away business.

“This is a free country and businesses should be allowed to do what is good for business,” said Katrakazos, who has owned Giovanni’s Italian Restaurant for three years. The restaurant provides separate dining rooms for smokers and nonsmokers.

“It is good for business to give people the opportunity to smoke after a nice dinner, if that’s what they want to do.”