Supervisors Approve Smoking Restrictions : Health: The board unanimously passes the law, which did not draw the kind of protests such bans have elsewhere.

An ordinance restricting smoking in unincorporated areas of Ventura County won approval Tuesday from the Board of Supervisors, after they toughened it to include patrons of private party rooms and actors smoking on stage.

The ordinance, similar to laws passed in Los Angeles, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks, forbids lighting up in public, enclosed spaces from bingo halls to restaurants and train depots. Bars and tobacco shops are exempt.

All workplaces and health-care facilities in unincorporated areas will also be smoke-free. The only exceptions are patient rooms with separate ventilation and home work sites that the public does not visit.

No one protested the anti-smoking ordinance--proposed by Supervisor Maria VanderKolk--despite mass showings by restaurant and business owners in other areas where smoking bans were considered.

VanderKolk said the ordinance will have the biggest effect on about 200 restaurants in the unincorporated area.

At the suggestion of Supervisor Susan K. Lacey, the law will take effect Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day.

Although it appeared earlier that some supervisors did not fully back the smoking ban, it passed unanimously. Lacey abstained, saying it could be a possible conflict of interest if her husband, a defense attorney, was called to defend a violator of the ordinance.

Violating the ordinance is an infraction, punishable by fines ranging from $100 to $500. But an individual who violates the ordinance more than three times could be prosecuted for a misdemeanor, which could result in a $1,000 fine and a year in jail.

VanderKolk backed making a violation a misdemeanor the first time, but the other supervisors said that could result in costly trials and defense by the public defender’s office.

Supervisor Vicky Howard, who earlier had said she could not support a 100% smoking ban on businesses, said Tuesday that she had not received a single call opposing the ordinance.

“If you have not spoken up, you had an opportunity to do so,” she said, prior to voting in favor of the ordinance.

Supervisor John K. Flynn responded: “I don’t want any vote on this to be interpreted as anti-business. It’s not an anti-business movement at all. It’s a pro-health ordinance.”

Supervisor Maggie Kildee said she doubts the smoking ban will hurt business at many restaurants in the county, because a number already forbid customers from lighting up. “I suspect they’re doing it because it is good for their bottom line,” she said.

Supervisors made several changes to the ordinance Tuesday after listening to comments from a woman afflicted by asthma and severe bronchitis.

Esther Schiller of Newbury Park told the board that second-hand smoke from a junior high in Los Angeles, where she taught English, worsened her condition and forced her to quit. Her classroom was directly above a faculty lounge where smoking was permitted.

She urged the board to adopt a total ban on smoking in halls rented for private parties and conference rooms for business meetings. Previously, the ordinance had allowed smoking in part of such rooms.

Schiller, who belongs to a group called Smokefree Air for Everyone, also suggested that the board allow smoking in convalescent homes and other health-care facilities if the smokers’ rooms have separate ventilation systems.

And Schiller urged the supervisors to ban smoking during plays. “Why should an actor be forced to use a cigarette when we’ve given up using real knives and real guns on stage?” she said.

The ordinance came before the supervisors two weeks ago, but the vote was postponed because Flynn was absent after eye surgery. At the earlier meeting, a half-dozen health officials, business representatives and private citizens urged the board to support it.