Restaurant Smoking Resolution Weighed

With tough anti-smoking ordinances surrounding it, the city of San Fernando might be called an oasis for the die-hard cigarette puffer, the perfect escape for those hiding from today’s Great American Smokeout.

It may not last long, however. The city is considering a resolution limiting smoking in restaurants.

Unlike Los Angeles, which now faces an uproar from restaurant owners over its total ban on smoking in eateries, San Fernando plans to take it slowly. The council will consider a voluntary resolution to allow restaurants to keep smoking sections so long as they constitute less than half the space of the establishment and display signs informing customers.

“I would like to see it in the form of a resolution, because it’s a tough one to enforce,” said council member Doude Wysbeek, the nonsmoker half of a committee that examined the issue. “If you can get voluntary compliance, you’re better off.”

Wysbeek said he was approached by the American Cancer Society about enacting tough anti-smoking regulations shortly after Los Angeles took action. But the council decided to pair Wysbeek, a nonsmoker, with council member Ray Ojeda, a smoker, to hash out the issue.

The two turned to the San Fernando Chamber of Commerce, which polled the city’s estimated 70 restaurants. It found that the majority of fast-food restaurants preferred to be smoke-free due to customer preferences, said Bruce Cohen, the chamber’s executive vice president.

“They also found it helps keep out the transients who spend all day smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee,” Cohen said.

But full-service restaurants preferred segregating smoking and nonsmoking customers, Cohen said.

Of the 63 eateries that responded, 48% have no-smoking policies while 40% allow it in separate sections. Smoking regulations didn’t apply to the rest, which were predominantly takeout businesses.

“We came up with a solution that protects both sides,” Cohen said. “I think that it’s a step to empower the public to make that choice itself. If a restaurant sees its business go down because of the smoking, it will change. It’s better for people to vote with their dollar than to have a bureaucracy decide it.”