NO SMOKE, NO FIRE: With all the...

NO SMOKE, NO FIRE: With all the letters written on behalf of the tourist industry opposing the county’s toughened anti-smoking policy, the county supervisors had expected a packed house of unhappy faces when final passage came Tuesday. But the opponents were a no-show, convinced that further argument would be fruitless. . . . With few exceptions, the new policy would ultimately ban smoking in about 195 restaurants, offices and retail shops in unincorporated Orange County by 1995.

THE REAL THING: Two of four local singers currently featured in a nationally televised Coca-Cola ad campaign have signed contracts with music giant Motown Record Corp. Kelly Jackson and Jason Hibbert are now part of Soultry, the R&B; quartet that Motown plans to begin recording early next year. . . . “It was being in the right place at the right time,” says Hibbert.

NO. 2 IS NO. 1: Russ Lightcap, Caltrans district chief for Orange County, quipped in a retirement speech this week that local Transportation Authority Director Stan Oftelie “owes his success to Lisa Mills.” Mills is Oftelie’s chief assistant. “That’s what she tells me too,” Oftelie says. “You know, he’s right. She’s been a major factor in our good relations with Caltrans.” . . . It was Mills who laid the groundwork for Caltrans even setting up an Orange County office. In her spare time, Mills is a member of the Santa Ana City Council.

SWITCHING RIDES: If you don’t take the bus because none of the routes suit your needs, you might want to take another look next year. After reams of paperwork studying where people in Orange County go during the day, the county Transportation Board will soon consider a major overhaul of its current bus route system. . . . “The current grid-based system was designed in the 1970s, says OCTA’s Monte Ward. “It’s time to re-evaluate how we do things.” It will take months of further study before new routes can take effect.