New Anti-Smoking Laws Going Down Easy : Regulations: Restaurant owners report minor huffing and puffing over restrictions. One Moorpark merchant is an exception.

With tough new anti-smoking laws on the books in four Ventura County cities as well as the county, residents are finding fewer places to light up but business owners and officials say the transition to a smoke-free society has been smooth.

“I have absolutely heard no negative comments from merchants, restaurant owners, anyone concerning this ordinance,” said Moorpark Mayor Paul Lawrason, who in July pushed his council to become the first to enact restrictions.

The Moorpark law, which went into effect in August, bans smoking in all public places with the exception of bars and requires restaurant owners to seal bar areas off from dining rooms if they want to allow smoking there.

Eric Anders, co-owner of Moorpark’s Wood Ranch BBQ & Grill, said his restaurant went smoke-free two months before the council took action, hoping to highlight a family atmosphere, protect employees’ health and make the restaurant easier to run.

“I know for a fact that we have lost a few regular customers who used to come in for lunch and sit in the bar and smoke,” Anders said. “But overall it’s hard to tell because our business is about double what it was last year.”

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The city of Thousand Oaks was the first to follow Moorpark’s lead, enacting a less restrictive ordinance in October that banned smoking from restaurants but not bars or offices.

Smoke-free ordinances in Ojai and the unincorporated areas of Ventura County will become enforceable Feb. 14, and the Ventura City Council took similar action last week, enacting a law scheduled to take effect in mid-April.

Of the five ordinances passed around the county so far, Ojai’s is the farthest-reaching, including outdoor seating areas at restaurants and some public outdoor areas, such as Libbey Bowl, ball fields and swimming pools.

Ventura County and the city of Ventura have enacted laws similar to Moorpark’s, banning smoking from all indoor public places with the exception of bars.

“We need to move to a new status quo,” said Nan Waltman, a senior educator with Ventura County Public Health Services. “This is the middle period where people are not sure whether it’s OK or not to light up around other people, but the message is being sent and my opinion is that in five years there will be no question.”

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Not everyone is eager to send the message right away.

In October, Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton suggested that his city consider enacting a smoke-free ordinance, but fellow council members disagreed and defeated the proposal by a 4-1 vote.

“I brought it up and I thought it was kind of interesting that the council didn’t even want to get it open for discussion so we could get some comments from business owners,” Stratton said. “I was disappointed that we couldn’t say ‘Let’s take a look at it’ and decided to leave well enough alone.”

Stratton has no plans to continue to push a policy he sees as inevitable.

“I think that frankly, before the council revisits it, it’s going to fall of its own weight,” he said of public smoking. “It’s clearly something whose time is going. But it’s like spittoons--I guess they probably stuck around awhile after people stopped chewing tobacco.”

The principal argument leveled against anti-smoking laws is that they are a sign of government over-regulation and have a negative impact on businesses, particularly restaurants. But restaurant owners in Moorpark and Thousand Oaks and anti-smoking advocates say these fears are only occasionally realized.

“People worry about the possible effects, but the actuality is it’s very easy for businesses to live with,” Waltman said. “Businesses don’t go under because of smoking ordinances. They go under for a lot of reasons, but not smoking ordinances.”

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Ventura County Public Health conducted a non-scientific survey of restaurant owners around the county in late 1992 and found that of 48 restaurants that had voluntarily gone smoke-free, 58% saw no change in their business while 38% reported sales had improved somewhat or greatly. Only 4% reported a decrease, according to the survey.

Asked whether they would support a 100% smoke-free policy, 58% of 221 restaurant managers and owners said yes, while 26% said they would not and 16% were unsure. According to the survey, 60% of Ventura County diners request nonsmoking seating, while just 8% ask for smoking.

“I just think that, like so many things, cigarette smoking has become socially unacceptable,” said Steve Rubenstein, president of the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce. “And people are willing to accept that.”

Perhaps significantly, local chambers of commerce have not mounted strong opposition to the new slate of smoking ordinances popping up around the county.

“Our membership never asked us to get involved, so we didn’t take a position,” Rubenstein said. “There were three or four restaurant owners who literally said the city was doing them a favor.”

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Similarly, Moorpark Chamber President Francis Okyere said he has heard little in the way of complaints from business owners affected by his city’s new law.

“From the chamber’s standpoint, we haven’t had to do anything,” Okyere said. “If (the effect) was adverse, we would have heard it. Normally you don’t hear the good side of something. If it was adversely impacting a chamber member, they would have called and said, ‘This is happening. Please help.’ ”

One Moorpark merchant who is looking for help was the most fervent critic of the smoking ordinance as it wound its way to council approval.

“My business is down at least 25%, if not more, because when people go to a bar or a cocktail lounge, they want to smoke,” Whistle Stoppe co-owner John Gustafson said. “A lot of people have come in and said, ‘John, I’m sorry, but I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I’m not going to stop now.’ ”

Under terms of the Moorpark law, Gustafson has had to seal the restaurant portion of his business off from his bar area, where smoking is still allowed. Lunchtime patrons who want to smoke have taken to bringing their food into the bar area, he said, but dinner patrons are less likely to do so and have stayed away in droves.

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“What’s happened is that the people who want to smoke with their meal have left and have all gone to Simi. Why? Because Simi decided they didn’t want to have anything to do with the situation and they’re only about four miles down the road,” Gustafson said.

Jack’s Restaurant in Westlake has the option of sending smokers to its Simi Valley location but reports that business has improved since the council’s smoking ban.

“I’ve been looking at the numbers real close and we’ve been increasing, but I can’t tell if it’s because of the smoking or not,” said Manager Phil Kreis. “Right after the smoking ordinance passed, business went up, but we don’t know whether it’s because of that or the economy.”

To illustrate the changing public perceptions driving sentiment against smoking, Kreis said that when his restaurant opened nine years ago, only three out of 40 tables were reserved for nonsmokers.

Shortly before the anti-smoking law passed, nonsmoking tables in Jack’s outnumbered smoking tables 25 to 15.