VENTURA : Council May Dilute New Smoking Ban

Less than one week after Ventura’s strictest anti-smoking law ever went into effect, City Council members have proposed weakening it to respond to complaints by owners of some of Ventura’s oldest restaurants, who say the near-total ban is driving away their most faithful customers.

After more than an hour of sometimes heated debate, the Ventura City Council voted 4 to 3 Monday to revisit the smoking issue, organizing a council committee to study whether a device called a Smokeeter really can suck up enough cigarette fumes to make the air reasonably clean for nonsmokers.

If the committee decides the air filtration system is successful, council members said they might allow some restaurants, particularly those with bars, to install the devices.

“If we do make exceptions (to the ordinance), we are going to cause future problems,” acknowledged Councilman Greg Carson, who joined council members Jack Tingstrom, Jim Monahan and Rosa Lee Measures in voting for the measure. But with the current ordinance, he added: “We have also caused hardship to some restaurants that have been around for years.”

Ventura city staff performed their own assessment of the air filtration system after Lyn Flores, co-owner of Tony’s Steak and Seafood restaurant, urged the council earlier this year to investigate it as an alternative to the ban. Staff members told the council Monday that as effective as the Smokeeter might be, it was no substitute for not smoking at all.

But some council members said they were swayed by Flores’ emotional testimony Monday, when she said she might lose her business if she had to turn away all her smoking customers.

“There are over 10 of us (restaurant owners) that cannot conform in any way that is economically feasible,” she said.