Council May Give Smokers a Break : Thousand Oaks: City leaders will take up a decision to ban smoking at sidewalk cafes. But many say it goes too far.

Working at a North Ranch newsstand, Greg Scapa has come to dread the browsers he refers to as “old-lady customers with heavy perfume.”

When they linger around the magazine rack, he often feels sick. But he never asks them to take their scents elsewhere. Flowery fumes might offend his sinuses or upset his stomach, but Scapa figures his customers have rights.

And, as a self-described “social smoker,” he says he has rights, too.

So when Scapa caught a whiff of the Thousand Oaks Planning Commission’s recent decision to ban smoking from outdoor restaurant seating areas, he was furious. City Council members will take up the issue Tuesday, and Scapa is ready to give them an earful.

“I mean, c’mon, the air you breathe out here is worse than the smoke,” Scapa said in frustration. As he talked, cars idled in a parking lot just a few feet from outdoor tables at a frozen yogurt shop.

“Even if (the ban) is supposed to be good for you, it still suppresses your rights,” he said as a friend nodded in agreement and blew smoke in his face. “That’s just ridiculous.”

For once, tobacco fans like Scapa seem to have the sympathy of the Thousand Oaks council majority.

Local smokers lost a round last fall, when the council agreed to ban cigarettes from all restaurants and public buildings. By a 4-1 vote, council members also imposed a smoke-free zone around public doorways.

But when it comes to lighting up in sidewalk cafes, a majority of council members seems inclined to cut smokers some slack. Among other Ventura County cities with smoking laws, only Ojai has a ban that extends to outdoor dining.

“You have to apply a standard of reasonableness,” Councilman Frank Schillo said.

Or, as Councilman Alex Fiore put it: “You’ve got to give someone some kind of a break sometime.”

Fiore, who smoked for nearly half a century before quitting five years ago, cast the sole vote against Thousand Oaks’ original smoking ordinance. At the time, he argued that an anti-smoking law could hurt local businesses, especially sports bars. Now, however, he said six months of experience has shown him that cash registers keep on ringing even in the face of a smoking ban.

But he remains reluctant to extend the law to patio cafes.

Joined by Schillo and Councilwoman Judy Lazar, Fiore is suggesting a compromise: allowing restaurant owners to set aside several outdoor tables for smokers.

Such a solution would please Shirlee Bourland, a 55-year smoker who chose to sit outside a restaurant even on a chilly, overcast afternoon, simply so she could light up while sipping her iced tea.

“Government is taking over too much,” she said. “They won’t be happy until they ban smoking in my own house.”

On the other side, anti-smoking activists argue that cigarette fumes can be just as deadly outdoors as inside. Most sidewalk eating areas are relatively cramped, so smoke drifts easily from one table to the next.

“I don’t feel that smokers have the right to invade my space,” said one Thousand Oaks resident sitting outside a sandwich shop. “I come out to enjoy a meal, and I should be able to enjoy it without having to breathe smoke that has circulated through someone else’s organs.”

City councils in Camarillo, Moorpark, Ojai and Ventura have all passed laws banning smoking in most restaurants and public places. But only Ojai’s law specifically addresses outdoor seating.

Ojai officials have received several complaints from restaurant owners since the law took effect, and the council may eventually reconsider, said Dan Singer, an assistant to the city manager.

“That one provision puts our law in the elite class of very restrictive ordinances,” Singer said. Especially as summer approaches, he added, some restaurant owners have lobbied for outdoor smoking sections.