Santa Monica OKs Tough Smoking Ban--for Now

The Santa Monica City Council has passed the toughest smoking restrictions in the Los Angeles area, a ban on puffing in all indoor workplaces--including bars.

But barflies need not extinguish their smokes just yet--the ban is expected to be repealed when two new council members are sworn in next month.

The law would prohibit smoking in all businesses, employee break rooms, hotel and motel lobbies, banquet and meeting rooms, and warehouses as of early next year. Its ban on smoking in bars would take effect in January, 1996, after a one-year grace period.

But the ordinance probably will be revisited next month, after council members-elect Pam O’Connor and Ruth Ebner are seated. They replace council members Antonio Vazquez and Kelly Olsen--the ban’s chief supporter.

“I’m going to call for the ordinance to be reconsidered as soon as the new council is sworn in,” said Councilman Robert Holbrook, who was reelected to a second term in November. “I’m confident (the ban) is going to be stopped.”

Holbrook, who initially voted to oppose the ban, changed his vote after it was clear the ordinance had the support needed for approval. By voting with the majority, he is allowed to make a motion to reconsider the measure.

In public hearings on the measure last week, the council was deluged with complaints by business and restaurant owners that a smoking ban would drive customers to bars and restaurants in neighboring cities where smoking is allowed. Representatives of hotels and travel agencies, meanwhile, said foreign travelers who smoke would avoid Santa Monica.

But supporters of the ban consider the measure good for public health.

Olsen said that the dangers of secondhand smoke are well-documented and that studies of the economic impacts of smoking bans are inconclusive.

“Assuming there is (a fiscal) impact, which I doubt, I reject the argument that finances are more important than health,” he said.

Santa Monica Mayor Judy Abdo and Councilmen Ken Genser, Holbrook, Olsen and Vazquez voted for the measure, with Councilwoman Asha Greenberg and Councilman Paul Rosenstein in opposition.

Santa Monica, like Los Angeles, prohibits smoking in restaurants but not in bars. Because of a statewide law taking effect on Jan. 1, 1995, all cities statewide must prohibit smoking in restaurants, but the state law does not ban smoking in bars for four years.