Toughest Outdoor Smoking Ban Is OKd

A county council reluctantly approved the toughest outdoor smoking restriction in the nation Tuesday, upholding a community’s plan to impose a $100 fine for smoking or discarding cigarettes in public areas.

The Montgomery County Council voted, 5 to 4, to allow the Friendship Heights Village Council to impose the ban, which covers publicly maintained sidewalks and parks.

Because Friendship Heights is not an incorporated municipality, its laws must be approved by the county council.

The group Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights says the restriction would be more stringent than those of the roughly 60 jurisdictions nationwide with outdoor smoking bans.

Friendship Heights Mayor Al Muller, a physician, told the council it’s a matter of public health for allergy and asthma sufferers.

“It’s a small step here but it’s an important larger step, I think, for public health and review on a county, state or national level,” said Muller.

But the debate focused instead on a local jurisdiction’s rights to pass laws without being overruled.

Howard Denis, a county councilman from Friendship Heights, said he probably would not support the ban if he was on the Friendship Heights Village Council, but the town “council’s wishes should be respected. If higher levels of government don’t respect lower government, the spirit of our laws are brought into question.”

Councilman Derick Berlage also said the local government rights issue persuaded him to support the measure.

Muller said the ban will take effect once administrative details are worked out.

He said he would wait for tempers to cool while planning warning signs with the community’s security officers in charge of enforcement. Only one officer is on duty a day.

“This gives us a chance to do this as essentially an experiment,” he said, noting he would report back to the council on implementation and results in two years.

Anyone caught smoking or discarding cigarette butts on locally maintained sidewalks or in parks will be warned the first time. A repeat offense will bring a $100 fine.

Opponents plan acts of civil disobedience, and the tobacco industry is expected to sue.

Cleo Travani, president of the Friendship Heights civic association, opposes smoking but said the law is not needed.

“Why do you have to have a law when voluntary compliance will work?” Travani said. “We don’t like the impression it makes on our community. We are not extremists.”

This is not Montgomery County’s first foray into controversy on smoking. A county smoking ban in restaurants is to take effect in January 2002.