Proposed Smoking Ban Could Impact Local Businesses

By Cindy V. Culp, Waco Tribune-Herald, Texas

Feb. 5–Every time lunch and dinner rolls around, Heitmiller Family Steakhouse in Elm Mott sees a stream of Waco diners.

Many of them come just for the food. But the restaurant also draws a steady crowd of smokers who are looking to light up without running afoul of local smoking ordinances, said owner Donna Heitmiller.

“The reputation is out there,” she said.

Soon, though, the restaurant may have to rely solely on its menu offerings to attract customers. A bill being proposed by a Texas senator would outlaw smoking not only in restaurants, but in all public places statewide.

Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, filed the bill last week. He is working on the issue in conjunction with several anti-smoking and health groups, saying the habit is an expensive public health problem.

In short, the bill would ban people from smoking in any business that has employees or any government building. It would even ban smoking in government-owned vehicles or in the seating area of an outdoor event.

The idea, Ellis and his coalition say, is to ensure all Texans have the opportunity to work in a smoke-free workplace. But opponents of a ban say the government would be overstepping its bounds.

If passed, the bill would supersede any city or county ordinances that regulate smoking. In some local communities, the transition would be virtually seamless, since smoking is already outlawed. But in others that have no ban or only a partial ban, Ellis’ proposal would be a major adjustment.

The issue first caught fire locally in 2002, when the Waco-McLennan County Public Health District developed a model anti-smoking ordinance and sent it to local city councils for consideration. It included a ban on smoking in nearly all public places, with narrow exceptions for bars and tobacco stores.

Robinson adopted the ordinance shortly after it was passed. McGregor also looked at the issue but decided to only prohibit smoking inside city buildings and city-owned vehicles. It then stalled.

Many towns said they wanted to see what the city of Waco was going to do before they took action. Several months later, in June 2002, Waco did pass a version of the ordinance. But it had several significant exceptions that were added after restaurants and individual residents put up a fight against a total ban.

That experience had a chilling effect on the rest of the cities. It wasn’t until two years later, when Woodway adopted the health district’s model ordinance, that the topic was broached again.

Since then, no other cities have discussed it. Even the health district itself has moved on to other priorities.

Ellis’ bill could change that however, if it is able to gain traction.

The cities with the least at stake are the two that already have a comprehensive smoking ban — Robinson and Woodway. Officials there said they have few problems with their ordinance and have been able to resolve the small amount of reported violations with warnings. In general, citizens have been supportive, they said.

“Before, you got a loaf of bread from the convenience store and it would smell like smoke when you got home,” said city manager Dick Fletcher. “Or you’d pick up a suit at the dry cleaners and it would smell like smoke when you got home. There have been a lot of improvements since then.”

Next on the list are smaller cities that don’t have a smoking ordinance but which have few public places where people are allowed to feed the habit. Lacy-Lakeview, for example, only has a few restaurants and they already outlaw smoking, said City Manager Mike Nicoletti.

City leaders discussed a ban back in 2002, Nicoletti said. But since the city already had a prohibition against smoking in government buildings and restaurants weren’t an issue, the discussion died due to irrelevancy, he said.

“I can’t see it being a hardship,” Nicoletti said of Ellis’ proposal. “It would just be another change.”

But in Waco, Ellis’ bill could mean a lot of wasted investment for some businesses. The city’s ordinance has several exceptions, one of which is that businesses can allow smoking in walled-off, separately ventilated areas.

Quite a few local restaurants have taken advantage of that option and remodeled or built their establishments to comply. George’s Restaurant is one such place, and owner Sammy Citrano says he would be incensed if Ellis’ bill meant the thousands of dollars he spent in renovations were for nothing.

With a law like Waco’s, residents have the best of both worlds, Citrano said. People who smoke can patronize places with approved smoking areas and those who don’t aren’t exposed to secondhand smoke.

“It’s part of why our business is continuing to grow, because it gives people the option,” Citrano said.

Although the Waco Restaurant Association has not done a formal survey to determine the economic impact of the city’s ordinance, Citrano said his conversations with local restaurant owners have shown that those with a heavy bar business suffered if they didn’t retrofit to allow smoking, while those that did retrofit saw business increase. Good anecdotal evidence is that about a half dozen restaurants that didn’t initially renovate to allow smoking have since done so, he said.

However, restaurant association president Phil Adkins, owner of several Shipley Do-Nuts shops, said he hasn’t heard a single business owner complain that the ordinance hurt their business. The fact that eateries can still have a smoking area if it’s separate may have played a role in that, he said.

But it’s nearly impossible to know if having or not having a smoking area helped or hurt a restaurant, he said, since so many other factors could have affected their business.

Adkins said he thinks it makes sense to have a statewide rule. It would level the playing field for restaurants, he said, and be less confusing for those that have locations in multiple jurisdictions.

“It would certainly give everyone the same set of rules,” Adkins said.

In addition to restaurants, a comprehensive ban could also be problematic for fraternal organizations, many of which allow smoking in their buildings. Rick Sweeney, quartermaster for Veterans of Foreign War Post 6008 in Hewitt, said he can’t argue with Ellis’ proposal from a health perspective. Veterans would be better off if they didn’t smoke, he said.

But at the same time, Sweeney doesn’t think the government should tell establishments that they can’t allow smoking. With veterans halls, especially, it is a part of the culture, he said.

“Smoking is part of how they handle their stress,” Sweeney said. “If it (becomes) the law, it will be done. But it’s not going to be popular.”

Ellis and the organizations supporting his bill contend that separate ventilation systems like the ones allowed in Waco are ineffective.

They also point out how expensive the systems are and say banning smoking altogether is the safest and most efficient option to protect Texans from secondhand smoke.

If the bill passes, violations would be a Class C misdemeanor.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Waco Tribune-Herald, Texas

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