Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Ban on Smoking Proposed

SANTA CLARITA —  The city will soon debate whether to join the growing parade of cities banning smoking in public places.

The proposed ordinance, slated to come before the City Council next week, would go beyond the recently enacted Los Angeles smoking ban by forbidding smokers to light up in enclosed workplaces as well as restaurants.

“We have facts, undisputed reports showing that there is no safe level of secondhand smoke,” said Donna Pugh, the Canyon Country resident and former smoker who began the anti-smoking drive earlier this year. “It’s about time Santa Clarita came to this.”

Pugh and other residents asked the City Council to adopt a smoking ban. The proposed ordinance would exempt bars, private residences, hotels and outdoor areas.

If the ordinance becomes law, Santa Clarita would become the 49th municipality in California--and the third in Los Angeles County, along with Long Beach and Whittier--to impose such a broad ban.

Those behind the proposal contacted council members with a draft ordinance four weeks ago.

The two smokers on the Santa Clarita City Council--Mayor Jan Heidt and Councilman Carl Boyer--said they are reluctant to legislate an issue they believe has been settled largely by individual businesses.

“I really feel that people out here in Santa Clarita police themselves rather well,” Heidt said. “In the absence of any kind of ordinance at all, most restaurants have already divided themselves into smoking or nonsmoking restaurants.”

Boyer, an intermittent smoker for 40 years who doesn’t light up in his own home, described the Los Angeles ban as “Draconian,” and said the City Council, if it has to adopt an anti-smoking ordinance, should approve a less restrictive measure.

“I don’t want to prohibit people from smoking at work,” Boyer said.

Pugh said she jumped into the smoking fray because of her job.

The Santa Clarita resident, who smoked two packs a day until quitting 17 years ago, works in the Valencia Industrial Center at a business where smoking is allowed. With several co-workers lighting up and no designated area for smoking, Pugh said she is trapped in an environment that causes her eyes, nose and throat to burn.

Councilwoman Jill Klajic said smoking controls are inevitable and will ultimately benefit businesses by improving employees’ health and, in the case of restaurants, drawing additional non-smoking patrons.

But Marlee Lauffer, president of the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce, said a ban may hurt local restaurants by prompting smokers to eat outside of the area.

“The concern expressed by members of the chamber is it’s one thing if the state were to ban smoking in restaurants, because that would put everybody on a level playing field,” said Lauffer, whose organization has yet to take a formal stand on the issue.

Of great concern, Lauffer said, would be the uneven playing field on which restaurants in Santa Clarita would have to compete with those in unincorporated Los Angeles County, which allows smoking in restaurants.

Jonathan Gaw is a staff writer. Douglas Alger is a correspondent.