Smoke ban ignites defiance

The sign on the entrance to the Lone Cactus Saloon leaves no room for doubt about the owner’s position on the state’s new clean indoor air law: “Smoking, our right. Your choice to enter.”

Welcome to the new speak-easy of the modern-day Prohibition.

“I worked 30 years as a single mom to be financially able to open my own bar,” says Judy Sanders, who opened her 1880s-decorated establishment seven years ago in Spokane’s Fairwood Shopping Center on Hastings Road. “They’re not going to change the rules on me now.”

The law Sanders is so worked up about is the result of Initiative 901, approved by voters in November and in effect since December. It’s been called the toughest anti-smoking law in the country because it not only bans smoking in public places, including bars and restaurants, it prohibits smoking within 25 feet of doors and windows.

The task of enforcing the law in Spokane County falls to three employees of the Spokane Regional Health District. So far they have written warnings for seven bars, three of which have been given a “notice of corrective action” and fines after failing a second inspection.

They are the Lone Cactus, north of Spokane, PJ Pub on North Monroe and the Yardley Bar & Grill in Spokane Valley.

“The owners decided that they were not going to comply with the law,” said Maggie Merrill, of the health district’s tobacco prevention and control program. “When the inspectors came in, they said as much. We’ve actually received complaints from other bars complaining that they are complying and losing business to bars that aren’t. It’s not fair that these places are taking their business away by actively violating the law.

“Most places that are covered by the law are trying to comply,” she said.

Obviously, it’s going to be a while before three inspectors visit every bar and restaurant in the county, but one night this week, two of them were making their rounds in downtown Spokane, warning bars and restaurants that no-smoking signs must be visible at every door, even service entrances.

Business owners are responsible for violations of the clean air law. That includes the responsibility to tell patrons they cannot smoke outside within 25 feet of a door. Some have tried to erect outside shelters for smoking customers, but such structures cannot be closed and employees cannot serve food or drinks or be required to clean the areas.

As far as actual smoking violations are concerned, the tobacco inspectors are relying on the health district’s clean air hotline, (509) 232-1707.

“Right now we are just responding to complaints,” Merrill said.

Customers, employees and competitors have reported about 20 establishments, but inspectors have to see violations themselves before they can write a warning for a first offense and a notice of corrective action thereafter. A warning carries no fine, but there is a $75 reinspection fee, Merrill explained. After that, a violator can be fined $100 per day, plus a reinspection fee of $225.

Sanders has no doubt about who turned her in. One of her competitors came in to the Lone Cactus about a week ago, ordered a glass of wine, and left. Now Sanders is “into the state for about $400,” but she’s not about to give in. After seven years in business, she said, this year will be the first in which she has turned a profit.

In fact, business at the saloon has about tripled since the smoking ban took effect, Sanders said. She makes no apologies. She said 99 percent of her clients light up, and she has no employees to protect from the hazards of second-hand smoke. She runs the kitchen, and her partner runs the bar. Both smoke.

At the PJ Pub on Monroe, owner Carol Lewis said she’s ready to go to court over the notice her business received Wednesday night for not having no-smoking signs at every door. When the inspectors came, she said, they found people smoking within 25 feet of the back door.

“I don’t have the manpower to go out and check to see if people are smoking,” Lewis said. “We had to cut down on labor as it is because of the loss of business.”

As a result of the smoking ban, Lewis said, she has seen about a 30 percent decline in customers, including several who participated in the American Pool Association league, the backbone of her business. She said her bar has three electronic precipitators to clean the air.

“A lot of the pool league quit because they can’t smoke,” Lewis said. “I think it’s ridiculous. If you’re 21 and older, they don’t have the right to tell you not to smoke. All my employees smoke and you don’t have to come in here if you don’t want to be around smoke.”

The tobacco control team has heard it all before. Merrill believes the public supports the ban, which she called “a great step forward toward protecting the public’s health.”

“They voted for it for a reason,” she said.

Merrill said employees have a right not to have to breathe second-hand smoke. To say “they can just work someplace else” does not fly with her. Bar and restaurant workers should not have to choose between their health and their livelihood. “It just doesn’t work that way.”