Smoking Ban Snuffed

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Department sent e-mail to county commissioners on Thursday stating that officers will not be able to enforce the smoking ban at the Spokane Interstate Fair.

Sheriff Mark Sterk said Thursday night that the commissioners had passed a resolution, not an ordinance, and therefore no penalties can be enforced. Commissioners passed the ban Tuesday after first discussing it in late August.

Sterk said he was advised by officers looking into the resolution that it can’t be enforced. The department plans to run its interpretation of the matter past Spokane County attorneys today.

Commissioner Phil Harris, who opposes the ban, said, “The sheriff is totally correct.” A resolution doesn’t make it a law, he said.

Smokers still can be asked not to smoke, he said, but they won’t face penalties if they do. Laws prohibiting smoking in buildings and minors in possession of tobacco will be strictly enforced, Sterk said.