Smoking ban passes 1st vote in Cayce

It was a hair-thin preliminary vote on a smoking ban in Cayce, but City Council on Tuesday gave a highly qualified OK.

The deciding vote by Councilman Kenneth Jumper came with conditions he demanded but did not explain.

"This has to be redone," council's senior member said after suggesting the whole proposal be delayed a month. Council pressed ahead and the proposed law passed 3-2.

If Cayce adopts a ban on a second and final vote, it would become the third municipality in Lexington County to prohibit smoking in workplaces.

Cayce councilmen Rick Myers and Steve Isom argued against a ban, citing government intrusion in business decisions as their primary concerns.

"I think we need to tread lightly," Myers said.

Mayor Elise Partin and Councilman Skip Jenkins pushed hardest for a ban, citing health risks for employees.

"We're not entering uncharted territory here," Partin said, citing laws already enacted in unincorporated Lexington County, Springdale, Pine Ridge, Columbia and Richland County. "Five Points hasn't been hurt. The Vista hasn't been hurt."

Council debated the proposed law longer than it took 17 people to air their views during a 40-minute public hearing.

Those who objected to a ban worried how much it would hurt businesses already suffering in a recession. They also fear that adjoining West Columbia would not ban smoking and would gain a business advantage.

"That's the difference between me being open and me being closed," Dave Murray, who has owned a restaurant and bar in Cayce for nearly 20 years, said before the hearing.

He figures the 10 to 15 percent of his customers at his Murray's Neighborhood Grill & Bar are smokers. "I can't take that blow."

A former smoker, Murray said he banned cigarettes in two-thirds of his business 10 years ago. That decision improved his bottom line by about 5 percent yearly until the recession struck.

He and other business owners called on council to wait until the economy improves.

Ban proponents said studies have shown that no amount of secondhand smoke is safe and that bans do not reduce profits.

Louis Eubank of the S.C. Tobacco Collaborative, an antismoking group, said a sampling of people who attended Cayce's Christmas parade showed there is public support for a ban.

About 300 people in an hour's time signed a petition to impose a ban, Eubank said.

The county seat, Lexington, enacted the first and toughest ban in October 2008. For more than a year, its leaders weathered complaints.

Mayor Randy Halfacre now wants to ease the toughest provision - a ban on outdoor smoking decks - but Town Council might not go along.

Columbia and Richland County adopted bans at the same time as the town of Lexington.

Prohibitions went into effect on New Year's Day 2010 in Springdale, Pine Ridge and unincorporated Lexington County.

Lexington County's 14 municipalities waited on County Council to impose a ban in order to avoid a patchwork, which restaurants and bars argue would create unfair business advantages from town to town. The language in the laws mirrors County Council's prohibition.

It took County Council 18 months of debate to win a slim 5-4 majority for a ban in August. It was the most protracted smoking-ban fight in the state, antismoking forces have said.

The county delayed the effective date by four months to give businesspeople time to prepare.

Ban advocates are pressing West Columbia to revisit a ban that died last year before a vote. Chapin leaders are in the talking stage.

A ban in Batesburg-Leesville appears unlikely. Irmo is the only town to vote down a ban.

Enforcement continues to be an issue in Columbia and Richland County.

Columbia City Council today will vote whether to sue a tobacco store to enforce its ban. Tobacco stores are exempt, but the store has begun selling beer, which the city contends makes it a bar.

Richland County Council is still figuring out how strictly to enforce its ban. Tuesday night, council gave tentative approval to taking a business license from a business that chalks up three or more infractions in six months.

Cayce also is using the county law as a model. If adopted, Cayce would join those that require:

- Businesses to post no-smoking signs

- A $25-per-infraction penalty. Four violations could result in revocation of occupancy permits or business permits. The county law, which applies only outside of municipal limits, stipulates that repeat offenders may be declared public nuisances.

- Exempt private clubs. But the proposal is written to require clubs to be recognized as federal nonprofits and not merely call themselves private to avoid a ban.

- Exempt hotels and motels that have designated smoking rooms as well as religious ceremonies where smoking is part of a ritual.