Smoking bans in bars get second look

Columbia and Richland boards will consider laws for bars, restaurants

By ADAM BEAM and DAWN HINSHAW - abeam@thestate.com dhinshaw@thestate.com

Smoking would be against the law in bars throughout Columbia and Richland County under separate measures being considered this week.

County Council members will consider a ban tonight that would apply to all workplaces in all unincorporated parts of the county — a proposal that is expected to pass, council chairman Joe McEachern said.

That would include bars.

McEachern, who is sponsoring the county’s ban, said he’s hoping the city and county will pass the same law.

“It’s just something we need to do,” said McEachern, who said that, for the ban to be effective, bars must be included.

This week, a fractured City Council is preparing to reconsider whether bars should be included in its ban.

The city’s ordinance, passed in 2006, exempts bars — defined as businesses that make at least 85 percent of their money through alcohol sales.

But Mayor Bob Coble will introduce an amendment at Wednesday’s council meeting that would eliminate the bar exemption following news that Councilman E.W. Cromartie is reconsidering his vote. In a 4-3 vote, Cromartie sided in 2006 with council members in favor of the exemption.

Council members will discuss the proposed amendment during Wednesday’s meeting. They will not vote. Council members will then schedule a public hearing on the ban, with the final vote likely to fall on June 4.

Countywide, 102 bars and restaurants were licensed to sell beer, wine and liquor by the drink in 2005-06, the most recent year for which figures are available, according to the state Department of Revenue’s Web site.

In recent years, local governments have considered smoking bans amid growing concerns about secondhand smoke.

A U.S. surgeon general’s report issued in 2006 concluded there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke increase their risks of heart disease or lung cancer by as much as 30 percent, the report found.

Slightly fewer than 22 percent of South Carolinians — 718,600 people — smoke, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Because smoking bans have the potential to affect competition among businesses, the S.C. Hospitality Association would prefer a state law to a patchwork of local laws.

But the Legislature has not addressed the issue, so laws have bubbled up from the local level.

FAIRNESS ISSUE

Columbia’s ban has gone unenforced since it was approved because the city was watching court challenges in Sullivan’s Island and Greenville to see if city laws would be upheld. They were last month.

In the county, McEachern appealed to a four-person council committee two weeks ago to revive the issue.

The committee did, but not before Councilwoman Bernice Scott objected that the law could hurt a handful of “mom and pop” bars in her district if smoking customers stay home.

City Council members reaffirmed their ban in April, making it a civil penalty instead of criminal penalty and adding a July 1 start date. The April 16 vote was mostly a formality for an ordinance that technically already had passed.

But everything changed after Andy Ugarte, owner of the Publick House on Devine Street, pleaded with council members after that first vote to ban smoking everywhere, including bars.

“I have a bar and bar stools and bartenders and ashtrays and draft beer and liquor and background music and sports on television — and those to me make it a bar,” Ugarte said Monday. “If our government ... decides to have nonsmoking (workplaces), it needs to be implemented fairly across the board to all businesses.”

Ugarte’s speech last month, given during the “public comments” section of the council meeting, affected Cromartie, who told Mayor Bob Coble after the meeting that he was reconsidering his vote.

Reach Beam at (803) 771-8405. Reach Hinshaw at (803) 771-8641.