BILL TO END BAN ON SMOKING IN BARS KILLED

Veteran lawmaker decides proposal won't leave committee

After a few angry digs at a fellow legislator and the tobacco industry, a
veteran state senator yesterday used her power as a committee chair to
single-handedly kill a bill to end California's ban on smoking in bars.

Since it went into effect January 1, the ban on smoking in bars and card
clubs has whipped up strong feelings on both sides.

Anti-smoking advocates hail it as a national model for protecting
nonsmokers from the dangers of inhaling second-hand smoke. Opponents of the
smoking ban say it hurts their business.

But Senator Diane Watson, D- Los Angeles, chair of the Senate Health and
Human Services Committee, bought none of the arguments pitched by those
favoring the bill to end the ban.

After two-and-a-half hours of testimony during which the author of the bill
never showed up, Watson unilaterally decided there would be no vote on the
bill, it would just stay in limbo, trapped in her committee.

``The author has not come. The tobacco industry has not come,'' Watson
said. ``The evidence is in. This bill will stay with the committee. I don't
think we need to bring it up again.

``I think the author needs to get over it and get on with his life,'' she
concluded.

Assemblyman Ed Vincent, D- Inglewood, had asked Watson to postpone a
hearing on his bill until July. Watson refused saying the issue was too
important to postpone.

Vincent declined to comment after the apparent death of the bill. Attorney
General Dan Lungren, a GOP candidate for governor, also weighed in on the
hot-button issue yesterday.

Although he opposes the smoking bill heard yesterday because it restricts
some of the powers of the attorney general, Lungren said if he were
governor he would sign a bill to allow smoking to resume in the state's
roughly 37,300 bars or bar-restaurants.

``I think there ought to be some leeway on bars,'' Lungren told reporters
yesterday before the hearing. ``What are we going to do with some of these
folks -- stamp big T's on their foreheads, the new scarlet letter?

``I would sign a bill that would allow some flexibility so that you could
smoke in bars. That's controversial, what the hell. While they're drinking
themselves to death, let them have a cigarette. With the death penalty you
used to allow someone one last smoke.''

A spokesman for Lungren said opposition to the smoking bill was being
``re-evaluated'' because passage of legislation late last year might have
ended Lungren's objections.

Vincent's bill would allow smoking to resume in bars beginning January 1,
1999 and continue until January 1, 2001.

If state or federal workplace safety agencies create ventilation standards
to remove the dangers of nonsmokers inhaling secondhand smoke, smoking
could continue after that date. No standards, no puffing.

Backers of the bill included the California Commerce casino in Southern
California, the largest card club in the state.

``Commerce Club has 200 fewer employees than we had in 1997,'' said Rod
Blonien, the card club's lobbyist. ``We can't say the nine, 10 percent
decline is due to smoking but we believe the bulk is due to smoking.''

Tom O'Rourke, owner of The Nutty Irishman in Santa Rosa, said he has laid
off two of his employees because of the ban.

``Their tips are down,'' O'Rourke told the committee. ``All we ask is the
right to put up a sign.''

On the opposing side, Tom Rankin of the California Labor Federation AFL-CIO
said the ban should stay in place.

``Second hand smoke harms whoever happens to inhale it,'' Rankin said.
``Our job is to protect the health and safety of the workers of California.

Vincent's bill is not the only measure aimed at restoring smoking in bars.

Assemblyman Brett Granlund, R-Yucaipa, has a bill that would allow bars
with five or fewer employees to permit smoking -- so long as employees who
enter smoking areas voluntarily agree to do so.

The bill would also allow smoking to resume in any workplace where all of
the employees -- part time or full time -- say smoking is OK with them.

)1998 San Francisco Chronicle