BARS GET CREATIVE WITH NO-SMOKING LAW

Most comply, but some ignore ban

One barkeeper puts out shot glasses as ashtrays. Another erects a sign:
"Check us out. There's lots to do. Games and tunes and smoking too.
Legally." A third posts its "No Smoking" signs in Chinese, Spanish and
Vietnamese.

Owners of pubs and taverns are finding a variety of ways to cope with the
problems that recalcitrant smokers pose in complying with the state's
newest anti-smoking law.

At Rover's Inn, an Irish pub in San Francisco, the ashtrays have
disappeared, but another piece of glassware has taken its place: a shot
glass, half filled with water.

On a recent weekday afternoon, smokers puffed happily away, flicking their
cigarette ashes into glasses.

"It's just for regulars," said Vince Hogan, an Irish immigrant who owns
Rover's Inn and the Dubliner, both in Noe Valley.

"According to the law, we're not tobacco police. We don't have to kick
anybody out," he said. "We tell customers it's against the law to smoke.
But it's my property, and if someone chooses to break the law, I don't want
them putting the cigarette butts and ashes on my bar, or the floor of my
bar."

The statewide law, which went into effect on Jan. 1, doesn't ban ashtrays.
But health officials recommend removing them to rid bars of "cues" that say
smoking is all right.

Hogan put up awnings so smokers can take shelter from El Nino storms while
they smoke outside. Still, some persist in lighting up inside. And Hogan
understands.

"You can't expect them to stand out there in that rain when there's a cozy
bar inside," he said.

So far, neither Hogan nor his patrons have been cited for violating the law.

Nor does he expect to be.

"The Health Department doesn't work after 5 o'clock - that's the bottom
line," Hogan said.

California's smoke-free workplace law banned smoking in enclosed workplaces
beginning in 1995. Bars, taverns and gaming clubs - which employ 850,000
people in the state - were exempted until 1998.

The law is designed to protect employees from the dangers of secondhand smoke.

38,000 Bars Affected

The ban affects more than 38,000 businesses in the state, including 31,700
restaurant bars and 6,700 "stand-alone" bars.

Larry Murphy, owner of the Mustang Club in San Leandro, enforced the
smoking ban in January.

"I even threw a couple of guys out," said Murphy, a former Oakland police
officer. "I had a guy who threw a lit cigarette in my face because I would
not tolerate smoking in here."

Murphy started getting reports that nearby bars were cheating. "People were
telling me, "You're the only guy enforcing this,' " he said. "I heard one
bar is renting ashtrays for a dollar apiece to help with the fine."

Then, in late January, the state Assembly voted to, in effect, repeal the
bar smoking ban.

The repeal measure, AB297, is scheduled for a March 25 hearing in the
Senate, where it is expected to face an uphill battle.

"You'd be surprised how many people think it has already been repealed,"
Murphy said.

Faced with a flagging business, competition from bars allowing illegal
smoking and the possibility of a repeal, Murphy decided to fire his sole
employee so he could qualify for the law's only exemption - a bar with no
employees may allow smoking - and keep his business afloat.

Murphy put up signs to entice smokers back.

"The Legislature cannot make up its mind," one sign says. "I can. You may
smoke here. Legally." And: "Check us out. There's lot to do. Games and
tunes and smoking too. Legally."

Murphy, who bought the bar 15 years ago so he would have a place to sing
and play guitar, has had to give up his solo country-western act to serve
drinks - and to clean the floors, wash the dishes, stock the bar and do the
books.

Poll: Voters support law

However, the former smoker said he enjoyed the smoke-free days at his club.
According to a recent Examiner poll, a majority of California voters also
prefer smoke-free bars.

The poll of 831 registered voters throughout the state showed that 55
percent opposed lifting the smoking ban, while 34 percent favored repealing
it. Eleven percent were undecided.

Women strongly opposed revoking the ban (65 percent), while men were evenly
split, with 45 percent opposing a repeal and 44 percent favoring it.

The poll, conducted on Feb. 19-21 by Mason-Dixon Political / Media
Research, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

At the Occidental Grill, a restaurant bar in The City's Financial District
with a reputation as a "cigar-friendly" place, co-owner Don Helton longs
for the days he could let smokers light up without comment.

"During the last two months of this extreme weather, I've been asking
people in $2,000 suits to step outside in a monsoon to smoke," Helton said.
"I can understand their reluctance to do that."

Helton said the Occidental was doing its best to abide by the law, but he
sympathized with customers who wanted to smoke.

"You simply don't take 20 percent of the adult population addicted to a
legal substance and tell them they can't do it in a place they've been
accustomed to doing it all their lives," he said.

Occidental is one of six San Francisco bars whose owners have been summoned
to administrative hearings - a step that occurs after a warning but before
a citation - to explain why patrons were found smoking during health
inspections.

Tom Rivard, an inspector with the San Francisco Department of Public
Health, said the owners had promised to enforce the law in the future. If
they fail to do so, he said, the police will be called in to issue
citations to patrons.

Fines

Bar owners also can be cited if they refuse to comply.

The first violation will cost a patron or bar owner $100, the second
offense within a year will cost $200, and the third will cost $500.

After a bar owner receives a third citation in a year, the case will be
referred to the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which
can issue fines up to $7,000.

Rivard is skeptical of claims that patrons are refusing to honor genuine
requests by bartenders to put out cigarettes.

"Bar owners are exceedingly capable of implementing a variety of
regulations that apply in their facilities, including controlling sales of
alcohol to minors, drunkenness on their premises and the transport of
alcoholic beverages outside," Rivard said. "These laws are certainly as
difficult, if not more so, than controlling smoking. It's hard to
understand why bars are not able to implement the smoking ban if they're
committed to it."

Rivard estimates that more than 75 percent of the bars in The City are
complying with the smoking ban.

O'Greenberg's, a wood-shingled bar on the corner of 29th and Dolores
streets in San Francisco, is enforcing the new law - and having some fun in
the process.

"We're supposed to post the law, so we did - in Chinese," smiled bartender
Kathy Castro, pointing to a rectangular sign hanging on the wall at the end
of the bar.

The bar, owned by a Jewish man who put an "O" in front of "Greenberg" 20
years ago to attract patrons in the then-Irish neighborhood, also has
posted signs in Spanish and Vietnamese.

English, too.

Considering its Jewish and Irish heritage, shouldn't the bar put up signs
in Hebrew and Gaelic?

"That would be fun," laughed Castro. "That would be perfect."