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City moves to clear air
New restrictions to affect bars, bingo halls, workplaces
August 16, 2006
By ANNE AURAND, Anchorage Daily News

Smokers have less than a year left to light up in Anchorage bars and bingo halls.

The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday night voted to ban smoking in those places — and in homes where a baby sitter is working — in a long-debated, long-awaited decision Tuesday night.

The indoor-smoking ban, which goes into effect next summer, passed 8-3, with Debbie Ossiander, Dan Sullivan and Anna Fairclough voting against it.

“What we’ve tried to address is smoking in enclosed areas where there are employees,” said Dan Coffey, one of the original sponsors of the law.

Ossiander, the Assembly’s vice chairwoman and a registered respiratory therapist, said, “I’m very aware of the health impacts of smoke and what it can do to you.” But, she said, she believes in individual responsibilities and freedom.

“I believe that we are overreaching in government regulations into people’s lives,” she said.

During the debate Tuesday night, Ossiander at one point rattled off a long list of high risk jobs, like commercial fishing, or jobs where employees are exposed to toxins, like dry cleaners.

“I don’t believe government can make every job completely safe,” she said.

Allan Tesche, in his first Assembly meeting since emergency heart surgery in May, said it was cynical to say the Assembly can’t make all work places safer.

“If we pass this ordinance, we are going to make work places safer,” Tesche said just before the final vote. “That we can’t do a perfect job is no excuse.”

Tesche, countering the argument for personal freedom that was raised often during discussion, said no constitution guarantees the right to smoke.

Smoking has been against the law in most public buildings, such as restaurants, offices and government offices, in Anchorage since 2001. The new law, which Coffey and Dick Traini introduced in May, aimed to outlaw smoking in some of the only public places smokers have left, with the intention of eliminating unwanted exposure to secondhand smoke.

Sullivan, the Assembly’s chairman, said that six years ago the panel decided to exempt from the no-smoking rules places where adults go, and adults should be able to make the decision.

“Now we’ve decided that adults can’t make their own choices,” he said. There are also more places now where nonsmokers can find a job, he said.

The proposal drew crowds to Assembly meetings more than once. Hours of often passionate testimony pounded on persistent themes: Those fighting the ban said it was a government intrusion into personal freedoms and that it would kill bars and businesses that allow smokers. Those supporting it said secondhand smoke is unhealthy and employees of bars and businesses are unwillingly putting their lives in danger. And, supporters said, smoking bans elsewhere haven’t dampened the bar business.

By postponing the start date until July 1, 2007, Traini and Coffey said they picked up the support of the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce.

Coffey said it was crucial to apply the no-smoking rule to all applicable businesses, offering no exemptions, so nonsmoking establishments wouldn’t lose money to the smoking ones.

Restrictions already ban smoking in licensed day-care centers. Now the smoking ban extends to a less-formal baby-sitter arrangement in someone’s home, so long as a sitter is getting paid, even if the care is for just one child.

Ossiander tried to delete the baby-sitter provision, with vocal support from Paul Bauer. They said it would be impossible to enforce and it’s up to a parent to decide not to put their child in a smoker’s care. Ossiander’s amendment failed.

“What level of secondhand smoke is acceptable for children?” Traini said. “None.”

The new law prohibits smoking within five feet of an entrance to a bar. Smoking would be allowed in the outdoor area of a bar, such as a patio or a deck, as long as it’s done at least five feet from the door.

It bans smoking within 20 feet of city and school buildings and 50 feet of hospitals. It bans smoking within 20 feet of any place of employment, so smoke doesn’t enter the building through a ventilation system or window.

Smoking in private clubs is only OK if the club is not licensed to sell alcohol, is not open to the public and is not a place of employment.

Fairclough tried unsuccessfully to exempt veterans and military clubs from the ban.

Fairclough also tried unsuccessfully to exempt bingo halls, provided the hall has an enclosed place with an extra ventilation system.

The list of exemption can go on and on, Coffey said. But he and others said they were adamant about providing a level playing field among businesses.

Tesche said employees of bingo halls are no different than employees elsewhere who are under the protection of the secondhand smoke law.

Tesche’s life-threatening experience this spring didn’t appear to take away his argumentative tendency, although he didn’t speak as much as he has in previous meetings.

“This government will not let people die on their own when we can take a simple regulatory measure and say you can’t smoke indoors, take it outside,” Tesche said. “That is exactly what government should be doing.”

“Welcome back, Mr. Tesche,” Sullivan said.

Assembly members voted 8-3 in favor of widening the smoking ban. It takes effect July 1, 2007.

The vote
IN FAVOR
Allan Tesche
Pamela Jennings
Dan Coffey
Dick Traini
Ken Stout
Paul Bauer
Chris Birch
Janice Shamberg

AGAINST
Debbie Ossiander
Dan Sullivan
Anna Fairclough

Daily News reporter Anne Aurand can be reached at aaurand@adn.com or 257-4591.

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AK: Stop The Ban!
http://www.stomptheban.com/

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July 29, 2006

I think the most powerful testimony was that of Trina Johnson. One of her restaurants went under due to the restaurant smoking ban in 2001. Now she has her Denver nightclub up for sale because business is down 50% only one month after the Colorado smoking ban took effect. She testified was actually a partner in a venture to open a non smoking club in Anchorage, and had to sell her out her partnership in the non smoking club in order to make her mortgage payment on her Denver club. She said she put up a tent outside for the smokers, and what ended up happening was all of the smokers and non smokers were outside under the tent. The non smokers didn’t want to be inside cuz all the smokers were having fun in the tent outside.

Unfortunately, 6 out of our 11 Assembly members are sponsoring this proposal. 2 of the 6 were at least asking questions during the testimony, so hopefully one of them will rethink their position. The majority of testimony was against the ban. We Alaskans have always prided ourselved in how unique we are. We always say “we don’t give a damn how they do it outside” (meaning the lower 48 states).
– A Newsletter Reader

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Smoking opinions vented
BAN: Assembly members heard heated testimony over puffing in a variety of places.

July 26, 2006
By KATIE PESZNECKER, Anchorage Daily News

Anchorage residents stepped up Tuesday to air another full night of sometimes-passionate testimony before the Anchorage Assembly for and against a proposed smoking ban in bars, private clubs, bingo parlors, and other public places.

By the time the Assembly adjourned as midnight neared, 60 people had added their comments to the growing list that has been presented to the panel in two nights of public hearings on the proposed ordinance. About two-thirds of the speakers Tuesday testified against the ban.

The Assembly will start its own deliberations on the ban and possibly act on the issue at its Aug. 15 meeting.

Some speakers Tuesday brought props such as charts and handouts. One man gave all Assembly members a copy of George Orwell’s book “Animal Farm,” an attack on totalitarianism. But mostly the ongoing debate covered familiar ground, with different people reiterating the same arguments floated since the proposed ban first popped onto the public radar in May.

Several also testified that the proposed ordinance feels incomplete or uneven: Why are hotels exempt from the ban? Should private clubs really be included? Can’t bars have a grace period to prepare for the ban and expand outdoor areas for smokers?

“People passionately testify in favor of the ban and passionately testify against the ban, and if this ordinance gets an up-or-down vote, half the city is going to be pretty mad,” said David Dunsmore. “I think this ordinance needs more work.”

As the meeting began, people gathered outside the Loussac Library near ashtrays, with cigarettes and tobacco pipes in hand. Smokers swapped musings like, “What’s next, a ban on ATVs?” and “If secondhand smoke is really a job hazard, why doesn’t someone just call OSHA?”

Inside, the lobby scene played out like a split screen. On one side: adults in T-shirts that announced their right to breathe smoke-free air. They passed out stickers and candy and bottled water. On the other: “Citizens for Personal and Business Freedom of Choice,” handing out American-flag stickers and bubble gum and mingling with people staffing the Libertarian Party table.

That display foreshadowed the meeting, a night of split emotions and opinions, of contradicting testimony. Take Kate Herring, a young brunette who told the Assembly how great it was to return to Scotland and find that a smoking ban there hasn’t dampened the lively pubs. “Bring Anchorage into the 21st century,” she said.

Then came Trina Johnson, who owns two restaurants here. She is now selling a nightclub she owns in Denver because she’s lost half her business since a smoking ban went into effect a month ago, she said.

“I would hate to see that happen with the local bars here,” Johnson said. “I know it will. It’s happening to me now.”

Chamber of Commerce board member George Vakalis said his organization only backs the ban if bars and clubs get a year to prepare.

But Mike Layne, a grant writer and administrator, said no one needs that much time. “How long does it take to clear the ashtrays out?” Layne said.

Private club owners like Chuck Edwards asked for exemptions. At his establishment, the Petroleum Club, a board should have the right to make the rules “without the government (intruding)into our business and deciding for us,” he said.

But another person testified that at one private Anchorage establishment, she was drafted to do a presentation for a local group of Boy Scouts while secondhand smoke gushed in from the bar.

The only way to keep secondhand smoke out of a room is to not have it in the building at all, several people told the Assembly.

Betty Moats disagreed and charmed the crowd doing so. The petite 83-year-old said her dad had smoked all her life and her second husband smoked a bit too. It never agreed with her, she said. But she has no problem going to the bingo hall and sitting in the nonsmoking section while the smokers get their own area.

“I can’t see why we can’t have the places like bingo where you can do what you want to when you want to,” Moats said. “I think that’s the only fair way.”

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Proposed smoking ban: businesses react

07/13/2006
Steve O’Brien
It’s the talking point of the day: whether or not cigarette smokers can light up in their favorite bars. The Anchorage Assembly met Tuesday night to address this issue, but because there was overwhelming public comment, a decision has not been made.

It seems many people are buzzing about this issue–especially those who will be directly affected at the bars. Anchorage Assembly members met Tuesday night and around 50 people signed up to have their

Cyndi Ramirez, Humpy’s manager voice heard. One Assembly member tells CBS 11 News that Tuesday night’s speakers had a range of arguments, from constitutional rights to economic impacts. However, 50 more people still have to speak next Tuesday before members of the Assembly can deliberate and vote.

Some people say that it’s tough to avoid cigarette smoke almost anywhere you go. But concern over the life threatening effects of secondhand smoke is what gives this issue extra attention. Some people, though, say it’s not just about health concerns, especially if this ordinance is passed.

“How many smokers are going to be standing outside, while some people are going to have to walk through fumes of smoke? How many cigarette butts? Obviously, is a huge littering problem as it is–put every smoker outside, how is that going to affect the cleanliness Angi Harris, Platinum Jaxx co-owner of this town?” said Cyndi Ramirez, Humpy’s manager.

Concerns like that are shared throughout the town. But three-month-old Platinum Jaxx owners decided to make their restaurant and bar smoke-free, right from the beginning.

“We haven’t had complaints about the non-smoking, definitely. But I definitely think it’s an owner’s choice, now. I think you’re going to send a lot of people on the street to smoke if you ban it from the bars,” said Angi Harris, Platinum Jaxx, co-owner.

Now these are just a few of the thoughts going around. Tuesday is the time when the Assembly meets again at the Loussac Library. It begins at five, but the smoking issue will resume after old business is completed.

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Two sides of smoking ban face off

July 12, 2006
ROSEMARY SHINOHARA

About 250 people — bartenders and bar owners, doctors and sick people, veterans and Libertarians — jammed Anchorage Assembly chambers in Loussac Library on Tuesday night to argue and listen to the pros and cons of a proposed ban on smoking in bars.

More in the overflow crowd watched the debate on a TV set up in the lobby as the Assembly considered one of the most contentious issues before it in years.

Smoking has been against the law in most public buildings, such as restaurants, offices and government buildings, since 2001.

The Assembly will decide whether to add Anchorage bars and bingo halls to the list of places where smoking would be prohibited, two of the last enclosed public places where it is still allowed. The proposal would also prohibit smoking within 50 feet of municipal buildings and hospitals.

The Assembly had not voted by late Tuesday. However, six of the 11 members are sponsoring the extension of the ban to bars.

About 100 of those attending signed up to testify. By 11 p.m., when the Assembly adjourned for the night, about half were still scheduled to testify.

Assembly chairman Dan Sullivan said the public testimony will resume July 25.

Those standing to oppose the ban Tuesday night argued that smoking is legal and a choice.

Libertarian Party member Jake Witmer said it was a right. “Are we America or are we a third-rate socialist nation?” he asked.

Darwin’s Theory bartender Barbara Jean Alberg, who is against the ban, said, “People don’t go in there for their health.”

Peanut Farm co-owner Jack Lewis said it would take two years to get ready for a nonsmoking bar. He is against it, though one of his partners has spoken out in favor of it.

“There’s definitely not enough time for the changeover,” Lewis said.

Many favoring the ban talked about the harm secondhand smoke does to nonsmokers. Employees should be protected from smoke, they said.

Dr. Thad Woodard, a well-known pediatrician and asthma specialist, told the Assembly its decision can make a big difference in the health of the population, more so than individual doctors counseling patients.

“This is as helpful to all of our citizens as seat belts,” Woodard said.

Gayle Ferringa told the story of how she discovered at 48 that she had progressive heart disease from secondhand smoke. “Even though I had never smoked, I was in the process of being killed by secondhand smoke” from her husband, she said.

Well before the hearing began Tuesday night, the Loussac lobby was buzzing with people passing out lapel labels and informational sheets on both sides of the issue. Campaigners against the ban claimed the American flag, distributing flag stickers for people to put on their shirts.

Bernadette Bradley, chair of CHARR, the Cabaret, Hotel, Restaurant and Retailers Association, brought chocolate bars and candies for the anti-ban table, which held a sign that said, “Citizens for Personal and Business Freedom of Choice.

“These people haven’t eaten,” she said. “I might even order a pizza.” Bradley, owner of the Bradley House bar on the Old Seward Highway, has said she wants smokers to be able to smoke and eat and not feel they are offending people.

She had sent e-mails to 300 customers alerting them to the hearing.

Across the lobby, SmokeFree Anchorage Coalition members handed out fluorescent green tags that said, “SmokeFree workplaces for all.”

Coalition member Laura Muller, who is allergic to smoke, was getting uncomfortable just standing in the lobby from people lighting up outside the door.

“My airways close up,” she said.

Dottie Roggeveen, 77 and a Korean War veteran, stood outside smoking one cigarette after another as she waited for the hearing. She was dressed in a Navy blazer and maroon tie, representing VFW Post 1685 in Spenard. She feels that members of private clubs like the veterans’ organization should be able to decide for themselves whether to smoke. Since the post has employees, smoking would not be permitted under the new law.

She has been smoking since she was 16, and her lungs are clear, she said.

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Proposed smoking ban

07/11/2006
Steve O’Brien

Assembly members are trying to decide whether or not to put out all cigarettes inside our bars. Because this is such a huge issue and Assembly members are expecting a number of comments from the public, a decision Tuesday night is not definite. One thing is for sure: some people are talking–both about the possible negative and positive effects.

It’s safe to say that no one is a stranger to cigarette smoke. The problem is, some people wish they were, because it’s

Dan Sullivan, Assembly member

affecting their health. But should Assembly members vote to eliminate smoking from bars? Some say: no way!

“If people don’t want to come into their establishment because they allow smoking, let the dollar speak,” said James Marple.

But that burden has some local leaders concerned. They find that there are some unanswered questions when it comes to this ordinance, such as having smoking on a patio outside.

“I’m hoping that the body will at least consider some amendments that make it, the impact less for the business community. Give them some time to comply within a year,” said Dan Sullivan, Assembly member.

However, it’s not just the indoor businesses that have concerns. Cody Blackbird runs a shoe shining shop in the heart of downtown, a place where some smokers like to congregate.

“I’ve had a couple of people say they

Janice Shamberg, Assembly member

don’t stop because the smoke from the bench and that they’re allergic to the smoke or are asthmatic,” said Blackbird.

It’s a burning issue no matter what. But as far as putting out all smokes inside bars, some customers won’t be too happy.

“With the bar, I like to go sit down and have a drink and have a cigarette. I like to have that right. If they want to have an area that’s not smoking, fine. But I still think they should leave an area for smoking for the ones that like to go in and have a cigarette and drinks,” said Lonna Madson.

“People can smoke in their own automobiles, they can smoke in their own homes, they can smoke in some hotel room. But they’re not–they should not be causing other people to smoke involuntarily,” said Janice Shamberg, Assembly member.

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Keep smoking legal

July 9, 2006
By KATIE PESZNECKER, Anchorage Daily News

The smoker’s world is shrinking, and he’s fuming mad.

Pull up a bar stool at just about any smoking establishment in town, and he’s there: A drink in hand, a pack of cigarettes within reach and a bone to pick with the Anchorage Assembly’s move to ban smoking in public places.

To the smoker, the political push feels personal.

“Bars are our last haven anyways — our last little section,” said James Enochs, who sat bar-side at Blues Central during a recent lunch hour, sipping iced tea and stirring a navy bean soup, his Marlboro Reds nearby.

“I can’t believe they have the goal to take away the right to smoke,” Enochs said. “You can’t have a drink without a cigarette, or a cup of coffee. This is the home of the free. That’s what this country is all about.”

That’s the thing: Smokers know what they’re doing is bad for them, that it’s an expensive addiction. But when it comes to a ban, they don’t want to talk about health issues.

Many smokers say their shared habit is a lifestyle choice and they want at least some place where they can congregate publicly and enjoy it. As the number of legal places to smoke wanes, they’ll readily rail about civil rights and personal decisions — for smokers and bar owners alike.

At Polar Bar, a low-ceilinged neighborhood joint on Fifth Avenue, people sit shoulder-to-shoulder on stools after work every day religiously. The bartenders know almost everyone who comes in, and most of them smoke. A recent after-work crowd at Polar cut each other off to inject their own fury-infused anti-ban sentiments.

“If these people want to live in California, tell them to go back to California,” said John Walsh, a 52-year-old Polar regular. “Personally I don’t care how they vote on it. I’m going to run my life the way I want to.”

“Absolutely,” added Candice Bailey, a few bar stools away. She works and lives in the Anchor Arms Motel just behind Polar Bar and is a familiar face here.

“I’m pissed,” Bailey said. “It’s the biggest bunch of BS. It’s ridiculous. And it’s BS. that we don’t get to vote on it.”

“I’d feel better about it that way,” Walsh said. “I still wouldn’t like it, but I’d feel better.”

A sign in a Polar Bar bathroom slams the ban:

It shows a man peering into a bar thinking, “Finally, a smoke free environment!” Several “No smoking” signs dot the fictitious tavern, but cobwebs clutter overturned bar stools and a “for sale” sign hangs on the door.

The ad comes from the Anchorage Cabaret, Hotel, Restaurant and Retailer’s Association, the group that represents the city’s hospitality industry including bars.

Under a law that took effect in 2001, smoking was banned in Anchorage restaurants. But the law offered a loophole to places that are bars as well as restaurants: The owner can choose to be designated a bar, where smoking can still occur.

Bernadette Bradley owns the Bradley House on the Old Seward Highway, and also chairs CHARR. Her business was under construction when the restaurant smoking ban passed.

“I was sitting watching all these smokers going up and testifying, thinking, ‘Wow, these people are really being harassed and discriminated against,’ ” Bradley said. “There’s no place for these people to go.”

Bradley House serves food — everything from filet mignon to salad — but it’s designated a bar.

Bradley wanted a smoking establishment. Before she opened, she hung a sign on the front door warning that smoking is allowed.

“I didn’t want any righteous nonsmokers,” Bradley said. “I wanted people to be able to come in, smoke, have (food) and not feel they’re offending anybody.”

Bradley herself will go days without smoking. But she smokes when she drinks and likes a cigarette with her wine. She’s uncomfortable with the concept of telling her customers they can’t use a legal product.

“You’ve got to remember there are only 80 bars they’re attacking with smoking,” she said. “There’s over 200 that are nonsmoking.”

Those numbers sound right to Doug Griffin, executive director of the state ABC Board, which regulates liquor licenses. But most of those 280-some businesses are restaurants, some of which only serve wine and beer, he said.

Bradley’s point: Nonsmokers have plenty of places to go because the establishments where someone can have a beer and cigarette are outnumbered by ones where smoking is barred. So she wants the ban to be lenient. What if bars had rooms for smokers where employees didn’t have to go, for instance?

But the people behind the ban “are like a stone wall. No compromise.”

That just further infuriates the smoking crowd at Anchorage bars. What will winter be like, they wonder. Will people be standing on the sidewalk shivering in shady neighborhoods, in inky darkness and single-digit cold because they can’t smoke inside?

“How many cops are we going to have to hire to enforce this?” Walsh said. “They can’t keep kids from shooting each other around town, but we’ve got to get people off these cigarettes. Well I don’t need Assembly members telling me how to run my life.”

Seated a couple of stools down, Tracy Craig shared a story: She recently returned to Olympia, Wash., a town she left four years ago for Alaska. She headed for her favorite bar. It was a Thursday night. Normally, the place would be packed.

But it wasn’t. She took out a cigarette to light it and was told a new ban prohibited it. Turns out, her friends now gather at a pal’s house, where smoking is OK and a keg is on hand.

“One of the best things about Alaska is we have a choice,” Craig said. “Nonsmokers have their choices. And they shouldn’t take our choices away from us.”

Daily News reporter Katie Pesznecker can be reached at kpesznecker@adn.com. Reporter Rosemary Shinohara contributed to this story.
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Chamber favors ban on smoking

July 8, 2006
ROSEMARY SHINOHARA

The Anchorage Chamber of Commerce board Friday endorsed a proposed smoking ban for bars that has given some members of the liquor industry heartburn.

And a business association, CHARR, reiterated fears that the ban will deliver an economic blow to some bars. CHARR, the Cabaret, Hotel, Restaurant & Retailer’s Association, on Friday asked the Anchorage Assembly to delay the ban for a year.

The proposal to prohibit smoking in bars, bingo halls, and within 50 feet of medical facilities and municipal buildings goes to the Assembly for a public hearing Tuesday night in Loussac Library. The Assembly could vote on the ordinance the same night.

In supporting the ban, the chamber board relied on a recent report by the U.S. surgeon general saying that only smoke-free buildings protect people from the health dangers of secondhand smoke.

Employees get tobacco-related illnesses in workplaces where smoking is allowed, which results in rising costs for businesses, the chamber said in a news release.

But the board recommended that the ordinance not take effect for a year, because bars anticipate a temporary dip in revenues after smoking is banned, and the bars need time to set aside cash and make a plan.

CHARR representatives made a presentation at an Assembly work session Friday at the invitation of Assembly chairman Dan Sullivan.

Dick Traini, one of two original sponsors of the bar smoking ban, asked Sullivan if he would allow supporters of the ban to talk to the Assembly at the work session, too, but Sullivan said no. He said he let the CHARR people speak because businesses they represent will be affected.

Darwin Biwer, owner of Darwin’s Theory bar downtown, said he has spent considerable money on logo ashtrays and matchbooks, and has air cleaners and fans.

“Our requests are that we be given a transition period,” he said.

Several Assembly members offered glimpses of their sentiments at the work session.

Six members, a majority on the 11-member body, are sponsoring the measure, and others have said they are still considering it.

Assemblywoman Anna Fairclough said she’s struggling with the issue.

“What I’m struggling with — we have people dying in Iraq. We just keep ratcheting away at people’s rights,” she said.

Assemblywoman Janice Shamberg said she resents pulling the troops into the debate, as if they were fighting to protect the freedom to smoke.

Assemblyman Paul Bauer laid out some proposed amendments, including one to delay the effective date until April 15, 2007. Traini wants the ban to take effect on the day of the Great American Smokeout, Nov. 16. That’s an annual quit date promoted by the American Cancer Society.

The Assembly could take up the amendments Tuesday.

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Hospital won’t allow whiff of smoke

June 13, 2006
By ANNE AURAND Anchorage Daily News

TOTAL BAN: Incidence of cancer, tobacco use among Natives leads to declaring entire campus off limits.

A sweeping new nonsmoking policy will ban tobacco use anywhere on the big Alaska Native Medical Center campus, located near Tudor Road and Bragaw Street.

The ban, which goes into effect on a national nonsmoking day in November, will prohibit employees, patients and visitors from smoking outside the buildings or in cars.

Smoking is already outlawed indoors.

The Alaska Native Health Consortium and Southcentral Foundation announced their new tobacco-free policy far in advance of the Great American Smokeout in November, knowing that it often takes multiple tries to truly quit tobacco, said consortium chief executive officer Paul Sherry.

Between now and Nov. 16, the consortium, which runs the hospital, will provide counseling, proven cessation drugs, and additional nicotine experts to its staff to help people quit, Sherry said.

The ban covers some 30 acres and will affect thousands of people.

Policymakers don’t want staff coming to work smelling smoky, either. But Sherry acknowledges that it will be difficult to fully enforce the rules everywhere, all the time.

“Let’s just say that overall, the policy is a statement of intent,” he said. “We don’t expect to have tobacco police, although our security will be involved.

“The goal is to cut the rate of tobacco use among Alaska Native people, who have the highest rate of tobacco use of all ethnic groups in the United States. And cancer is the leading cause of death among Alaska Native people,” Sherry said.

Sherry said the board of directors supports the Anchorage Assembly’s proposal to extend the city’s indoor smoking ban, which makes it illegal to smoke in restaurants, workplaces and other enclosed public spaces.

Assembly members Dick Traini and Dan Coffey suggested adding bars and bingo halls to the list of banned places. The Assembly could vote on the idea as early as July 11, after a public hearing.

The proposal promises to be controversial. Supporters say they want to save lives. Opponents call the proposal an attack on civil rights.

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Liquor industry hopes to soften smoking ban
LOBBYING: Legislator bends Assembly ears on behalf of city tavern owners.

By KYLE HOPKINS, Anchorage Daily News
June 12, 2006

Even with an Anchorage state legislator helping to lobby the Anchorage Assembly, the liquor industry doesn’t plan to stamp out the city’s proposed smoking ban.

But they do hope to change it.

Blues Central owner Frank Dahl said the Anchorage Cabaret, Hotel, Restaurant and Retailers Association will push for some kind of compromise on the proposal introduced by Assembly members Dick Traini and Dan Coffey.

As written, the measure would extend the city’s smoking ban — already covering restaurants and most indoor public spaces — to bars and bingo halls. The Assembly could vote on the idea as early as July 11, after a public hearing.

Here are some of the changes Dahl is suggesting, and what Traini had to say about them:

How about a “grandfather clause” so businesses that allowed smoking before the ban could continue to do so?

“No.”

Instead of a blanket ban, how about requiring smoking bars to have some kind of air-filtration system?

“No.”

How about giving bars and other businesses 10 years to comply with the ban?

“Hmm …,” Traini said. “I hadn’t thought about it. It’s an idea.”

Traini said 10 years would be too long. Maybe five years.

“We’re not going for blood,” he said. “We simply want to make the air cleaner for the people that are breathing it.”

Assembly members expect a fiery public debate on the proposal. Supporters say they want to save lives. Opponents call the proposal an attack on civil rights.

Dahl, the CHARR spokesman, will have some help pitching his case.

Rep. Tom Anderson, a Republican who represents Muldoon, registered with the city as a paid CHARR lobbyist in late May. Anderson is married to South Anchorage Rep. Lesil McGuire and has moved out of his district. He is not running for re-election.

Anderson was once CHARR’s executive director and worked with the city on earlier versions of the municipality’s smoking ordinance, he said.

For one year after they leave office, legislators aren’t allowed to perform any lobbyist work that would require them to register with the Alaska Public Offices Commission. But lobbying the city on local issues does not appear to fall under that category, meaning Anderson’s work for CHARR would be within the rules.

“At first glance, I would say I don’t see a problem,” said Joyce Anderson, administrator for the state Select Committee on Legislative Ethics.

Anderson said he’s resuming consulting work after four years in office but will steer clear of state issues.

On May 23, Assembly members Janice Shamberg, Ken Stout and Pamela Jennings joined Traini and Coffey as cosponsors of the smoking ban proposal.

The ordinance would expand the city’s 2001 ban on smoking in restaurants, workplaces and other enclosed public spaces. As written, the new proposal would make it illegal to smoke almost anywhere except your home or car, Traini has said.

Jennings said she isn’t interested in amendments that would weaken the proposed ban, including giving bars extra time to banish smoking.

“In 10 years, how many more people are going to get cancer?” she asked.

Anderson, who said he plans to talk to Assembly members this week about the ordinance, said it could set a bad precedent of over-regulation.

“This is more of a rights issue,” he said.

Traini said he’s counting on downtown Assemblyman Allan Tesche to cast what could be the deciding vote in favor of the ban.

Tesche underwent emergency heart surgery May 19. While still hospitalized, he is improving and is no longer in the intensive care unit, said Ivan Moore, Tesche’s friend and temporary spokesman.

Tesche and Traini are both longtime Assembly members. They don’t always vote together but can sometimes be seen joking after meetings.

Traini said Friday he’d get Tesche’s vote on the smoking ordinance, even if “I have to wheel him in on a cart.”

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