Target: smoking, drinking

Hoping to legislate a trend seen in California, New York and even Ireland, Utah lawmakers want to extinguish smoking in bars and private clubs.

Sen. Michael Waddoups, R-West Jordan, says he plans to introduce a measure in the 2005 session that would remove the exemption to Utah's Indoor Clean Air Act allowing smoking in taverns and private clubs.

A colleague, Rep.-elect Paul Ray, R-Clinton, proposes a less sweeping plan that would permit cities to individually decide if a ban should be instituted.

Both ideas have lit a fire under the Utah Hospitality Association, which represents 50 to 60 clubs and taverns throughout the state.

"What happens when government tells you you are not allowed to smoke in your own home if you have friends over? That is basically what they are telling me right now," said Bob Brown, association vice president and owner of Cheers To You. "I had to mortgage my home to buy this bar, and whether smoking is allowed should be up to me."

Brown and his group plan to lobby hard to keep Utah's smoking laws as they are — laws he says already allow owners to ban smoking if they choose.

"It's called free enterprise. If I wanted to go nonsmoking I'd just do it," Brown said, adding there are a couple of clubs in Salt Lake City that have done just that.

"It all boils down to Tom Guinney wanting to go nonsmoking but not having the courage to do it because he is afraid he'll lose customers," Brown said.

Guinney, a member of the Salt Lake Valley Board of Health and a partner in the Gastronomy group of upscale private clubs and restaurants located mostly in downtown Salt Lake City, said he believes there is no "business advantage" allowing smoking in taverns and clubs.

"From a business standpoint you need consistency from one city to the next and need to provide everyone with a level playing field," Guinney said.

Ray, a member of the Clinton City Council until he takes office in two weeks, said he looked into the issue of local control over smoking when it came up in Clinton.

Although the city was able to pass an ordinance prohibiting smoking within 50 feet of public park bleachers because it was outdoors, cities cannot pass indoor smoking rules that are more stringent than the state law.

"Honestly, I believe cities have the right to set their own ordinances when it comes to this type of thing," Ray said. "This would be another tool for a community to have say as to what they will allow or won't."

But Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson called Ray's measure "a bit of a cop-out. It's a better result than what we have now, but for public health and workers' rights, our state Legislature should take a firm position and ban smoking in bars, clubs and mass gatherings."