Summit County and Akron update
County-wide Smoking Ban Could Be Repealed
March 1, 2006
Brian McIntyre
Ohio's first county-wide smoking ban has taken place in northeast Ohio, but just three months after making the ban, officials of the Summit County Council are considering new legislation to repeal it.
The Summit County Clean Indoor Air Ordinance is a ban on smoking in many county businesses, including bars, restaurants and some hotel rooms. It took effect on Tuesday. For now, some places will not have to worry about enforcement.
Officials will decide in about three weeks, but some bar owners are not waiting for the outcome of that vote.
One bar and grill and six other taverns have come to an agreement with Summit County. For them, the smoking ban won't be enforced on their business until the council decides whether to repeal it.
“State law permits them to allow their customers and their invitees to smoke,” said Chris Tipping, a bar owner’s attorney. “In complying with this law, our clients face the absolute threat of losing business."
Akron and Cuyahoga Falls plan to ban the ban from their bars and restaurants. But owners of establishments in townships say that gives bars an unfair advantage because they don't have the legal power to make the same decision.
“That’s 60 percent of Summit County, plus or minus one percent, so it’s not a fair ordinance,” said Brad Hynde, co-owner of Just One More Bar and Grill. ”We will lose easily 35, if not up to 50, 60 percent of our business."
Lawsuits argue that the law unfairly burdens townships. Cities such as Akron, Cuyahoga Falls, Norton and New Franklin say their municipal laws allow separate smoking bans. Barberton City Council passed a last-minute law on Monday to exempt itself from the ban.
"They should allow bars to have smoking; there should be a place," said Joyce White, an area bar patron. “Smokers pay extra taxes on their cigarettes to go toward different things for the cities, so they should be allowed to smoke."
Opponents of the all-inclusive smoking ban say it's a matter of economics.
"There's lives; there's thousands and thousands of jobs,” said David George of the Hospitality Coalition. “Ten percent of the workforce works in the hospitality industry. There's thousands of jobs at stake here.”
The biggest issue at hand, however, is that customers will stop frequenting the bars that have to honor the smoking ban.
One bar patron said, "If I had the option of having a cocktail with a cigarette or having one without, I'm gonna go to the place that allows me to smoke."
The county council is expected to decide whether the smoking ban will remain or be postponed until next year. A vote is scheduled for the March 20th.
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Bingo ban damage in Ohio Clinic sues to revive smoking
Area medical facility relies heavily on bingo proceeds, lawsuit says
Mar. 03, 2006
By Kymberli Hagelberg
Beacon Journal staff writer
A Coventry Township medical clinic says it needs smokers for its business to survive.
Perkins Square Health Services on Arlington Road is the 10th Summit County business that has asked a judge to save it from the smoking ban -- noting that its bingo fundraisers make up most of the medical clinic's revenue.
The clinic filed a complaint Thursday in Summit County Common Pleas Court, seeking to have the Clean Indoor Air Ordinance declared unenforceable and unconstitutional.
The law, which went into effect Tuesday, prohibits smoking in many businesses, including bars, restaurants, most private clubs and bowling alleys and some hotel rooms.
In its filing, the medical clinic claims that the law exceeds the county's authority, seeks to prohibit a legal activity and would drive smokers away from its charitable bingo fundraisers.
Neither Perkins Square Health Services Director Beverly Dearth nor the clinic's attorney David Devany returned calls for comment.
In a past Beacon Journal article, Dearth, a psychologist, said Perkins Square provides medical, psychological and educational services at the clinic, primarily to low-income people.
Bingo money subsidizes 87 percent of the operation. The remainder of the clinic's revenue comes from Medicaid and Medicare.
According to a 1992 attorney general's report, Perkins Square Health Services Inc. made $947,455 from its bingo business.
The other nine bar and restaurant owners who filed lawsuits have won agreements from County Council that the law would not be enforced against them without written notice.
Although some businesses have voluntarily gone smoke-free since the law took effect, others openly decline to support the ordinance that requires owners to post no-smoking signs, remove ashtrays and post a hot line number, 330-926-5640, for the public to report violators.
Cities including Akron, Cuyahoga Falls, New Franklin, Norton and Barberton say their own laws that permit smoking take precedence.
Further confusing the issue for the remaining townships that have been told by their health departments that they must obey the law, County Council has scheduled a March 20 vote to decide whether its implementation should be delayed until 2007.
The proposed yearlong postponement is the time many expect it will take a statewide smoking ban to pass in the legislature or be approved by voters.
The fact that the most recent smoking supporter is a medical facility was not lost on the head of the Medical Society of Greater Akron.
``It sounds like an oxymoron to me,'' said the group's president, Dr. Albert Payne. ``It's extremely contradictory to what their mission as a medical clinic should be.''
Payne said the group hasn't taken an official stand on the ordinance, but he expects one in light of the lawsuit from Perkins Square Health Services. ``I think the ban is wonderful, long overdue and will enhance the health of our community.''
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