Posted on 07/21/2002 8:31:27 PM PDT by ledzep75
First Honolulu adopted sweeping restrictions on smoking in restaurants, and now Maui County may clear the air in restaurants on Maui, Molokai and Lanai.
A draft bill to ban smoking in Maui County restaurants, drafted by acting council chairman Dain Kane, was expected to win approval in the Maui County Council's Human Services and Economic Development Committee, which convened Thursday morning on the issue.
"This bill is long overdue," committee chairman Robert Carroll said Wednesday. "Non-smokers, and children and people with respiratory ailments should be allowed to enjoy a meal without inhaling second-hand smoke. Similarly, our restaurant employees should be allowed to earn a living without endangering their lives from prolonged exposure to second-hand smoke."
The bill tracks the new Oahu law that took effect at the beginning of the month, exempting bars where gross food sales are a third of gross sales of alcoholic beverages or less. There was little outcry after it kicked in, and some restaurateurs said their turnover improved as smokers stopped lingering at tables.
Ditto that. I noticed a number of long haired hippie types had stakes out some spots to sell their products along the back roads. One of them was obviously under the influence of something and was more or less waving a joint at the cars that drove by. It was on one of those little windy two lane roads away from any towns and I suppose accompanying law enforcement.
Ditto that. I noticed a number of long haired hippie types had stakes out some spots to sell their products along the back roads. One of them was obviously under the influence of something and was more or less waving a joint at the cars that drove by. It was on one of those little windy two lane roads away from any towns and I suppose accompanying law enforcement.
That's too damn funny.
As owner-operator of a pub in British Columbia, Canada: I would like to add my opinion to this debate. I am a nonsmoker, I did smoke as a teenager and a young woman. I have quit for over 25 years. Secondhand smoke does not bother me, unless the room I am in is poorly ventilated. My pub's clientele is made up of about ninety per cent of people who are regular or casual smokers.We cannot afford to lose their business and stay in business. My husband, a nonsmoker as well, does not like the smell of secondhand smoke but knows it comes with the territory. Our business is about being hospitable to our customers. Our smoking customers are our 'bread and butter,' but we would love to accommodate all nonsmokers as well.
We spent $50 thousand dollars on an air-circulating-ventilation system. The system is a free flow device. It pumps in clean air and sucks out tobacco smoke and other stale air in the pub. This was the top of the line system in 1999. We had the city and a private scientific research group do air quality sampling for us. Our ventilation system renders the air within the pub cleaner than the quality of the air outside on the city street than runs in front of it. Our place has seating for 350 people. When the air quality tests were done we had just over 200 people smoking in the pub. It was part of the control experiment on both separate occasions. With the system running we had zero complaints from nonsmokers. In fact many people thanked us for our efforts and complimented us for making our pub smoker and nonsmoker friendly.
In the year 2000 the BC government commissioned the Workmen's Compensation Board or WCB to introduce a complete smoking ban throughout our entire province. Smoking rooms or ventilation were deemed unacceptable. Needless to say we were furious. Our 50 thousand dollar outlay seemed all for nothing. My husband contacted a friend who worked for the WCB and asked her to come and test the air quality of our pub and our ventilation system. The WCB came.They tested the air in the pub during the one month grace period we were given to comply. Their equipment readings were nearly identical to the other two air samplings done by the city and the private firm we had called in before them. The WCB inspector remarked: 'This is the finest system and the best level of air quality inside a pub we have ever witnessed.' When my husband asked him if this would let us to continue to allow smoking and exempt us from the ban,the WCB team said 'No.' My husband had to be restrained by other employees.He creamed we have paid over 50 thousand dollars and the air is cleaner in our pub than on the street outside.
So what is the problem? The WCB head inspector was blunt. 'This is about worker's health' she said.'no ventilation system is good enough, you should have consulted us before spending all that money.' My husband told them to get out and never come back. Unfortunately they did about three months later.We were given fines totalling over 40 thousand dollars for non-compliance in regard to the smoking ban. We never complied with the ban. We had all of our 70 employees sign a waiver promising they would not place a secondhand smoke injury claim with the WCB. We put signs on our front and rear entrances stating this is a 'smoking business.' We also posted a copy of the waiver all of our employees signed stating they had no problem working in a smoking pub.
We believe if there were complaints against us they came from our competition.There are two other businesses within a three block radius of ours. We had our best 3 months ever during Jan.-March 2002. The other two bars near us were on the verge of bankruptcy.They both were closing early on weekdays and even on weekends. Both businesses had been busy before the ban.The two bars laid off 56 employees in total during the ban. Both places even ran illegal cheap drink promotions (happy hours are illegal here) every night.They sold all food at half price. Still their bars were usually empty and our business was booming. We were saved when a supreme court judge threw out our province's smoking ban after only three and one-half months. The reason for the verdict? No consultation with the affected businesses beforehand. No financial impact study was done and the businesses of B.C. proved their financial losses (we made money by allowing smoking during the ban). Enough extra to cover our 40 thousand dollar fines or most of the cost of our ventilation unit. When the ban was lifted all fines were ruled null and void.
To any people within the hospitality workforce and ownership: Anti-smoking lie: 1. Do not believe a smoking ban will be good for business.It might be but the chances of financial ruin are far greater. e.g. Over 1000 workers were laid off in B.C. during the 3 and one-half month ban here. 7 businesses closed forever here in that time. 16 charity casinos and church bingos closed their doors forever. Many of the surviving bingos and casinos have lost their customers to Washington State where smoking is allowed everywhere. Antismoking lie: 2. Antismoking activists will not stop at just the restaurants.The antismokers will push for the bars, clubs and all other private property in the county. They will claim this is in order to create an even or level playing field. This is a big lie. Nearly everyone except the large corporations, restaurant chains-fast food will be negatively impacted. Bars, nightclubs and gambling establishments will suffer the most. Including charities. Pizza places and Chinese delivery restaurants will likely do a booming business. Small consolation to people who have invested their life savings and blood,sweat and tears in order to make a good living for themselves. Antismoking lie: 3. There are more smokers than nonsmokers. The nonsmokers will come out more often and pick up for the smokers that have been displaced by the ban. Not true. Smokers spend more money, stay longer, drink more, tip higher on average than nonsmokers. It is virtually impossible to displace your best regular customers and replace that base within 4-10 years. To lose all the majority of your best patrons and hope that people who normally rarely if ever enter your establishment will become your most valued regular customers. It will not happen. Antismoking lie: 4. Most nonsmokers support smoking bans and most smokers do too. They all really want to quit. Smoking bans are good motivation for helping smokers to give up their habit. Most people, smokers and nonsmokers, are indifferent either way. Until the ban is in place. Many nonsmokers stop going out to eat or drink as often to be with their smoking friends and families. Many smokers who claim they do not mind a smoking ban and will use it to help them quit fail and realize later they should have fought these restrictions. The only people that really seem interested in fighting for or against smoking bans are the antismokers and the business people and workers of the hospitality industry. The problem with the antismokers is they are not gambling with their futures and finances when they relentlessly push for smoking bans within private businesses. No, that would be people like myself. These people have no right to tell me how to run my business, who my best customers might be and what is good for me and my livelihood. Antismokers have no right to make me layoff my employees, make their children go hungry and to do without basic necessities, all because they hate the smell of burning tobacco. They have no right to jeopardize my retirement plans and future finances. If they want a smokeless restaurant they should feel quite free to open one at their own personal risk.
Most nonsmokers I know and have dealt with in my life do not care if all restaurants are nonsmoking. In fact many of them signed the petition we had in our pub telling the government to revoke our then provincial smoking ban. Our pub alone collected over 9 thousand signatures--about half of those signatures were those of nonsmokers. Most nonsmokers will accept improved ventilation opposed to total smoking bans. .I have many friends, smokers and nonsmokers. But I have no antismoking friends. They are bullies and wish to control the lives of others. Like spoiled brats. Smoking bans are their form of a tantrum. Antismokers do not care who suffers or gets hurt as long as they have a smokeless world. I will fight those hate-filled people until my dying day. This letter is a long one. I will write another explaining how our smoking ban was compromised and the new regulations we now have in place here in British Columbia. By the way, smoking is allowed here. In fact, more legal smoking than before the original ban and the local city bylaws were enacted years earlier.
Pam Martins, Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada
Every one of my employees except myself, my husband and our night janitor are regular or social smokers. In British Columbia the now defeated government that tried to force the provincial ban upon our industry received close to 200,000 letters,postcards and electronic emails telling them to remove or soften the smoking ban or pay the price at election time.
They only hold 2 seats now of the 40 they held previously for two terms. People of the hospitality industry that I had never seen vote in my life turned out to make sure that government were not re-elected.
The employers and employees of our industry are already over-regulated and we pay huge amounts of taxes that give the cities, states, provinces, counties and federal governments much needed revenues. To regulate us any further especially when most of our best, regular customers are smokers or have friends and family who are smokers is insane. Ban smoking and many people will stay home, including the nonsmoking friends and families of smokers. Some smokers will still come out to their regular places of business. Most will not stay as long, spend as much or tip as high, as their visits will be shorter. In a high volume-turnover restaurant the losses will not be as great and some businesses may actually gain some business for the short term. But almost every business will suffer except those with 'deep pockets' like fast food, with drive through and delivery.
There will be unemployment directly caused by a smoking ban. Most of the victims will be single women with low levels of education. The ones that survive the 'cut' will have their tips and hours reduced. Thus their standard of living will suffer and so will their families and children. This will happen. It has happened everywhere that smoking bans in the hospitality field have been put into place. Governments will rarely if ever admit they made a mistake by instituting smoking bans that cripple businesses.They should be sued for doing so with malicious intent. It is easier to blame every business failure on anything but the ban, including business management incompetence. Many restaurants and bars that had turned good profits for years are going bankrupt suddenly because of owner, management and employee incompetence? Not likely. One has to look no further than the obvious, glaring cause. The smoking ban.
The people your local politicians should be asking about so-called smoking ban successes are people who own hospitality businesses and those who work in the industry. Write some letters to affected businesses in and out of state. We are talking about people's lives here. My husband would rarely eat in our pub before we installed our wonderful ventilation system. He was never angry at any of our nonsmoking friends or patrons who complained about the amount of smoke in our pub before the good ventilation was installed.
My update: We have new regulations in British Columbia to restrict worker exposure to secondhand smoke. We built two smoking rooms.They are encased with plexi-glass.Our two rooms cover over 50% of our pub's total area. The smoking areas incorporate our 50 thousand dollar ventilation system. The new smoking rooms were installed at the cost over 40 thousand dollars for the two. They were worth every penny. They are constantly packed. The drawbacks: Our nonsmoking floorspace is usually less than a quarter full during regular weekdays. It is quite busy on Friday-Saturday nights and when we have big name bands. We expect to do a good business in NFL football and next hockey season. But the nonsmokers do not pay the majority of our bills. Our smoking customers do. This whole smoking ban fiasco is utter nonsense.We now have wasted floorspace that would likely be filled by smokers, but instead this area sits vacant most of the time.
We spent over $90,000 in order to protect the rights of our most valuable customers, employees and our personal income. Was it worth it? Yes, we would do it again in a minute. Was it necessary, the ban? No. All of our workers smoke. The air quality in our pub was cleaner than the outdoor air. The plexi-glass looks ridiculous. It segregates people, it breeds conflict and hard feelings. It also ruins the overall decor of our pub. Other bars and restaurants in our area are ignoring the ban.There has been no enforcement whatsoever. Many cities in the province have their own smoking regulations even though the ban is supposed to be throughout the entire province. Not every bar or restaurant can afford to build the rooms, some are in the process of building them as the money comes in. These places are ignoring the ban. if they were not it would be unlikely they could ever afford to install the expensive rooms. It has become the cost of doing business. It discriminates against small business owners with little money. This never had to happen. It would have been simpler to just put a sign on the doors of business stating if it was a smoking or nonsmoking one. Problem solved for almost everyone. Everyone except antismokers.
They want every place to be nonsmoking even if they never patronize it. Just in case they might. That is just not good reason enough. I have never seen people so consumed with hatred in my life. Their disregard for others is unbelievable. My husband and my employees will show any antismoker the door if they complain in our business.We tell them to go elsewhere. We have paid dearly to pacify a small group of loud-mouths with a misguided mission in life. We will be damned if idiots like these will dictate to us ever again. Not on or in my private property. Not over my dead body.
Not long ago we had a guy that was making fun of the plexi-glass rooms. The antismoker made a comment about the smokers looking like animals in their cages. My husband lost it. The guy was out the door on his butt in less than 30 seconds. Jack (my hubby) didn't enlist or need the help of the bouncers. Smoking bans are similar to what we call 'hate crimes' here in Canada. I mostly blame politically correct politicians and antismoking bullies. If I had never been a smoker or owned a hospitality business I would likely never have been so enlightened about what is going on with smoking bans and how they are dividing the people of our nations in Canada and the U.S.A. It is atrocious what is taking place in these intolerant times. Those who think smoking bans are victories are totally out of touch with reality. We all lose our freedom to choose.
Marijuana, also known as Maui Wowee, is grown in isolated locations throughout the valleys of the Valley Isle. These drug growers are violent and pose a significant threat to the citizens of the Maui County area. I would also add that "Hemp" stores openly exist in small towns like Paia.
Paia at one time was home to many plantation workers for the Paia sugar mill. The mill closed and many of the families moved out over the past 15 years. Now, when you visit Maui and drive to Hana, you will drive through Paia. The irony is that the grocery store in Paia is now stocked with "organic" and "natural" foods manufactured in Oakland.
I would also point out that the cities of Oakland and San Francisco have legalized distribution of marijuana from taxpayer sponsored "clinics". I don't know a single physician who believes that marijuana has any place in modern medicine. Yet, the Browns apparently feel that they know more about healthcare than physicians recognized by the state of California's Medical Board.
(sigh) I digress.
These "long-haired" hippies have existed on the island since the 1970's. Since there must be cashflow to support the lives of these people (rent, food, etc.); is there any question has to where the cash transaction is occuring?
First Hawaiian Bank and Bank of Hawaii should be able to work with FBI to investigate these funds.
In addition, we note the recent appearance of the SF based Wells Fargo Bank in Kahului, Maui. We hope that Wells Fargo's branches keep a careful eye on financial transactions.
One Coucillor actually had the nerve to tell me that nobody made money on the ANTI SMOKING, I very quickly put him up to date on that issue....... haven't heard from him since.
And if you think you have heard it all as far as our City Council goes, get this...... we now have a van marked pavement inspector, we are looking for a walking coordinator - whatever that is, it pays well $50-60.000 pr year, we have a tree guardian, our tree's are fitted with Global Positioning devices, and after 3 days of heavy rain, we have water trucks watering the tree's, small wonder they have locaters on them, those poor tree's could be trying to get their feet on dry land.
Oddly, car rental contracts become invalid if one enters into the "forbidden" zone as clearly marked by road signs next to which are parked cars occupied by locals with CB radios.
Such turns trips to a few local points of interest into drives that are twice as long as they otherwise would be. What's up with that, anyway? None of the locals would give a straight answer when I was there five years ago.....
As far as Northern Maui goes, you are correct that the roads become very thin. However, there is at least one road that circles the island. The lane is narrow, but the road is public.
There are many private roads on the islands because the road is owned by one of the major land holders. They are private roads, usually traced to the history of sugar cane growing in the area.
Regarding the lengthy drives on Maui, the need for infrastructure investment is clear. However, productivity on Maui is somewhat limited by the lack of economic infrastructure. The democrats have failed to create a climate conducive to an economic expansion due to higher taxes and poor exportation of goods (which limits wealth accumulation).
Highway by-passes would be useful, but the economic impact of such development is limited by the lack of cooperative politics.
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