Smoking law might change

PALMER — The second anniversary of the citywide ban on smoking in public places passed quietly Jan. 2.

Ordinance 12-015 passed by voters in October 2012, and went into effect Jan. 2, 2013. While local patrons grumbled about the change initially, and some took months to teach themselves to not smoke in places where they had smoked, business has largely been unaffected by the ban, according to Palmer Bar owner Mary Lou Coddington.

“I don’t know if it’s better, but we have a lot of different people, and it’s better in that respect,” she said. “We have a lot of people who wouldn’t come here before.”

“It’s steady,” Coddington added.

Coddington fought the smoking change when it went before the city council in 2011. However, pro-tobacco forces were defeated at the polls in a citywide vote.

Her original opposition was mostly motivated by fear, Coddington said.

“I’ve been in the bar business a long, long time, and I couldn’t imagine not having smoking,” she said. “When you’ve been in the business that long and it’s always been smoking, it’s scary. Very scary. This is my living.”

Most smokers are now accustomed to the change, Coddington said.

“They’re okay with it … now,” she said. “They’re all okay. They all go outside.”

Under Alaska state law, a section of law amended by ballot initiative may not be changed for two years, meaning possible revisions to the law could be made this year. Business leaders and city officials, like mayor DeLena Johnson, generally say they don’t feel pressed to do away with the law.

“I’ve not had anyone come to me and ask to have that initiative revisited that was a bar owner,” Johnson said. “I know some bar owners that say they will not allow smoking even if it were allowed in other places. It seems like it’s good for business in general.”

The ban also resolves for the moment whether smoking marijuana in bars or cafes could be legalized, since the ordinance is worded to exclude both e-cigarettes, and burning “other plant material,” Johnson pointed out.

“We’re in a really good place with this,” she said. “All the other communities are having to decide what does the state allow and what they’re going to allow. The city of Palmer already has a smoke-free ordinance that covers smoking in public and e-cigarettes.”

Palmer could serve as a model for a similar ban statewide, said Terry Snyder, the Mat-Su Coordinator of the smoke-free workplace campaign. Snyder helped push the ban through, because the campaign ran in favor of healthy workplaces and not against smokers.

“At the time when it passed, it was really important for the people that worked on the campaign to keep it positive and to keep it about a good healthy place for the community to live,” she said. “We just wanted them to take it outside.”

While Snyder was talking, the sound of Creedence Clearwater Revival, pool, and conversation filled the bar behind her, punctuated sporadically by the sound of numbers read into a bullhorn. The Palmer Cash Mob, a local event that spontaneously fills local businesses with consumers, was in the house Friday night.

Snyder hopes a favorable reception in Palmer spur a statewide movement.

“If we can protect workers and patrons from second-hand smoke, that saves all of us money,” she said. “If you open a bar or restaurant, you may not like the regulations, but there are some in place so that everybody stays healthy.”

Snyder points to endorsements by groups and individuals that support their campaign as evidence of a groundswell of support. They’ve collected 820 endorsements from businesses and nonprofits, and they’ve collected 4,000 supporter cards since the legislature adjourned in April. Businesses sign up in part because reduced smoking means reduced costs, Snyder said.

“It really is a budgetary item for everybody,” she said.

While the review of the first two years appears mostly rosy, some Palmer citizens are critical of particular provisions of the law, like city councilman Richard Best, who’s publicly pondered revisions to it. The change affected a severe minority of local businesses, Best said.

“I wasn’t a fan of the ordinance as it was written before,” he said. “It doesn’t allow for smoking shacks or anything.”

For example, a smoker’s shelter on the premises of the Mat-Su Borough building technically meets the definition of an “enclosed space” contained in the resolution: “all space between a floor and a ceiling that is bounded on at least two sides by walls, doorways, or windows, whether open or closed.”

Because the shelter is both publicly accessible and enclosed, smoking is prohibited there according to Best and the ordinance.

“For two years they (the borough) have been going against the law in my opinion,” Best said. “We’re either going to have it on the books and enforce it, or we’re going to have to change it so we can enforce it.”

Borough attorney Nicholas Spiropoulos said he wasn’t sure whether the shelter was allowed or not.

“Nobody’s ever raised it,” he said.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com.