VENTURA : Residents Challenge Anti-Smoking Law

Anti-smoking ordinances can be hazardous to the health of bingo fund-raisers, a Ventura citizens committee charged Tuesday.

A group of about 10 Ventura residents, many of them dedicated smokers, gathered Tuesday on the steps of City Hall to propose loosening the city’s anti-smoking ordinance.

The self-appointed group declared that scientific research shows good ventilation systems can minimize the effects of secondhand smoke.

The group has presented its recommendations to the council’s committee on smoking. Councilman Jim Monahan, a committee member and supporter of the group’s recommendations, joined them at the news conference.

Declaring that the city ordinance is needlessly restrictive, the advisory group is calling for the city to allow smoking in all restaurants, hotels and recreational centers that have separate ventilation systems for designated smoking areas, committee spokesman Patrick Hughes said.

The committee also recommends that private clubs be exempt from the ordinance except when they host public events, such as bingo.

“The technology of today is sufficient to take care of secondhand smoke,” Hughes said between puffs on a thin cigar.

The existing city law bans smoking in all public places including offices, banks, malls and restaurants, except for bar and outdoor seating areas. It also prohibits smoking at bingo parlors.

One result of the anti-smoking ordinance is that the Knights of Columbus of Ventura will not hold its annual Thanksgiving dinner for the needy this year, because its bingo games raised so little money, bingo chairman Chuck Ivie said.

Ivie, who is not a smoker, said attendance at the club’s twice-weekly bingo games dropped from 200 to 40 after the city ordinance took effect in January. The club previously raised about $10,000 per month from the games, he said.