County Delays Vote on Smoking Ban

After listening to half a dozen doctors and residents speak about the dangers of secondhand smoke, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday put off voting on a proposal to ban smoking in unincorporated areas of the county.

Supervisor Maria VanderKolk, who proposed the ordinance, suggested delaying the vote to allow Supervisor John K. Flynn to listen to the videotaped public comments made during Tuesday’s meeting. Flynn was absent because he recently had minor eye surgery.

The supervisors are scheduled to discuss and vote on the ordinance Nov. 16.

If adopted, the county will join the cities of Moorpark and Thousand Oaks in restricting smoking in restaurants and other enclosed public places, but not bars.

“I think we need to take this step also, and encourage other cities in our county to do the same,” VanderKolk said.

The county already has an ordinance prohibiting smoking in many enclosed public places, such as auditoriums, classrooms and elevators.

Under VanderKolk’s proposal, the county would prohibit smoking at bingo games and hotel conference rooms when they are open to the public. Sports arenas and waiting areas of transportation depots would also be made smoke-free zones.

Under the existing ordinance, smoking is partially banned in businesses with five or more employees. The change would ban smoking in any business that has employees in addition to the owner.

No one spoke against the proposed ordinance on Tuesday. Tim Allen of GTE of California, which has a smoke-free workplace, told the supervisors: “It’s every employee’s right to work in a healthy environment free of smoke.”