Council member Jimmy Tokioka is calling for a ban on smoking in Kaua’i’s restaurants. There will be an informational meeting on the proposal, next Friday, December 7, at 10 a.m. in Council’s Chambers at the historic County Building, 4396 Rice
Council member Jimmy Tokioka is calling for a ban on smoking in Kaua’i’s restaurants.
There will be an informational meeting on the proposal, next Friday, December 7, at 10 a.m. in Council’s Chambers at the historic County Building, 4396 Rice Street, Lihu’e.
To gather information prior to the meeting, Tokioka, a restaurant owner on Kaua’i, sent out a survey to collect opinions on smoking in restaurants.
“As a Council member, I am in the process of considering an ordinance that would regulate smoking in restaurants on Kaua’i. This concern comes to me from many sectors of our community. For me the most important (are) the employees of this (restaurant) industry,” Tokioka stated.
“As a restaurant owner for the past seven years, and having been in the business all my life, I felt concern for people working in the industry,” he explained.
But Tokioka said he isn’t trying to go as far as some California cities and Seattle, Washington, places with stringent almost all-inclusive, no-smoking legislation.
“At this time I’m not even considering a ban on smoking in bars,” he noted at his council office last Thursday.
Tokioka stressed that he is not trying to punish anyone.
“I am asking you (fellow restaurateurs) to help me develop a draft ordinance that would make sense as well as not hurt businesses economically. This Public Informational meeting is to gather input from our restaurant industry and our community,” Tokioka stated in his November 28 release to fellow business owners.
Tokioka said that the Honolulu City Council is reconsidering a similar bill for certain areas of restaurants this month.
A previous bill floated to City Council last month in Honolulu failed to pass.
No smoking proponents on Oahu have tried unsuccessfully to pass a no-smoking ban for the past three years.
Last month, the ban failed five to four.
Now the proponents are saying they are willing to compromise, and allow outdoor restaurant smoking as long as there is no smoking inside.
Last month’s proposal banned smoking inside and outside.
One of the council members who voted no, Chair Jon Yoshimura is now making noises like he may switch to the partial-ban side.
Locally, Tokioka said compromise isn’t out of the question. In fact, he said it’s even written into the state’s constitution.
Tokioka said the Hawai’i state constitution grants restaurant owners a loophole if they wish to have a pro-smoking establishment.
“It allows an establishment to designate themselves as a smoking establishment with signage on the premises stating that. But I don’t think many businesses would choose to do that. Even smokers I’ve talked to don’t want smoking in restaurants. Nobody I’ve talked to has been opposed to some type of legislation,” Tokioka noted.
Tokioka said the rough draft he has so far developed is based (for now at least) on Honolulu’s proposed legislation.
Los Angeles is currently considering the toughest no-smoking ban in the United States.
Los Angeles, like San Francisco, Portland, Oregon and Seattle, first banned smoking in workplaces and restaurants. They have gone on to bars in L.A. and now activists are proposing a no-smoking ban in the city’s 200 parks.
The extended outdoor ban has been proposed by city council member Jan Perry, who is pushing for a ban before Jan.1, 2002.
Opponents in Los Angeles said no smoking activists are simply fanatics.
But Tokioka’s proposal is much less radical. And the council member said many of Kaua’i’s restaurants are already no-smoking establishments, according to Tokioka.
