How will the Summerville smoking ban be enforced?

What happens now that the town has enacted a smoking ban is anybody's guess.

A little civil disobedience is all but assured. A leading resident, attorney and downtown business owner told Town Council that he plans to break the law.

Also, the police chief said he has to review the ban before deciding how to enforce it. The chairman of the Public Safety Committee said he doesn't think the strapped police force has the resources to do all that the ordinance requires.
Whatever the outcome, it's now against the law to light up in a place of employment in Summerville. It can lead to a city summons to magistrate court, where the offender and establishment owner each can be fined $25. The law passed Wednesday.

"I'm going to tell you I'm going to violate it," attorney Rudd Smith told the council at the meeting when the ordinance was passed. Smith is a former County Council member. He has an office in Hutchinson Square, the downtown centerpiece of the town's historic district, just across the street from Town Hall.

The law requires business owners to write up a smoking policy, post "no smoking" signs and establish "reasonable distance" from the workplace where outdoor smoking would be allowed. Smith won't do that, he said. And, "I'm not going to stop having a cigar after hours."

The law will be largely under the jurisdiction of an 83-officer police force stretched nearly to its limits because of budget cuts. The town put off hiring five new officers to balance its 2011 budget, even after council members were advised it could result in a cutback of some police services. It was the third annual budget for which police and fire officials put off hiring and hung on to aging vehicles.

The ordinance directs police and code officers to enforce the law, and police to "seek to obtain voluntary compliance" by producing publicity and education programs.

Asked how he would enforce it, Police Chief Bruce Owens said Thursday he hadn't reviewed it yet and couldn't immediately say.
Enforcement will be handled along with other town laws,as a matter of priorities, he said.

"No law enforcement agency that I know of has all the resources to enforce all the laws all the time," Owens said. "The bottom line is there's an ordinance passed and it will be instituted."

Asked about what Smith said, Owens declined to comment.

Councilman Walter Bailey, who opposed the ban, is chairman of the council's Public Safety Committee. He has fought for more funding for police and fire.

"They'll do what they have to do to handle (the law)," Bailey said. But the force doesn't have the space, expertise or time to develop educational programs, he said.