Beneath a shady grove of trees in the heart of Tacoma’s Wright Park, Eugene Clark sucked the butt of a hand-rolled cigarette and exhaled his opinions about a pending City Council proposal.

“It’s way overstepping people’s rights,” said Clark, punctuating his words with a wispy blue-gray stream.

“I don’t think they’ll be able to stop us,” he added. “The park is an open, public area, and smokers are as much a part of the public as the people who hate smoking.”

Moments later and several hundred yards away in a sun-drenched park playground, Athena Nation threw her hands behind her tottering 3-year-old, Tanner, and her support behind a park smoking ban.

“Absolutely, I think it’s a good idea,” said Nation, as her son wriggled atop a jungle gym.

“I don’t care if you smoke, but you shouldn’t smoke around children,” she added. “And I’m sorry, but parks are places where children convene.”

The City Council’s public safety committee voted 3-1 late last month to back a proposal to ban smoking anywhere in any city park. The committee sent the measure to the full council, which is set to decide on it next month.

Supporters say the ordinance isn’t about punishment, but awareness of public health and safety.

“The whole idea behind this has always been … an opportunity to again help educate folks about the dangers of tobacco and second-hand smoke,” said City Councilman Rick Talbert, who also chairs the Tacoma-Pierce County Board of Health. “It has never been to be punitive.”

Committee members had considered a ban on smoking only near playgrounds or other areas where children frequent, but most instead backed the all-inclusive prohibition. Banning smoking in only designated areas would be too difficult to enforce, supporters reasoned, possibly requiring more regulatory signs and increased costs.

“The whole concept of trying to manage the smoking ban in piecemeal, it almost starts not to make sense,” Councilwoman Marilyn Strickland said.

TACOMA WOULDN’T BE ALONE

Nationwide, at least 429 municipalities impose bans on smoking at public parks and beaches, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation in Berkeley, Calif.

In Pierce County, Puyallup and Gig Harbor already have such bans. Other Washington cities, including Seattle, Spokane and Wenatchee, are considering similar measures.

Many cities with park smoking bans have imposed much harsher penalties than what Tacoma is proposing.

Puyallup sets punishment at a $1,000 fine or up to 90 days in jail. In San Francisco, violators face a $100 fine for the first offense, $200 for the second, and $500 for each ensuing offense.

“This is happening all over the country (but) there’s been very minimal controversy,” said Dan Pritchard of the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.

Pritchard, who noted that about 1,000 local deaths are attributed each year to tobacco, said he sees the ban as another way to reduce the number of smokers over time.

“We support as many smoke-free environments as possible,” he said. “We think that this is the beginning.”

When controversy has flared over smoking bans, it primarily has centered on individual rights versus the public benefit.

“This is just utter nonsense,” said Gary Nolan, when told about Tacoma’s proposal.

Nolan, a national spokesman for The Smoking Club, a New Hampshire-based property rights group that opposes government-imposed smoking prohibitions, said such ordinances primarily are based on fear-mongering with little scientific evidence to support them.

There’s no evidence, he contends, that second-hand smoke, particularly in an outdoor environment, causes health problems.

“When it’s outside, it’s really diluted,” Nolan said. “So there is no plausible argument to be made for banning smoking in a park.”

If any Tacoma council member is willing to debate the issue, Nolan added, he would travel to Tacoma on his own dime “in a New York minute.”

The City Council already has its own detractor to the proposal – at least in its present form.

Councilman Mike Lonergan, the lone committee member to oppose the measure, prefers a more “flexible” ban that would restrict smoking in only certain areas, such as near playgrounds.

“The idea that you could still walk around and smoke a cigar at Meadow Park Golf Course, I think is OK,” he said.

Most Pierce County residents – about 80 percent – do not smoke, Talbert said. While smokers might frame a ban as a trampling of their rights, “I would flip that around and say, the act of smoking next to someone who does not smoke inconveniences that person,” he said.

“It’s not about taking away people’s rights,” added Ryan Mello, a member of the MetroParks Tacoma Board of Commissioners. “All we’re asking is that when people come to a public place, come to a public park, that everybody has the opportunity to breathe fresh, clean, healthy air.”

Both the parks district and the Health Department support an ordinance for smoke-free parks.

WHAT, EXACTLY, IS A ‘PARK’?

Defining a “park” under the ban could spark further discussion. City staff noted one definition could include “all parks, squares, drives, parkways, docks, piers, moorage buoys and floats, boulevards, golf courses, zoos, beaches, playgrounds and recreation areas and facilities” that are owned or managed by the parks district or the city.

Other cities have excluded golf courses and parking lots at parks. Another possible exception to a Tacoma ban might be Cheney Stadium, according to city staff reports.

Enforcement could prove difficult as well. If the proposal passes, Tacoma police will not specifically respond to calls notifying police about potential violations, Capt. Mark Langford said. Officers patrolling the park who come across smokers likely will use “discretionary enforcement” and may give only warnings, he added.

“It’s not going to rise to the place of high-priority enforcement,” he said.

Rather, police officers more likely will work with park officials to educate the public.

“I really see this evolving somewhat along the lines of the smoking ban in restaurants and bars,” he said. “It would be phased in with a lot of education and social acceptance.”

Enforcement is a challenge, agreed Talbert. “But that alone is not a reason not to do this,” he said.

Not all smokers object to the measure, Strickland added.

“I’ve talked to people I know who are smokers, and they think this is a good idea,” she said.

Eugene Clark isn’t one of them.

During his recent visit to Wright Park, Clark, a 50-year-old Puyallup tribal member who has smoked since he was 12, said smokers are becoming an endangered species – and not for legitimate reason.

“Some people think it’s their jobs to tell everyone else how they should live,” he said. “It has almost gotten to the point where you can’t smoke anywhere outside anymore.”

Lewis Kamb: 253-597-8542

lewis.kamb@thenewstribune.com

What the proposed Smoke-free parks law says

The Tacoma City Council’s Public Safety, Human Services and Education Committee recently supported a measure that would ban smoking from public parks. The full council is expected to consider the issue Oct. 13. Here’s the proposal:

Smoking in parks prohibited

It is unlawful for any person to smoke or light cigars, cigarettes, tobacco or other smoking material within a park. The Director or City Manager shall post signs in appropriate locations prohibiting smoking in parks.

For the purposes of this section, “smoke” or “smoking” means the carrying, holding, or smoking of any kind of lighted pipe, cigar, cigarette, or any other lighted smoking equipment.

A violation of this section is a class 4 civil infraction of $25, not including statutory assessments. Such penalty is in addition to any other remedies or penalties provided by law.