Whiff of smoke

It's hard to know whether the bar owner or his customers are the ones defying Washington's new smoking ban, but it's obvious that somebody isn't knuckling under to the mandate. Good for them.

County environmental health specialist Dale Tahja, who investigated the case, said Schnarrs was the only proprietor in the county who still was not compliant with the state anti-smoking law.

Tahja said he received a citizens complaint Jan. 10 about customers smoking inside the bar, as well as two similar reports by an off-duty county building inspector and code-compliance officer Jan. 19 and Jan. 26. In addition, Tahja said he did not see the required "no smoking" sign when he visited Schnarrs' tavern Jan. 11.

For his part, sports bar owner Frankie Schnarrs claims that he's trying to enforce the ban, but he can't always be in the bar monitoring his customers' activities. Given his past vows of defiance, that may just be a coy way of sliding out from under legal penalties that would otherwise be levied against him.

It's hard to understand the prosecutors' enthusiastic pursuit of this case. While the county didn't get its wish, its representatives sought fairly hefty penalties.

"Clearly, he didn't get the message," Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jane Futterman told Hirsch on Friday. Futterman had asked the judge to impose fines against Schnarrs of $100 per day dating to the Dec. 29 injunction, or $7,500.

Is the county so crime-free that it can afford to expend resources to punish consensual behavior that business owners permit on their own premises? Actually, my guess is that it's a matter of pride -- government officials just can't stand it when the masses don't do their bidding.