More than half of smoking fines unpaid

Montgomery County collects most in Ohio; investigations plummet throughout state


Montgomery County tops in smoking fine collections

How much money area counties have collected from smoking ban fines since 2007:

Montgomery: $253,875

Hamilton: $179,144

Butler: $113,478

Clark: $31,844

Miami: $15,311

Darke: $2,245

Greene: $1,408

Warren: $1,321

More than $2 million in fines levied against establishments for violating the state’s smoking law are still unpaid, this newspaper found, raising questions about the Ohio Department of Health’s enforcement of the ban against smoking in public places.

From May 2007 through the end of September this year, the state and local health departments had levied 3,472 fines totaling more than $4 million to businesses that were found to have violated the ban — with slightly more than half of that total remaining unpaid.

While a big chunk of the fines remain unpaid, government agencies say they are improving their collection methods. When this newspaper first reported in 2011 about the large number of unpaid fines, that figure was at nearly 70 percent. State and local officials say that rate has dropped due to increasing pressure put on bars and restaurants with outstanding fines by the Department of Health and the Ohio Attorney General’s office.

That increase in collections comes as violations continue to plummet across the state. In 2007, the state conducted 10,112 investigations. Last year that figure stood at 2,206.

Local officials say they are receiving fewer complaints — likely because fines have pushed bars and restaurants to obey the law.

Local health departments have collected thousands from those fines (of which they get to keep 90 percent), including $113,478 in Butler County, $31,844 in Clark County, and $15,310 in Miami County.

Montgomery County’s health department has collected $253,875 — the most of any Ohio health department and 12 percent of all such fines collected in the state.

“Now that the state is enforcing the law, the word spreads quickly and they know if they continue to smoke, it will cost them dollars. Rather than get into a situation with $4,000 in fines, they go ahead and enforce themselves,” said Bill Wharton, spokesman for Public Health-Dayton and Montgomery County.

Wharton says that with the late 2006 passage of the bill that bans smoking in workplaces and public places, Ohio workers — especially waitresses and bartenders — do not have to take in smoke while making a living.

Dan Tankersley, owner of Tank’s Bar and Grill in Dayton, said he stopped allowing patrons to smoke after the law passed, however, he knows of other bars that still let customers light up.

“There aren’t enough teeth to this law,” Tankersley said. “For that reason, some bars have chosen not to obey it.”

AG helps collect

To increase collections, Ohio’s AG office in 2012 stepped in to help local health departments. So now, about 50 days after a fine is levied against a bar or restaurant owner, it gets transferred from the local health department to the attorney general’s office.

The attorney general has a toolbox of different approaches it can use against businesses that refuse to pay fines, including legal action.

Indeed, with the help of the AG’s office, the Ohio Department of Health sued George and Wanda Sexton in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court after other collection methods failed after multiple violations the past few years. The Sextons own the Doctor Doodles Lounge and incurred $35,600 in fines from 2010 to 2014. The Washington Township bar stills owes $22,566.

The strategy seems to be working. During the first year of the AG’s enforcement, the number of fines collected doubled. In addition, of the $2 million collected across the state, slightly more than half has come from the AG’s office.

Other bars are slowly chipping away at their fines. For instance, Miami Valley Sports Bar in Miamisburg has paid $43,417 of the $67,500 it was fined between 2009 and 2013. The bar owner declined comment.

If an establishment continues to refuse to pay its fines, the state has another option — stripping its liquor license.

In those cases, the state’s Department of Health recommends that the Department Of Commerce’s Division of Liquor Control remove a license. This has happened to 32 bars and restaurants, however, some establishments may keep their licenses if they go through an appeals process.

AG spokesman Dan Tierney said going after liquor licenses has successfully pushed more bars to comply with the law.

Smokeless states

When the smoking ban passed in November 2006, Ohio became the 12th state to ban smoking in workplaces and public places. Some bars owners at the time told this newspaper they worried it would drive away customers who enjoyed a cigarette with their beverage or meal.

A few local bar owners say they still have some of those concerns. Others say that the ban is unconstitutional. (In 2012, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the voter measure).

Since Ohio passed the ban, more states have followed suit. There now are 28 states with similar bans. A handful of other states have banned either smoking in bars, restaurants or workplaces.

Meanwhile, 13 states — including neighboring Kentucky and West Virginia — have no smoking bans.

Tankersley says he’s seen an increase in business at Tank’s since the ban went into effect.

“This is bold, but even if the state of Ohio repealed it, I don’t think we would go back to smoking,” Tankersley said. “Everybody here is used to what we are doing, and we would probably lose business from non-smokers.”

When Tankersley opened his Wayne Avenue bar in 1987, he wanted it to be non-smoking, but due to the business climate he decided he couldn’t compete with smoking bars. For years he went along with it, and went home most nights smelling like an “ashtray.”

After voters passed the ban, he was more than happy to comply.

“I was a little concerned we’d lose business to bars that chose not to comply. The folks we did lose we made up with people who told me they would bring their children ‘because there was no guy next to them smoking.’ ”

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