Sullivan's Island smoking ban is killing Bert's Bar
Columbia bars face similar fate

By John Temple Ligon

Temple@TheColumbiaStar.com

Earlier this month, Columbia City Council members joined the Californians, the New Yorkers, and politicians in other cities and states in moving toward a smoking ban in its first reading. Other countries are already ahead of the United States. Italy banned smoking in public places last January. About the same time as Columbia City Council's action, a parliamentary committee in Paris approved a proposal to ban smoking in public places. Until now, smoking has always been very French.

The French coined the term nicotine after Jean Nicot, a 16th century ambassador to Portugal who delivered American tobacco leaves to Catherine de Medici for her headaches. Anything capable of combating the queen's headaches was sure to develop into something financial. America actually first gained financial footing on tobacco.

Jamestown began in 1607, and few of the first settlers knew much about turning a profit off the land. Lotteries in London kept funds flowing to keep Jamestown alive.

Around 1620, finally, a tobacco crop turned profitable.

In the face of heritage and hedonism, Columbia City Council bravely went forth in S.C. where only Sullivan's Island had gone before. On July 20, the Sullivan's Island smoking ban became law, but the people running Bert's Bar in the 2200 block of Middle Street were told they had an automatic delay until August 9 to tell the smokers, their customers, not to darken their door ever again.

The customers obeyed, and Bert's saw a 90% drop in the lunch traffic that stayed off 90% to the present. All-day business at Bert's is down about 50%. The strip of shops and such on Middle Street in downtown Sullivan's Island is only two blocks long with Bert's and four restaurants. All four restaurants have outdoor seating for smokers. Bert's does not.

A half-mile away in Mount Pleasant across the Ben Sawyer Bridge, there is no smoking ban, and, consequently, there are plenty of smoking customers, presumably Bert's former customers.

Bert's crowd was and is the blue-collar set, according to regular Tim Holbrook, a citizen of Sullivan's Island. The Bert's demographic is pretty consistent and pretty predictable. For lunch they want a sandwich and a cigarette following. For happy hour they want a drink and a cigarette burning. They now get both outdoors across the street and also in Mount Pleasant, but no longer inside Bert's.

Bert's is fighting back. The state's largest law firm, Nexsen Pruet, is representing Bert's against the Town of Sullivan's Island before Judge Deadra L. Jefferson at the Charleston County Judicial Center on the Four Corners of Law. Her decision is expected in another week.

As Holbrook said this week, "If she rules as a judicial activist rather than following the law, we're prepared to go to the S.C. State Supreme Court."

The law Holbrook was thinking about passed the S.C. Legislature in 1990 as the Clean Air Indoor Act. The law reads:

"Any laws, ordinances, or rules enacted pertaining to tobacco products may not supersede state law or regulation. Nothing herein shall affect the right of any person having ownership or otherwise controlling private property to allow or prohibit the use of tobacco products on such property."

Four opinions from the S.C. Attorney General's office going back to 1990 have unified conclusions. Holbrook found the office of the SCAG concluded:

"The General Assembly intended the Clean Indoor Act of 1990 to be comprehensive and have statewide applicability and that local political subdivisions (municipalities) were pre-empted and prohibited from further regulation of smoking in public places."

On Columbia City Council there are three lawyers: Tameika Isaac Devine, E.W. Cromartie, and Mayor Bob Coble. They should know, but not one mentioned the Clean Indoor Act of 1990 during the vote supporting the city's comprehensive smoking ban. Neither did Mayor Coble recuse himself due to conflict, due to his position as partner at Nexsen Pruet, Bert's Bar's barrister.