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The two sides squared off Friday at a Juneau Chamber of Commerce luncheon. The debate marked the beginning of what is expected to be a hard-fought battle over changing the city's clean-indoor-air ordinance.

The current ordinance, which took effect Jan. 1, 2002, bans smoking in most places, but stand-alone bars and some bar/restaurants are exempt. The coalition wants smoking in all public and work places banned.

Bar owners do not dispute the ill effects of smoking. The issue centers on money and one's civil right to work, recreate and own private property, they argue.

Triangle Club owner Leeann Thomas does not smoke, but her customers have that right, she said. And employees have the choice to work at her establishment or one in Juneau that is smoke-free. Thomas said all of her employees smoke and work there because smoking is allowed.

But second-hand smoking in some venues affects the health of children, said Cindy Spanyers, president of Alaskans for Tobacco Free Kids. The local bowling alley allows smoking in its bar while children bowl nearby. And cigarette smoke from Hangar on the Wharf filters out into an indoor hallway near children, she said.

Armed with paperwork, both sides argued the economic impacts of banning smoking in bars and bar/restaurants.

Ethan Billings, owner of Marlintini's Lounge, offered pages listing establishments in the Unites States and Canada that either closed or lost a large percentage of their business revenue because of smoking bans.

A ban will not only hurt individual businesses, Billings said, but will cut into the city's revenues from sales taxes and property taxes. That shortfall may have to be made up by taxpayers, he said. During the past five years, liquor taxes and sales taxes generated $7.5 million in revenue for the city, said Billings, who does not smoke.

"I might go out of business and if I don't someone else will," said Thomas, whose family has owned the Triangle Club for 57 years in Juneau. "You're talking about my niche. Please don't take that niche away from me."

Jeanette Choate, a manager at Juneau Airport's lounge, said it lost all 42 regular local customers since the city's clean-indoor-air ordinance took effect. Revenue at the lounge decreased about 60 percent partly because of the smoking ban, pay parking and cautiousness about flying after Sept. 11, she said.

Cahill said other cities that banned smoking experienced no or minimal financial effects. A smoking ban in Juneau will put all bars and bar/restaurants on a level playing field while protecting workers' health, she argued.

Laura Achée of Juneau was one of those workers who hated being exposed to second-hand smoke when she worked as a server in Anchorage, she said. In the early 1990s, Achée and her colleagues starting feeling the ill-effects of second-hand smoke, but couldn't work at another restaurant because Anchorage had not banned smoking at that time.

If bar owners would ban smoking, Achée said she would frequent bars more often. Thomas contends Achée represents the minority, and that most of her patrons come to her bar because they can smoke.

Besides bar and bar/restaurants, officials with local fraternal organizations oppose a smoking ban and project business losses, they say.

Mark Page, secretary of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, said a smoking ban would put the organization out of business because 90 percent of its members smoke.

"It will just put us out of business, period," Page said. "We'll just have to turn in the (liquor) license and forget it."

The Smoking Ordinance Review Task Force is planning to meet Jan. 8 to review the ordinance and make recommendations to the Juneau Assembly at a later date, Chairman Matt Felix said. The task force does not plan to take a position on banning smoking in bars and bar/restaurants, he said.

The coalition and Alaskans for Tobacco Free Kids will announce plans on their anti-smoking lobbying effort at 10 a.m. Monday in Chinook's at the Goldbelt Hotel, 51 Egan Drive.

• Tara Sidor can be reached at tara.sidor@juneauempire.com.