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The following
testimony offers a fascinating look at how the tobacco cartel often corrupts
restaurant associations and politics.
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My name is Barry
Fogel. I own the Jacopo’s Restaurant
Group with establishments in Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, West Los Angeles,
and Pacific Palisades (California).
In 1988, Beverly Hills
passed one of the first smokefree restaurant ordinances in the nation. It was rescinded 5 months later due to
lobbying from the Beverly Hills Restaurant Association.
There was no Beverly
Hills Restaurant Association before the smokefree ordinance. It was organized by the tobacco
industry. The industry helped pay its
legal bills in a lawsuit against Beverly Hills. The industry even flew some of its members by Lear Jet to Rancho
Mirage, another California city considering similar smokefree restaurant
legislation, to testify before Rancho Mirage’s City Council in opposition. Tobacco Institute representatives also
attended Association meetings.
The tobacco industry
repeatedly claimed that Beverly Hills restaurants suffered a 30% decline in
revenues during the 5 months that the smokefree ordinance was in effect. Figures from the State Board of Equalization
using sales tax data, however, showed a slight increase in restaurant
sales.
How do I know all
this? I was president of the Beverly
Hills Restaurant Association. I regret my participation with the tobacco
industry.
***Note: Beverly Hills later re-passed
smokefree workplace legislation as did the entire state of California.
***Note: This testimony was presented on June 6,
1994
Excerpts from Smokefree.net