HOUSTON -- Note: The following story is a verbatim transcript of an Investigators story that aired on Monday, Feb. 18, 2008, on KPRC Local 2 at 10 p.m.

Local 2 Investigates digs deeper into Houston's smoking ban. Are businesses blowing smoke at the ban and getting away with it?

Tonight, our hidden cameras catch rampant smoking inside bars and restaurants.

Local 2 investigative reporter Robert Arnold discovers how many tickets the city is writing, and why some businesses don't seem to care.

On a February weekday afternoon, smoke fills the air at the Pit Stop bar on Hammerly in northwest Houston. Despite the city's smoking ban, our hidden cameras catch the bartender lighting up cigarette after cigarette.

We catch customers doing the same thing.

It's the same story in west Houston at Henry Hudson's Pub on Highway near Westheimer. Our cameras catch the glow of the bartender's cigarette and several customers smoking. We even bought a pack of cigarettes out of a machine inside the pub.

Local 2 Investigates visited both businesses twice after receiving e-mail complaints. Each time, we found several employees and customers violating the smoking ban.

"To be breaking the law so blatantly, obviously these people have no concern, no care, no sensitivity," said former Houston city council member Carol Alvarado.

Alvarado helped spearhead the city's smoking ordinance. The ordinance went into effect last September and is one of the toughest in the state. The ordinance bans smoking inside all public buildings, restaurants and bars.

So why did we catch these businesses getting away with it?

"My intent was that it would be enforced," said Alvarado.

Local 2 Investigates requested the records from the city's health department.

We found two inspectors are working full-time enforcing the smoking ordinance -- including working some nights. In the five months since the ban has been in effect, the public has made 228 complaints.

From that, inspectors have written four citations. So far, most of the citations have cost $261. The city also sent out more than 60 warnings.

"That's quite a disparity," Alvarado said. "There's also concern -- is our health department doing its job?"

"I think we are doing our job," said Kathy Barton, with the city's health department. "And I think the community is doing its job in enforcing the smoke-free ordinance that we have."

Barton says don't let the numbers fool you -- most of the city is not breaking the smoking ban. Those 228 complaints are out of the thousands of buildings and businesses facing the ban.

Barton says she expects more citations in the future as restaurant inspectors also start looking for smoking violations, but she believes the health department was never designed to be the smoking police, and could never catch every violator.

"The vast majority of the city is in compliance with this," Barton said. "We're always going to see people who flaunt the law. And we want to know about it so we can deal with it."

The city has dealt with the Pit Stop bar before. The bar was the first business in Houston to get hit with a smoking citation. Just two months after getting the first ticket, we found the smoking continues.

"It would appear they don't care about the law and we'll be happy to visit them again," Barton said.

After city smoking inspectors heard about what we caught on tape, they did make more visits to the Pit Stop. They issued a smoking citation last Friday afternoon and again later that night.

A manager told inspectors that the bar's owner wasn't going to lose any customers to the smoking ordinance.

The other bar -- Henry Hudson's Pub on Highway 6 -- also recently received a smoking citation.

A manager told us despite the smoking ordinance, he believes customers and employees can decide for themselves if they want to smoke or not.

To file a complaint with the city about a business allowing smoking, contact the Smoking Ordinance Enforcement Program at 713-640-4359 or smoke.health@cityofhouston.net.

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City of Houston Smoking Ordinance
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