VALPARAISO | The city's smoking ban ordinance isn't broke so there's no reason to fix it, Bruce Berner told the council Monday.

Berner, who was chairman of the task force that drew up the ordinance to ban smoking in most public areas two years ago, said the task force met in October and agreed not to present recommendations either to expand or contract the ordinance.

"We believe it is working well and has been well-received by the people and the merchants," Berner said. "There are indications a broader solution, a state law, might be coming soon, and it was also felt that any efforts to tweak the ordinance could open a Pandora's box."

Berner said Valparaiso's experience with the ordinance, which went into effect April 1, 2007, has mirrored that of other communities nationally in that "the great majority comply with the statute because they want to comply with the law." The few cases of noncompliance, mostly bars that continued to serve people under 18, have been dealt with, he said.

Restaurants that serve alcohol were given the choice of being either a restaurant, which meant smoking was banned but they could serve families, or a bar, where smoking is allowed but they can't admit minors. Berner called the city's method of determining that aspect of the smoking ban was far less invasive than many others that involve percentages of liquor sales and other factors.

A total of 18 exemptions from the smoking ban were issued in the first year, including private clubs and small, family run businesses. That dropped to 17 this year and is expected to decline again next year.

Only minor enforcement issues remain to be resolved, he said. These include people smoking less than 15 feet from the entrance to the building, and the litter that collects where people are smoking. The city is looking at ways to address both these problems.

"We would be happy to continue to meet and monitor how the ordinance is working out for the city," he said. "It's more difficult for businesses to comply when it is a small sector like a city our size rather than a county or a state, but the restaurant owners and merchants have been very cooperative.

"No smoking laws are like a sled going downhill: more states are falling week by week and year by year," he said. "I predict most states will enact smoking bans in the next five to 10 years."