Law changes would exempt clubs

Private club members who provide services, even if they are paid, are not considered employees.
COLUMBUS -- Proposed rule changes in Ohio's indoor smoking ban law exempt some private clubs, including military veterans organizations, under certain circumstances.
Among the rule changes filed Wednesday, according to Jay Carey, director of the Ohio Department of Health's office of public affairs, are:
A clarification that an anonymous complaint alone cannot form the basis for a violation.
No Smoking signs can be posted by means other than affixing to real property, such as a sign on a stake in a mulch bed adjacent to an entrance.
A clarification that wood-burning ovens are cooking devices and not regulated under state law.
"Private club representatives have consistently asked ODH to fashion rules that reflect the exemption they believed they had under the law passed in November 2006," said Anne R. Harnish, ODH acting director.
The latest draft rules say that private club members who provide services for the club, regardless if they are paid, are not considered employees. Therefore, private clubs that have only members providing services and meet other requirements in the law, are exempt, Harnish said.
Rest of rules
Among the "other requirements" are that no one under 18 and only members are present, and that the club is nonprofit and located in a free-standing building, Harnish said.
"We have said all along that the veterans organizations made a compelling argument. We have tried to bring reasonableness to the law while still protecting the citizens of Ohio," Carey said.
The Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review has 30 days to examine the proposed rules and is expected to discuss the rules at its April 16 meeting. Joint committee action is the final step in the process. If approved, enforcement could begin as early as 40 days from today, Carey said.
If the joint committee moves to invalidate the rules, they would go to the full Legislature for action, Carey said.
There are four reasons for the joint committee to invalidate rules. They are: The rules exceed scope of the rule-making agency's statutory authority; the rules conflict with a rule of that agency or another rule-making agency; the rules conflict with the intent of the Legislature in enacting the statute under which the rule is proposed; and the rule-making agency has not prepared a complete and accurate rule summary and fiscal analysis of the proposed rule, amendment or rescission.
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