JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Legends Sports Bar employees (from left) Jarrett and Candy Hill smoke outside the establishment with customer Max Collins.

JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Bill Kopcial, owner of Legends Sports Bar on Williamson Road in Roanoke, is frustrated that smoking laws are not enforced.

Bill Kopcial was working the bar the other day when one of his patrons lit a cigarette.

Kopcial, the owner of Legends Sports Bar on Williamson Road, politely informed the man that he runs a smoke-free establishment, in accordance with a new state law.

"He just looked at me, took another drag, and blew smoke in my face," Kopcial said. The bar owner snatched the cigarette from the man's mouth, tossed it in the sink and told him to leave.

The incident, as recounted by Kopcial, was vigilante enforcement of a law that prohibits smoking in bars and restaurants in Virginia -- the kind of hard-nosed approach he says is lacking among law enforcers.

Nearly four months after the law took effect, no one in Virginia has been cited -- even though some Roanoke Valley businesses openly allow customers to smoke.

Kopcial has grown frustrated as his tobacco-dependent patrons migrate to bars that remain smoke-filled. He has complained to Roanoke police, the state health department and the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Department.

"They're just turning a deaf ear on this," Kopcial said. "They say we're doing this and that, but when you hang up, they forget you ever called. ... Nobody really wants to pick it up and say, 'This is my job.' They just want to shuffle it off."

The new law makes local health departments responsible for monitoring compliance with the no-smoking law during routine inspections of restaurants. But the health departments say the law gives them no authority to cite violators. The most they can do is refer a case to police, said Robert Parker, a spokesman for the health department's Southwest Virginia regional offices.

Police have visited a handful of smoke-filled restaurants since the law took effect Dec. 1. They've issued no summonses. If they did, the top penalty would be a $25 civil fine.

Instead of writing tickets, Roanoke police are educating restaurant owners and citizens about the law, police spokeswoman Aisha Johnson said. Offending businesses are told they must go totally smoke-free or build a separate room for smokers with a separate ventilation system.

How to enforce the law is being discussed by police, health officials and the ABC agency. Johnson declined to elaborate on those discussions.

Kathleen Shaw, an ABC spokeswoman, said the mutual goal among the agencies is "to gain voluntary compliance without substantial penalty." Should an establishment ever be fined for allowing smoking, ABC could take administrative action against its licence to serve alcohol.

In North Carolina, where a law similar to Virginia's took effect Jan. 1, authorities have fined seven businesses. First- and second-time offenders receive a warning letter. Those who violate the law a third time are fined $200. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services publishes a weekly list of warnings and enforcement actions on its Web site.

In Virginia, online reports of health department inspections include a notation if a restaurant violates the no-smoking law. But there is no statewide public record of enforcement actions.

Gary Hagy, head of the state health department's food and environmental services division, said he was unaware of any no-smoking citations anywhere in the state.

More than 11,000 restaurant inspections conducted since Dec. 1 found 96 percent complied with the smoking law, he said. And since the law was passed last year, the number of totally smoke-free establishments has increased from 66 percent to 88 percent.

"It's a good indication that a majority of Virginians and restaurant owners are trying to comply with the law," Hagy said.

He acknowledged a few rogue restaurants are causing problems.

Critics say those places remain beyond the reach of Virginia's law.

Of the 33 states that prohibit smoking in bars and restaurants, Virginia's maximum fine of $25 is one of the lowest, according to Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, a California-based organization that tracks the issue. A potential $5,000 fine in Arizona is the nation's toughest.

Virginia's penalty doesn't deter establishments that flaunt the law, said Wendy Jones, executive director of the Williamson Road Area Business Association.

"They can pay 25 bucks a pop for a long time before it starts pinching them hard," Jones said.

Jones said she has heard from law-abiding restaurant owners -- mostly Kopcial, "but rumblings here and there from others" -- who are upset about losing business to places that are not being held accountable.

"All I want is a level playing field," said Kopcial, a retired city firefighter who opened Legends in December in the same Williamson Road building where he once ran the Second Alarm restaurant and bar.

Some places are flagrant lawbreakers. Others bend the law just enough to suit their needs, designating small seating areas for nonsmokers and letting customers light up throughout the rest of the building.

Hagy has heard complaints about those businesses, but said there's little he can do because the law doesn't specify a minimum amount of space for smoking and nonsmoking areas.

Charbel's Sports Grill in Salem, where both the customers and owner Charlie Nakhle were puffing away with impunity in late January, has since taken steps to designate one room for nonsmokers. Nakhle said Salem officials have signed off on his plans.

Even the law's sponsor acknowledged it has some shortcomings. The fine should probably be increased, and the law should clarify how it should be enforced, said Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk.

With tobacco's historic influence on both the economy and government of Virginia, legislators realized restrictions would have to start small.

"They say that things happen in small steps, and they do in Richmond, but I think this was a big step, considering how important tobacco has been to the commonwealth over the years," Northam said.

Brandon Bell, a former Republican senator from Roanoke County who championed a smoking bill several years ago when it was considered a long shot in the General Assembly, agreed the law needs work.

"If you have a law, you want it to have consequences," Bell said. "Right now, the consequences don't appear to have any teeth."