MONTEBELLO -- It's happy hour at the Montebello Inn, but no one is lighting up at the bar. Customers and employees always step outside.

At the Inn and at nearly every other restaurant, bar and bingo parlor in town, the smoke stays outside, thanks to the city's aggressive enforcement program that used a team of police officers and citizens to monitor compliance with the 1995 California Smoke Free Workplace Law.

Montebello's effort in ridding bars and restaurants of cigarette smoke "has been truly wonderful,' said Dian Kiser, co-director of BREATH, an American Lung Association program.

The city's compliance rate to the state law is 99 percent, meaning nearly every bar and restaurant visited by the enforcement team was following the rules, Kiser and city officials said.

That rating was more than enough to earn Montebello a Platinum Lung Award from BREATH, which will be presented to the city and its Police Department at Wednesday's City Council meeting.

Kiser said the award goes to cities and counties in the state that have at least a 95-percent compliance rate to state no-smoking laws. Montebello was among only eight cities across the state recognized with the award, Kiser said.

The other cities are San Marcos, Lemon Grove, National City, Coronado, Mammoth Lakes, Palm Springs and Imperial Beach.

In addition, BREATH recognized the counties of Los Angeles, Mono, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara with the award, she added.

Although the California Smoke Free Workplace Law was enacted in 1995, it was implemented in stages. The last segment of the law impacted bars, casinos, restaurants with bars, and gaming clubs and went into effect in 1998.

That year, Montebello worked with the Los Angeles County Health Department and sent letters to bars and restaurants where officials had received complaints from employees and customers about people smoking indoors.

But the city did not get near-total compliance until officials formed a task force in 2001. Officials used a $250,000 grant from the State Department of Health Services to pay for the enforcement effort over a 33-month period.

With the money, Montebello police Cpl. Kelly Gordon and a team of detectives and citizens visited bars, bingo parlors, restaurants and restaurants with bars five to 10 times a week to observe whether customers were smoking.

"We still had three to four bars not in compliance, so for the health of our community we started citing them,' said Gordon. "And we kept going back, because when they don't hear from you, they think no one is watching.'

The Police Department also sent out educational materials on the smoke- free workplace law.

It worked, Gordon said.

"We haven't had issues with anyone for over a year,' she said.

Police Chief Garry Couso-Vasquez said the main ingredient in the city's success was that everyone worked together.

"Citizens, bar owners, really the entire community, came together here to make a difference,' he said.

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