HILO — A 14-month-old law banning tobacco use at all Hawaii County parks has gone largely unenforced because there are none or too few signs informing people of the prohibition.

That will change starting Friday, when the first of about 40 no-smoking signs will be posted at popular Hilo parks, Parks Director Bob Fitzgerald said.
The Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium, nearby Walter Victor Baseball Complex, Liliuokalani Gardens and Onekahakaha Beach Park will receive signs measuring 10 inches by 12 inches each, he said.
The county's other large facilities, like Kailua-Kona's Old Airport Park, will follow, Fitzgerald said, noting county employees will make the signs.
Another 100 displaying various no-smoking messages will be donated by a tobacco-free youth group, he said.
Fitzgerald said he'd like the placement to be standardized, preferably at park entrances so users will be made aware of all the rules.
"I don't like to have signs everywhere," he said.
According to county law, "every public place and place of employment where smoking is prohibited by this article shall have posted at every entrance a conspicuous sign clearly stating that smoking is prohibited."
The person or agency responsible for posting the sign can be fined for failure to do so, said Assistant Police Chief Henry Tavares, head of the department's West Hawaii operations.
A sign is required for officers to cite a smoker, Tavares said.
Two county attorneys agreed with him.
If no such sign exists, police warn both the offending smoker and the person or agency responsible for posting them, Tavares said, adding signs would make enforcement easier.
"We issued one citation on June 2, 2008, at Kahaluu Beach Park," Police Department spokeswoman Chris Loos said yesterday. "A sign was posted there."
The Keauhou park had been the first and only county park where smoking was banned. That changed April 22, 2008, when the County Council overrode then-Mayor Harry Kim's veto of a bill making use of tobacco products illegal at all county parks, gymnasiums and recreational facilities, of which there are more than 100.
"I am disappointed signs didn't go up earlier," said council Chairman J Yoshimoto of Hilo, author of the no-smoking law. "I think it's something the past administration had promised."
Still, Yoshimoto said he's encouraged that the placement of signs will start Friday.
"Because it's a new law, the more notice and information we provide to the public, the easier it is to enforce," he said of provisions calling for a $100 fine for each separate smoking offense.
Failure to install a required no-smoking sign can trigger a penalty ranging from a $100 fine for the first violation up to $500 for three or more offenses in the same year.
Yoshimoto said he was told by former Parks Director Pat Engelhard that the county last year had purchased and received 400 no-smoking signs displaying a lit cigarette inside a circle with a red line through it, which is the international no-smoking symbol, along with a hibiscus flower and the word "mahalo."
"I thought we needed better signs than that," he said.
Renee Schoen, a deputy corporation counsel assigned to the Department of Parks and Recreation, said the department made a "bunch" of signs that she felt were not sufficient because they didn't state the penalty for smoking or section of the law regulating that activity in county parks.
The existence of those signs, however, could not be verified yesterday.
Fitzgerald said he doesn't know what happened before he became parks director in January.
"I don't have no clue where they are," he said of the signs Yoshimoto mentioned.
However, Fitzgerald and a department maintenance supervisor both said no-smoking signs have been installed at county park facilities.
None was visible during a check of Hilo's Lincoln Park yesterday, although there were numerous cigarette butts littering the ground near the park's bathrooms.
Despite limited enforcement and a delay in posting signs, Yoshimoto said the law he helped to craft has reduced smoking and prompted many smokers to go outside park boundaries before lighting up.
"I've noticed a dramatic reduction (in smoking)," Yoshimoto said. "It has had a positive effect."