An Omaha businesswoman has filed a lawsuit claiming the Omaha City Council acted improperly when it crafted and adopted the city's new smoking ban.

Katherine O'Connor, owner of O'Connor's Irish Pub, claims in the lawsuit filed Friday that the council violated Nebraska open meetings law when some members met privately with groups advocating the ban.

The smoking ban went into effect Oct. 2 for establishments that serve food. Bars that don't serve food, keno parlors and Horsemen's Park track have five years to implement the ban.

O'Connor said Friday that the partial ban has hurt her business because patrons can go to a bar that still allows smoking.

Her lawsuit claims the council failed to file a public notice before councilmen Jim Suttle and Franklin Thompson met with groups that advocated the ban.

Their conversations were about city business and should have been disclosed under the open meetings law, the lawsuit contends.

City Attorney Paul Kratz said Friday the law applies only to meetings at which a majority of council members are present. Meetings attended by only two council members -- in this case, Suttle and Thompson -- are within the law, he said.

Messages left for Suttle and Thompson were not immediately returned Friday.

O'Connor's lawsuit also alleges the City Council failed to make the entire proposed ordinance available to the public before it was adopted June 23.

Kratz said the ordinance was available for public comment and that many people took advantage of the opportunity.

The lawsuit is the second filed against Omaha's smoking ban that O'Connor's attorney, K.C. Engdahl, is handling.

"A bad law is a bad law," Engdahl said Friday.

In the other lawsuit, Michelle Hugs, co-owner of the Marleybone Tavern, claims that the ban is unconstitutional because some businesses are given the privilege of allowing smoking while others are not.