City looks again at passing tough new anti-smoking law
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

The City Council voted 4-0 to send a proposed change to the municipal code back to city staff members for more work. The change would prohibit smoking in outside areas such as shopping centers, sitting areas, food courts, sidewalks, public events, restaurants and children's play areas.

In July 2007 the council asked city staff to seek a way to protect residents from second-hand smoke.

The new outdoor smoking ban is expected to return to the council in about two months.

Councilmember Dennis Gillette said he hopes all five councilmembers are present to vote on it because the issue is so important. Councilmember Andy Fox was absent from Tuesday night's City Council meeting.

City Attorney Amy Albano said she would discuss tobacco use with affected businesses and return with information in two months, along with suggestions that would make the ordinance less vague.

As proposed on Jan. 22, voluntary compliance would be a key component in enforcing the new law. Violators may also be ticketed.

A first offense could cost the offender $100; the second would be $200, and a third offense in a one-year period would be $500.

"I really don't want to see our police department bogged down in enforcements on this issue," said Mayor Jacqui Irwin.

For smokers who refuse to comply, the infraction would be a deterrent, Albano said.

Irwin suggested that it would be difficult to tell someone they couldn't smoke in an area outside a coffee shop or eatery early in the morning, especially with no one else around.

"I can't stand smoking, and I don't like to smell it at all, and I'm very concerned about secondhand smoke, but I don't want us to go too far and become too much of a police state either," Irwin said.

Gillette assured her the city wouldn't become a police state.

"If there's a coffee and a food place, there's no smoking, but if it's just, like, at the Janss mall, it's just a coffee place, there's no smoking unless they put a fence around it?" Irwin asked.

"That's right," Albano said.

"I don't know of anyone that debates or rejects the premise that smoking is dangerous and non-healthy and a problem," Gillette said.

Society will adjust, Gillette said. He used to cut asbestos off a roll with scissors when he worked for an airline. Gillette's 1965 Ford didn't have seatbelts. The world has evolved, he said.

"I do not believe business will end as we know it if we pursue regulating this type of activity," Gillette said.

The city has a responsibility to protect its citizens, according to Gillette. He asked city staff members to draft an ordinance to include outdoor dining, which wasn't originally included in the ban.

"It makes no sense to exclude outdoor dining," he said.