| |
|
|
|
Kirkwood Council Sends Indoor Smoking Ban To November Ballot
Webster-Kirkwood Times
8/28/2009
Kirkwood voters are once again being asked for an up-or-down decision on banning smoking in the city's public places and workplaces.
The city council voted last week to put such a proposition on the Nov. 3 ballot, acknowledging the success of the petition drive to acquire sufficient signatures to force a vote.
The issue is not new. Kirkwood voters in 2006 delivered a 55 to 45 percent defeat to an initiative petition that would have imposed a comprehensive ban on smoking in public places.
This second-try proposition includes less restrictive prohibitions. Specifically, the ban on smoking applies only to "enclosed" spaces, which are strictly defined as "bound on all sides by walls or windows continuous from the floor to the ceiling..." The title of the ordinance itself emphasizes the point: "The Clean Air Act of the City of Kirkwood Prohibiting Smoking in Indoor Workplaces and Public Places."
Backyard barbecues and fireworks are not mentioned in the proposal. Specifically exempted are 20 percent of the rooms in a hotel, tobacco shops and private membership organizations in existence prior to March 1, 2009. Private homes are specifically exempted, unless used for a commercial purpose, such as child care.
Several speakers at the city council's hearing on the proposition made it clear that they believe the sponsors of the initiative not only went too far, but intend to go farther once this first proposal becomes law.
Steve Sheridan of West Rose Hill Avenue, an opponent of the original anti-smoking proposition as well as the successor, alleges that the wording of the new ordinance not only bans smoking in such quasi-private facilities as taxi cabs and limousines, but also is open to interpretations that could get someone arrested even when no smoking has occurred.
Supporters of the bill scoffed at that notion, suggesting it was merely a red herring.
"Cigarettes are the only product that, when used as designed, cause harm to others in the immediate vicinity," said proponent Mary Murphy-Overmann.
Such careful parsing suggests that this ballot initiative might be one of the most closely read ever, with a substantial number of voters reading the actual document rather than waiting until they reach the voting booth to scan the capsulated description on the ballot.
Meanwhile, the Clayton City Council has passed its own anti-smoking ordinance. Likewise, Ballwin and Arnold have passed ordinances. Like the Kirkwood initiative, these ordinances focus on enclosed public places and workplaces.
Ordinances are also in the works in St. Louis City and County, though County Executive Charles Dooley is on the record as supporting a state-wide measure rather than a rash of ordinances passed by sub-jurisdictions.
A compromise worked out by the St. Louis County Council excludes casinos and bars from the no-smoking bill now under consideration. Bars are specifically included in the initiative to be voted on in Kirkwood.
To further embroil the issue, an initiative -- a rival to the "Clean Air Act" petition -- is being circulated in Kirkwood. It has not yet been certified by the St. Louis County Board of Elections as having the required number of signatures to be installed on the ballot.
|
|
|
| | |
| | |
|
|
