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Smoking back on agenda

By J.D. Davidson
The Times-Journal

Published November 29, 2008

In August, more than 1,800 people told the Fort Payne City Council they wanted the government to ban smoking in public places. On Tuesday, the council tried to figure out how to interpret that vote.

At a lengthy work session that included issues surrounding the fire department, the city’s new police chief and a possible nuisance law, council members debated which businesses should be impacted, if an actual ban is necessary and if, in fact, voters understood the question on the ballot.

“Why are we making it a criminal act for something that isn’t against the law,” Council President Richard Pridmore said.

By a vote of 1,875 to 1,032 Fort Payne voters responded favorably to the question “Do you favor legal restrictions on smoking in public places, such as restaurants, parks, commercial establishments, government buildings, etc., and work places, such as manufacturing and service buildings.”

Pridmore believes voters misunderstood, believing they were being asked their feelings on smoking instead of their opinion on if government should ban smoking.

“I don’t agree we took the people’s temperature the right way,” Pridmore said. “It wasn’t worded right on the ballot.”

Both Pridmore and Councilman Red Taylor said consumers should have the final word -- deciding whether or not to frequent businesses or restaurants that allow smoking -- and government regulation is unnecessary. However, both warmed to the idea of requiring business owners to decide if a business was smoking or non-smoking and posting the choice in public view.

“I think that we should pass an ordinance for [businesses] to be marked that it’s smoking or non-smoking, and let the people make up their own minds,” Taylor said.

All seemed to agree the issue mainly surrounded restaurants and left open the possibility of building a ban that covered only that segment of the business community.

Liz Barrotine, executive director of Partnership for a Drug Fee DeKalb, said Gadsden’s ordinance revolves around restaurants, and she said the organization was willing to work with the council to develop a possible compromise between a complete ban and nothing.

“We had it on the ballot, and it’s not fair to put it off and let the legislature do it again,” Barrontine.

State Democrats backed earlier this year a bill in the Legislature that would have effectively banned smoking in the workplace and other public places. It cleared both Senate and House committees but a Republican-led House filibusters kept it from reaching a vote on the floor. Gov. Bob Riley said he would have signed the ban if it had passed.

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