Champaign City Council votes down smoking ban

The Champaign City Council voted five to four against a proposal that would have banned smoking in all public indoor places in the city Tuesday.

There is now little chance of the smoke-free issue passing until at least 2007, when four council seats and the mayor's office are up for re-election, Councilwoman Kathy Ennen, member-at-large, said.

"It's dead as far as this council goes," Ennen said.

The council agenda originally called for a poll on a proposal that only would have banned smoking in restaurants without a class A liquor license, which would have excluded many bars and some restaurants from the ban.

Several council members, led by Ennen and 4th District Councilwoman Marci Dodds, called the proposal arbitrary and unfair.

"I don't have a problem banning it altogether," Dodds said. "I do have a problem with this weird, shifting middle-ground."

With the partial ban looking unlikely, Councilman Tom Bruno, member-at-large, asked for a vote on a total ban. When that failed, Mayor Gerald Schweighart called for a vote to leave the regulations unchanged. That proposal passed five to four, with 5th District Councilman Ken Pirok, member-at-large Councilman Giraldo Rosales, 1st District Councilwoman Gina Jackson, and Bruno dissenting.

Ennen and Dodds voted for both proposals. Pirok and Jackson voted against both.

Jackson, an Army veteran, said she supported a smoking ban but could not vote for the total ban because she did not support making the American Legion or Veterans of Foreign Wars clubs smoke-free.

The decision came in a council chamber packed with what 3rd District Councilman Vic McIntosh called the biggest crowd he has seen since he joined the council. Many people, most sporting stickers saying "Everyone deserves smoke-free air," or "Choose free enterprise," were forced to stand or sit on the floor as the seats quickly filled.

Before the council even began to debate, 40 people came forward to speak to the council on both sides of the issue.

Eric Meyer, the owner of Kam's, 618 E. Daniel St., and Pia's, 1605 W. Springfield Ave., said a ban would cost Champaign restaurants 24 percent of their business and cost many employees their jobs as smoking customers gave their business to restaurants in other cities.

"(The proposal) would result in a loss of a half million dollars in taxes alone," Meyer said.

Scott Hays, the head of the CU Smokefree Alliance, an organization promoting smoking bans in Champaign and Urbana, said Meyer's figures were based on "illegitimate" studies conducted by tobacco companies and that 76 percent of Champaign voters supported the ban.

"All real studies show (that smoking bans have) no economic impact," Hays said. "The response of the community is overwhelming."

Other speakers included representatives from the Champaign Public Health District, the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association and Colleges Against Cancer. Several local business owners and University students also addressed the council on both sides of the issue. Both sides cited studies disagreeing on the health risks of second-hand smoke and the economics of smoke-free bans.

"It was a good celebration of democracy," Ennen said.

Afterwards, Hays said CU Smokefree would turn to Urbana in the hopes of gaining support for a ban there.

"We hope Urbana will show more leadership than Champaign in the field of pubic health," Hays said. "The bottom line is, the city lost tonight."