Supporters, foes at odds over citywide workplace smoking ban

City-owned buildings and vehicles are set to go tobacco-free at the start of April, but the chance that a citywide workplace smoking ban would soon follow does not appear likely, despite some municipal candidates’ willingness to support such a proposal.

The Sedalia City Council voted earlier this month to prohibit tobacco use inside city buildings, vehicles and on the City Hall campus.

Interim City Administrator Brian Koral said council members supported the move to encourage healthy lifestyles among city employees and improve the atmosphere for people doing business with the city.

Larry Stevenson and Joe Gilgour, candidates for the Ward 4 council seat, have both come out against the city’s ordinance, saying voters should decide through ballot measures whether they want to restrict public smoking.

“To put a complete ban at City Hall, to me, was just as wrong as you could get,” Stevenson said. “I’m dead against a ban on smoking. I think the only way that that should be handled is to put it to a ballot vote.”

However, several municipal candidates said they would be open to expanding restrictions to make city workplaces smoke-free.

Kathleen Boswell, 1st Ward council candidate, said her involvement with the American Cancer Society has made her active in promoting going smoke-free for years.

“People say, ‘Can’t we make the decision for ourselves?’ Everybody has to be around the smoke in restaurants.

It’s almost impossible to say they have a smoke-free area because there is smoke all through the restaurant,” Boswell said.

Ward 1 candidate Susan Daniels and Ward 4 candidates Sharon Bridges and Pam Carter also said they would consider supporting a measure if the residents and business owners in Sedalia were in favor of such a move.

Stephen Galliher, a 1st Ward candidate, said he would support the city prohibiting public indoor smoking as long as there were designated areas for smokers to light up.

“The state of Missouri Legislature now has in the works a proposal to ban all (public indoor) smoking statewide. I think we would be ahead of the game a little bit,” Galliher said.

State Sen. Joan Bray, D-St. Louis, filed legislation this session to replace the state’s Clean Indoor Air Act by enacting new restrictions on public smoking. Along with prohibiting smoking in enclosed areas where people work, the bill also would ban smoking within 15 feet of populated outdoor areas such as building entrances and windows, bleachers, playgrounds and public transportation stations.

While the legislation has a companion bill in the state House with more than a dozen co-sponsors, it has yet to make it to the floor of the Legislature for a hearing.

Ten communities in Missouri have passed regulations that prohibit smoking in public workplaces. And Kansas is the latest on a growing list of states to go smoke-free, after Gov. Mark Parkinson on Friday signed into law a statewide ban that will go into effect in July.

Jackie Dawson, a manager at End Zone Sports Bar & Grill in Sedalia, said although she didn’t think it would hurt business at the bar if the entire state went smoke-free, some customers may consider places outside of city limits if Sedalia restricted workplace smoking.

“I think that in this type of place, a sports bar, I don’t think it would go over well,” Dawson said.

She said in certain public places like family restaurants, restricting smoking may make sense, but the majority of people going to bars expect and accept that smoke is part of the atmosphere.

A manager at one local restaurant that recently went smoke-free said after an initial mixed response from some of the regular customers, most people became used to the idea of stepping outside to light up. Nick Duppass, manager at Griff’s, said the Sedalia location was the last of 15 Griff’s restaurants across the country to prohibit indoor smoking.

Although many of their regular customers smoke, he said they adjusted to the change quickly. Duppass also believed the switch has made the restaurant a more appealing option for families.

“A lot of the families we have I think like it because their kids don’t have to be around it,” Duppass said.

Sedalia Mayor Elaine Horn said she would support a citywide ban with designated outdoor smoking areas. She said many families in the area have lost a loved one due to smoking, and she believed some people may be discouraged from entering certain businesses because of excessive smoke.

“It’s a serious health issue. It creates health issues for others,” Horn said. “You endanger their health as well as your own by allowing that.”

Mayoral candidates Terry Cockrell and Joe Zaremba said they believed the decision on public indoor smoking should be left up to business owners.

“They (private businesses) should make that decision. The city should stay out of that,” Cockrell said.

“When it comes to businesses and private property, I would leave that up to the private property owner because the free market works best,” Zaremba said.

Koral said the council did not consider extending a smoking ban to affect all businesses in the city during a strategic planning session in which the ordinance was discussed. Instead, council members favored leaving it up to the marketplace to determine which public establishments would allow indoor smoking.

“As of now, that’s something the council will leave to private businesses,” Koral said.