City Commission passes non-smoking resolution

Kellen Jenkins / The Bulletin

Emporia Mayor Robert Agler explains his support of the smoking ordinance Wednesday afternoon during a city council meeting held in the Emporia Municipal Courtroom. The smoking ordinance passed 3-2 and will take effect March 3, 2009.

The Emporia City Commission passed a resolution to ban smoking in public places in Emporia was yesterday afternoon by a vote of three in favor, two against. The resolution will go into effect March 3, 2009.

Those voting in favor of the resolution were city commissioners Julia Johnson and Jim Kessler and Mayor Bobbie Agler. Those voting against the resolution were city commissioners Kevin Nelson and Jeff Longbine.

“I’ll probably have to find a day job – I’m dead serious,” said Matt Slater, owner of Josie’s Bar. “I really think it’s going to cut into our business. We have a 700 square foot outdoor deck and we’re going to have to buy at least two heaters.”

Slater estimates that each heater is around $500 dollars each. For bars like Town Royal who don’t have a deck or any available space to build one, customers will have to go into the alleyway to smoke.

According to Clean Air Emporia’s resolution, this approximated $1,000 is nothing compared to the estimated economic cost of $3,391 a year per smoker. Clean Air Emporia is more concerned with the health of those who make a decision not to smoke, but whose health is still at risk because of the environment they work in.

Clean Air Emporia also states in their resolution that, “During an eight hour work shift, a non-smoking employee could inhale secondhand smoke equivalent to actively smoking 16 cigarettes, just 4 short of an entire pack of cigarettes.”

The Emporia Fire Department will enforce the smoking ban by inspecting establishments for proper no smoking signs and by doing random checks. If someone is found smoking a cigarette, they can be charged with a misdemeanor and a $50 fine.

“Smokers have the right to smoke, business owners have the right to do, inside their walls, what they want to,” said city commissioner Jim Kessler. “Individuals have rights also. An individual has a right to go into a business, a retail business, a restaurant or a bar, without the fear of second hand smoke affecting their health. I think denial of this right hinges on discrimination.”

The main thing that the bar owners are concerned about is the effect of the smoking ban on patronage to the bar.

“I think people will still go out to the bars (but) I don’t think they’ll stay as long,” Slater said. “As far as the college crowd, I think they’re still going to go out, regardless. I think the house party scene is going to pick up a lot. I think a lot more people are going to be staying in house parties where they can smoke or whatnot as opposed to going out to the bars.”

Another concern of bar owners is the rule that one must be at least ten feet away from the main public entrance to smoke.

“When we’ve got a line out front and we’re at capacity, there is no way that we can tell the first eight people in line that they can’t smoke, but everybody else can,” Slater said.

Clean Air Emporia says “passive smoking (secondhand smoke) is the third leading preventable cause of death; for every eight smokers who die, one nonsmoker also will die from secondhand smoke exposure.”

But despite the risks, people still smoke and bar owners argue that most people who come into a smoking establishment know that it is indeed smoking friendly.

“Last Thursday was a perfect example,” Slater said. “We had 20 to 25 people come in and all but one of them smoked.”

But it is second hand smoke that Clean Air Emporia is against. They fight for the rights of those who do not smoke to be in an area where there is no smoke.

“I get on this bar owner’s online forum and, almost to a tee, every single person said they were down 20 percent in the first year after a smoking ban,” Slater said. “There’s a trickle down effect that I don’t think a lot of people are realizing. We’re going to be buying less stuff from our suppliers who are going to be buying less stuff from their suppliers.”

But Clean Air Emporia disagrees, stating in their resolution that, “studies that used objective measures such as sales tax receipts, included data from several years before and after, and controlled for changes in economic conditions found no negative fiscal impact to businesses from smoke-free policies.”

Bar Owners and members of Emporia Open for Business are planning to start a petition to lift the ban.