Ketchums no-smoking push is on back burner
Tobacco lobbying group surfaces with Website
"We have enough to do without legislating morals."
- Ketchum Mayor Guy Coles
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
Ketchums City Council has quietly left on the back burner an effort
mounted earlier this year to enact a smoking ban in city bars and restaurants.
Shelving the controversial planat least while the council grapples
with high-profile issues such as the citys new comprehensive plan and possible
Highway 75 expansionsits well with Mayor Guy Coles.
The mayor, who smoked for 40 years before stopping a decade ago,
hasnt backed a no-smoking ordinance.
"We have enough to do without legislating morals," he said in an
interview.
As mayor, Coles has political clout in influencing and setting the
councils agenda. Thus, his view of the no-smoking issue is important.
In so many words, the mayor said in an interview on Thursday, he
wouldnt be disappointed if the proposal slipped through the cracks rather than be
placed on a council agenda for debate.
"Let a sleeping dog lie," Coles said. "Were not going
to indulge in it at all.
"There are a lot of things on our plate already without [taking on]
anything more."
Ketchums council unanimously voted on Feb. 22 to pursue no-smoking
regulations in the interest of public health. Almost immediately, the proposal ran into a
buzz saw of opposition.
Local bar owners assailed the council in March, declaring the city should
not be in the business of legislating personal behavior.
But in a separate interview last week, Councilman David Hutchinson said he
thinks the council still has the political will to pursue no-smoking regulations.
"When you come up with something thats appropriate, you
dont give up because youre tired," he said, a reference to the
councils current busy schedule.
In February, when Twin Falls was considering a similar ordinance, that
towns city attorney, Fritz Wonderlich, said a city ban on smoking would contradict
state law.
He pointed to Idaho statutes precluding smoking in public places and
requiring that smoking sections be set aside in restaurants. Bars and bowling alleys may
allow smoking, he said.
Wonderlich said in a Friday telephone conversation that the state has
"implied preemption" on the issue. In other words, he said, state law supersedes
local law in this case, he said.
Ketchum city attorney Margaret Simms told the Mountain Express last
week she wont disclose her legal opinion until the council asks for it. She said
shes completed extensive research on the topic.
Simms did say, however, it seemed to her that the Twin Falls City Council
didnt have the political will to follow through on drafting city no-smoking
regulations.
Meanwhile, a national smokers advocacy group, the National Smokers
Alliance (NSA), has mounted its own assault on the Ketchum councils move to draft an
anti-smoking ordinance. The group lobbies nationally for tobacco company interests and
uses the Internet, where it has its own site, to fight no-smoking efforts.
"We must join together to fight back against the anti-smoking zealots
in your community before its too late," reads a paragraph on the Website.
The Website text is followed by a list of Ketchum City Council members,
their addresses and phone numbers and addresses of the Wood River Valleys two
newspapers.
NSA officials were not available for comment.
A rival group, Berkeley, Calif.-based Americans for Nonsmokers
Rights (ANR), appeared eager to respond to the NSAs efforts.
"Ive been here five years, and Ive never seen a community
waltz in and pass an ordinance without a fight from the tobacco industry," said ANR
associate director Elva Yanez said in an interview.
In other communities that have drafted anti-smoking laws, the NSA has sent
operatives to organize grass roots businesses and residents against the efforts, she said.
There are over 800 communities nationwide that have adopted anti-smoking
regulations, according to ANR research.
The NSAs motivation for fighting the ordinances is simple, Yanez
said.
She pointed to a draft NSA document, posted on a Philip Morris Website,
that states, "Financial impact of smoking bans will be tremendousthree to five
fewer cigarettes per day per smoker will reduce annual manufacturer profits a billion
dollars-plus per year."