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New Albany City Council passes smoking ordinance
Mayor will decide on smoking veto Monday
New Albany Mayor Doug England said he is embarrassed by what transpired at Thursday’s City Council meeting, but he will reserve his decision on a possible veto of the 5-4 vote to ban smoking in public venues in the city until Monday.
In a phone interview with The Tribune following the meeting, England said he needs the weekend to “mull over” the smoking ordinance before rendering his opinion. The mayor was not present for the vote, as he was out of town attending another meeting.
But England learned of the ban’s passage from officials within his administration who were at the council meeting and said the bickering between residents painted a bad picture of New Albany.
“I am so sorry that this has pitted citizen against citizen and businesses against each other,” England said. “I am ashamed of New Albany.”
England added he didn’t want to go into much detail because he was frustrated by the proceedings which saw approximately 60 residents speaking on the issue — the majority of which were against the ordinance — and a local businessman escorted from the third-floor assembly room of the City/County Building.
Roger Baylor, co-owner of the New Albanian Brewing Co., was kicked out of the meeting at the request of Council President Jeff Gahan. Baylor took exception to the amount of time allotted to Tim Filler, a member of the organization Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Gahan told those who signed up to speak they needed to hold their remarks to around one minute. Filler went over the time restriction by an estimated 10 minutes, according to Baylor.
When he interrupted the meeting and called for Filler to quit speaking since he had exceeded the allotted time, a brief verbal exchange occurred between Baylor and Gahan resulting in Baylor’s dismissal from the meeting.
England said it was one example of the type of intensity caused by such a volatile issue. He added the city has “more problems to worry about” and said it’s a time for residents to be united, not divided.
“I’m just disgusted that we let something like this pit citizen against citizen when there are far more important things,” England said. “We’re not going the right way.”
England said he has reserved comment on the smoking ban because he didn’t want to interfere with the council’s work. Instead, England said he has spent his time focusing on a water park and streets for New Albany instead of contributing to strife between residents dealing with something that is “legally sold in America.”
The ordinance passed on second and third readings and included three amendments, though they weren’t enough to sway council members Jack Messer, Diane McCartin-Benedetti, Steve Price or Kevin Zurschmiede to vote in favor of the ban.
The amendments push back the effective date of the ban to March 9 of 2009, allow smoking in private clubs when only members are present and reduce the distance for smoking by an entrance to a building from 20 to 10 feet.
The amendments were introduced by Councilman Bob Caesar, who added restaurants and bars could have patios and decks within 10 feet of an entrance as long as owners made sure smoke wasn’t entering their establishments.
Most of the arguments for and against the ban stayed the same among the council members since they first voted on the issue Aug. 4, with one side fighting for the ordinance because of heath consequences and the other citing business and freedom of choice concerns.
“It’s public health and I don’t see how we can duck it,” said Councilman John Gonder, who voted in favor of the ban.
Messer — who is a police officer — said the police department would not be able to enforce the ordinance, rendering it useless.
“I am against smoking but I am also against violating people’s rights,” Messer said.
The 5-4 count gives England the power to veto the ordinance, since his vote could serve as a tie. It would take a vote of 6-3 by the council to overturn a mayor’s veto, but the four who voted against the ban have given no indication they would do so.
Caesar took time at the end of the meeting to lobby for England’s acceptance of the ban.
“I’d like to encourage the mayor of New Albany to support a healthier, smoke-free city,” he said, extending the same thoughts to the Floyd County Council.
What changed
• Amendments were approved to move the effective date of the smoking ban to March 9 of 2009, lax the distance restriction from 20 to 10 feet for smoking by an entrance to a building and to allow smoking in private clubs when only members are present.
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