A Smoking ‘Play on Words’

by Adam Lynch
Photo by Melissa Webster
March 26, 2008

A Jackson City Council committee on Monday approved a change to a 2003 city ordinance banning smoking in many businesses, extending the ban to restaurants—unless they have a bar.

The ban, which had been in the works for months by anti-tobacco groups working with some council members, originally applied also to bars and bar/restaurants, but the planning committee made some concessions and reduced the blanket ban to a partial ban that will not affect stand-alone bars, retail tobacco stores and restaurants with an attached bar—so long as the restaurant and bar sections use separate ventilation systems.

An amendment passed with a 2-to-1 vote, with Ward 1 Councilman Jeff Weill and Ward 7 Councilwoman Margaret Barrett-Simon favoring the amendment and Ward 2 Councilman Leslie McLemore opposed. Ward 5 Councilman Charles Tillman is not on the planning committee but attended the decision as a nonvoting member, explaining that he “was forced to suffer” the visage of his wife wasting away from cancer brought on by cigarette smoking.

“You all who had seen her (knew) I had a pretty wife ... but I couldn’t recognize her (at the end),” Tillman said. “... If she hadn’t smoked as much as she did, we may not have had to deal with that.”

McLemore said the amended ordinance no longer had teeth.

“The ordinance doesn’t serve any purpose now,” McLemore told the Jackson Free Press after the vote. “It’s just a play on words. Smoke-free zones in establishments are legal fiction. The smoke still has an impact on everybody.”

Jennifer Cofer, executive director of the American Lung Association of Mississippi, said she was willing to cut her losses and accept the ordinance, no matter how watered down.

“We would like to see a 100-percent inclusive ordinance; however, at this point, we’re happy to see whatever will protect the most amount of people, and separate ventilation systems will exclude the general public from breathing in the cancer-causing poisons in a restaurant,” Cofer said.

She added that some restaurants may find it cheaper to hang up a “no-smoking” sign than to rebuild their ventilation systems.

Ken Crotwell, local chapter president of the Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association, was against the original ban, painting it as a “government mandate on private businesses,” but also because of the extra hit the ban would impose on local restaurants.

“With the increase in costs of everything out there, we’re seeing a major decrease in sales which, in turn, caused a basic decrease in tax collection (by the city). Basically, we cannot take any more of a hit,” Crotwell said.

Crotwell spoke well of the ordinance amendment, saying restaurant owners would now have the option of choosing to go smoke-free.

Weill characterized the amendment as a compromise between health and Jackson businesses.

“The ordinance protects the public from smoke, but I think it needs to be modified to balance some of the other interests,” Weill said.

Barrett-Simon said the amended bill would make the ordinance easier for city attorneys to defend in court.

The compromise means the ban will not extend to businesses like Habana Smoke Shop, in north Jackson. Habana owner Ralph Foster said he had been preparing to fight the original ordinance in court, since it encompassed his tobacco retail store.

“About 95 percent of my business is tobacco product. ... Doctors, lawyers, senators come into my store and sit and smoke and have a cup of coffee. They’re going to continue to do that, and if you decide to issue a subpoena ... against me I just happen to have enough money that I am prepared to fight, and I am prepared to go to the Supreme Court to defend my rights as an individual, so let’s have at it,” Foster said.

Jackson resident Jim Carrington criticized the council for debating the ordinance change.

“We are at a sad state of affairs that we’re going to allow money and politics to influence the health issues of our community and state. I understand the feeling of the businessmen sitting here today, but I wish they would ... think what it would be like if all the nonsmokers who came into their restaurants suddenly stopped going. They would see a tremendous impact,” Carrington said, adding that he wished opponents of the ordinance “would think about their customers and their employees who have to work in that smoke-filled environment.”

The ordinance, in its new form, will likely fully impact only family-style restaurants. Julie Davis, corporate communications director for family restaurant chain Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc., said she expected no strong drop in patronage because of the ban.

“We haven’t seen a material effect on sales or traffic in stores where cities changed policies,” Davis said. “As long as the ordinance affects all of the competition equally, it will be an equal playing field.”

Safely out of committee, the proposed ordinance now faces a vote by the general council in about two weeks, Barrett-Simon said.