Via Houstonist, KTRH is reporting that there are two more proposals to modify the city's smoking ban for restaurants floating around City Council.
City Councilwoman Toni Lawrence's office has begun circulating a petition asking her colleagues to support a ban which would keep people from lighting up in restaurants, but would still allow them to smoke in stand-alone bars and clubs."My thoughts are to draft an amendment which would exempt ... bars from the proposed ordinance," Lawrence wrote in the petition. "I am concerned we are putting too many regulations on certain establishments, to the point of running them out of business."
Lawrence said eight colleagues, a majority of council, have agreed to support the proposal.
Meanwhile, Councilman Jarvis Johnson advocated making bar owners pay a yearly permit fee to the city, and accept more stringent health requirements, in exchange for being allowed to take down the "no-smoking" sign.
"I want Houston to go smoke-free," said Johnson, "but if an establishment wants to be a smoking establishment, that is their right."
The proposed smoking ban has been placed on City Council's agenda for Wednesday, but it's likely the measure will be delayed. The city's current plan would allow smoking in outdoor restaurant and bar patios. It would not allow smoking inside those businesses, unless they were designated as a tobacco or "cigar bar" before Sept. 1.
- What Council Member Lawrence is proposing is an amendment to Council Member Alvarado's current draft ordinance. It would extend the smoking ban to restaurants that include bars, whether or not they have a physical separation between the two. It would exempt "stand alone" bars, which is to say bars that don't serve food. I didn't get into the specifics of that, so there may be some wiggle room on that end, but that's the basic thrust of the amendment.
- Council Member Lawrence would also add language to ban minors from being inside a bar where smoking is permitted, and would require that such bars post warning signs similar to the Surgeon General warnings about smoking.
- Two reasons were cited for Lawrence's action. One was that in the Willowbrook area on 1960 (which is in Lawrence's District A) there are places where one side of the street is inside Houston city limits and the other side is not. She felt it would be a competitive disadvantage to the bars inside Houston to be forced to ban smoking when smoke-friendly options were so close by.
- Reason number two was that there weren't enough votes to pass Alvarado's ordinance. Lawrence believes her amended ordinance can be passed, and that's why she was circulating the petition about it to other Council members.
After speaking to Hall, I spoke to Council Member Alvarado. She told me she opposed both the Lawrence and Johnson amendments. This is a workplace health issue, which is why she does not want to see any more exemptions added to the ordinance. She did not comment specifically on Lawrence's statement that her ordinance did not have enough votes to pass as it is, but said that the matter was expected to be tagged tomorrow, to be voted on in a week. She also expected a lot more amendments to be proposed, some that would make the ordinance tougher, and some that would scale it back.
Finally, I also placed a call to Council Member Johnson's office. He was not available, and at the time I hit publish on this post, I had not heard back. When I do, I will add an update with his comments.
Posted by Charles Kuffner on October 10, 2006 to Local politics | TrackBack