Sixth Ward Race: Candidates weigh in on smoking ban
Published March 17, 2006
Two candidates are competing to fill a vacancy left by councilman Brian Ash in the student-populated Sixth Ward, which includes East Campus. The election is April 4, and the polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The Maneater will look into some of the main platform issues of the campaign in the next three issues that lead up to the election.
This issue, The Maneater asked the candidates and Ash about the proposed smoking ban and the amendment to the marijuana ordinance.
On Feb. 20, the Columbia City Council passed an amendment without a public vote to make the city marijuana law stricter for repeat offenders.
Also, the Columbia/Boone County Board of Health has proposed an ordinance that would ban smoking in all public places, including restaurants and bars.
The board held a public hearing on March 7, and eventually the City Council will either have to vote on the issue or choose to put it up for public vote in the form of a referendum.
Sixth Ward Councilman Brian Ash:
Ash was the only councilmember to vote against amending the marijuana ordinance.
"Even though I wasn't in favor of the marijuana ordinance, I feel like voters should make any modifications because they voted in favor of it originally," he said.
Ash said he would most likely not have to vote on the smoking ordinance because he would either no longer be on the council or would not vote because he is a restaurant owner.
"I think the smoking ordinance is definitely in the realm of something the council can decide," Ash said.
"This is nothing different than the sign, tree or noise ordinance that can impact other people's personal rights for the greater good."
Candidate: Valerie Barnes, real estate agent
Barnes said she believes it is always good to send bills back to the voters if there is a contentious issue. She also thinks the council was just trying to improve upon the original marijuana ordinance and not necessarily change it drastically.
Barnes said she attended the meeting to discuss smoking on March 7. She said there was a great turnout and many people voiced different opinions.
"I think that the positions of both sides were made perfectly clear at the forum," she said.
Candidate: Barbara Hoppe, attorney for the state public defender
Hoppe said she could see both sides of the debate about the marijuana ordinance. She said though voters passed the ordinance, sending it back to the voters would be costly.
"I think it is a valid argument that it should go back to the voters, but it is an arduous and expensive process," she said.
"It was a good solution to have them negotiate because I think neither side wanted to go through the expense and effort of the public voting process."
Hoppe said she could not attend the public forum because her daughter was in the hospital, but she would like to see more public forums in case others could not attend.
"I don't know whether to send it to the voters because you don't want to have to send everything to the voters," Hoppe said.
"If there is a lot of division between voters, it would probably be a good idea, though, for them to get the final vote."