Business owners plan petition
Published Feb. 2, 2007
Local business owners who feel slighted by the recently enacted smoking ban have come together to try to snuff it out.
At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, 15 business owners announced their plans to collect signatures for a petition to the Columbia City Council. The petition would require the City Council to discuss the ban again, and if it takes no action, would place the ban in the hands of the voters.
The petition would repeal the ordinance passed by the City Council and replace it with a similar ordinance that would not apply to restaurants and bars.
"Four out of the seven City Council members decided for thousands of people what is good for them," said Joel Theil, the owner of Otto's Corner Bar and Grill downtown. "It should have been put before the public."
Fifth Ward Councilwoman Laura Nauser, who voted against the ban, said if the ban were put to a vote, it would be hard to predict the outcome.
"I think there's a strong coalition on each side," she said. "I don't know where the majority lies."
Sixth Ward Councilwoman Barbara Hoppe, who voted in favor of the ban, opposes the idea of placing the decision in the hands of voters.
"I think if we put it to a vote, it would really be an opportunity for big money and cigarette companies to put in money to sway an election," she said. "I don't see that as democracy working at its best."
Nauser said if the ordinance were put before the City Council again, the makeup of the council would dictate the outcome.
"If it's the same members, it would probably be the same outcome because I don't know if they'd be able to change anyone's mind," she said. "But with new members being elected in April that might change the outcome."
Third Ward Councilman Bob Hutton and Fourth Ward Councilman Jim Loveless are not running for re-election.
Betty Hamilton, the owner of the Tiger Club on Business Loop 70, started the movement for the petition. She said her business has seen a significant loss of customers since the ban went into effect.
"We employ a lot of people," she said. "If we go out of business, what will you do? I don't think the City Council thought this through."
Hamilton said in order for the petition to be successful, the group would need 2,265 signatures from registered Columbia voters. She said she hopes to get the signatures collected by March 30 because the required number of signatures will increase after the April 3 municipal election.
"This isn't just for my business, it's for everybody," she said.
D.J. Lanza, owner of the Arch and Column Pub, blamed the university for the ban.
"The University of Missouri is directly responsible for the smoking ban," he said. "They hired Dean Andersen to lobby for it, and all the people speaking in favor of it at the City Council meeting were from groups formed at the university."
He said people should be afraid of the "university's coup d'etat of the city government," and that adults in the city shouldn't have to worry about the university telling them what to do.
Andersen, the co-chairman of a group called Smokefree Air for Everyone, said though he promotes tobacco education for the university, he previously worked on community education from his home.
"I had a list of about 700 people that I would call," he said. "A lot of them showed up at the City Council meeting to show their support."
He said there were a variety of people at the City Council meeting, not just people from the university.
Andersen said if the petition went to a vote, he didn't think it would pass.
"Research is showing that the majority of Columbians support the ban," he said. "It would be a waste of money because a majority support it. It would be a waste of taxpayers' money and a waste of a lot of effort just to get us back to where we already are."
Theil said business has dropped by half at his establishment since the ban started. He said his business is at a disadvantage because there is nowhere around it to build a patio where people could smoke. He said the ban makes it harder to keep his business afloat.
"Employee tips are down and sales are down, but rent and utilities are the same," he said.
Jackie Cockrell, the owner of the Bull Pen Café, said business had been so slow that she had been sending employees home early.
"I appreciate all my customers, smoking and non-smoking, but it's not fair for them to impose this on us," she said.
Missouri Students Association President Rachel Anderson, who was formerly the president of Peers Against Secondhand Smoke, said she also didn't think the public would repeal the ban.
"I think before the ban went into effect and especially after, there has been tremendous support for it," she said. "I don't see a movement to repeal it being successful because I've heard a lot of comments since it went into effect from people saying how nice it is not to have the smoke around."
— Staff Writer Juana Summers contributed to this report