Posted on 12/19/2002 11:45:50 AM PST by Hell to pay
City voters to decide smoking ban
By JAMES AMOS
The Pueblo Chieftain
Pueblo voters will decide the fate of the controversial smoking ban and whether to recall two of the City Council members who adopted it.
Council members voted 4-3 Monday night against a compromise resolution that would have repealed the currently adopted ban and replaced it with a softened version.
The anti-ban group Puebloans for Common Sense in Government had agreed to drop its recall push if council would pass the compromise.
But council member Randy Thurston, who had voted against the ban in December, voted Monday to let the voters decide the issue. He said the compromise wasn't a real compromise because it was written only by officials from the city and the group of bar owners and others fighting the ban.
Members of the anti-smoking group that first asked for the ban weren't part of the compromise talks, he said.
Council member Bob Schilling, who had voted for the ban, voted Monday to repeal the ban and adopt the compromise. He said he had helped try to get compromise talks going and felt the ongoing controversy wasn't helping Pueblo's image.
At the same time, he said anti-smokers could petition to get a ban they liked put on the ballot, and that he'd sign the petition, too.
"I'll be damned if I do and damned if I don't," Schilling said.
Otherwise, the votes mirrored those of the original ban when council passed it in December. Bill Sova, Ted Lopez Jr. and Mike Occhiato voted against dropping the ban or adopting the compromise. Pat Avalos and Al Gurule voted to get rid of the ban and pass the compromise.
A special election was set for April 22 for the ban referendum and the recall election.
But the election may not take place for a while because Common Sense says it may file suit to get Schilling and Lopez included in the recall election. Joe Losavio, a Common Sense attorney, said the group has a good legal case against the city's decision to increase the number of petition signatures needed to force the recall election.
Petitions against Schilling and Lopez were short by less than the city-ordered increase.
Losavio also took issue with Thurston's claim that anti-smokers weren't part of the compromise talks. He said they stayed out of the talks on purpose.
A large contingent from Citizens for a Healthier Pueblo, the latest name for the group that has pushed for the smoking ban, applauded speakers who urged council members to let the city's voters decide on the ban.
They also complained about Chieftain Publisher Robert Rawlings' attempts to get a compromise measure written, but Occhiato said Rawlings was just acting as an advocate for the community.
The ban outlawed smoking in almost all indoor places open to the public, including bars, restaurants, bowling alleys and bingo halls. It also guaranteed all employees the right to a smoke-free workplace.
It has been suspended since January pending a decision by council on wether to let it go to an election or be repealed.
Former council member Faye Kastelic said a vote was the only way to close the issue.
"It's not right that the citizens of this town do not get to vote," she said. "It cannot end without a vote of the people."
Thurston agreed, saying that adopting the Common Sense-authored compromise would leave a whole segment of the city feeling slighted.
"It doesn't unite this community," Thurston said. "It further divides this community."
Pro-ban speakers and council members Sova, Lopez and Occhiato noted that the original Common Sense petitions filed against the ban demanded that voters be allowed to have their say on it.
Occhiato, who last week indicated that he would support the compromise, said Monday night that the details of the measure, and some more thinking, changed his mind.
Occhiato spent some time describing the sometimes vicious criticism aimed at him and other supporters of the ban. He said he has been refused service at restaurants and seen photos of himself and the other council members who voted for the ban posted on a dartboard.
A Pueblo representative of the American Lung Association, who helped push for the ban, was threatened with being tarred and feathered, he said.
After recounting his Naval flying experiences with a malfunctioning aircraft, and military or maritime situations faced by Schilling and Lopez, Occhiato said ban critics had no right to treat the council members "as POWs in our own community."
Occhiato had been working for a compromise and felt that the ban passed in December was too strict, he said. But the measure offered Monday made him feel "like I'm being forced to sign a germ warfare confession.
"I think I would not be able to look at myself in the mirror in the morning if I supported the compromise," he said. "So let this issue go to the people, where it belongs."
Under terms of the compromise, bars couldn't have made more than 40 percent of their income from the sale of food and still get exempted. Bars attached to restaurants would have had to be considered designated smoking areas and separated by walls and a different ventilation system.
The proposed compromise still guaranteed employees a smoke-free workplace, but allowed smoking in private offices and other places not used by other employees. It also didn't apply to workers in bars and those working in designated smoking areas.
The compromise also removed non-retaliation language in the 2002 law that kept business owners and managers from firing or disciplining workers who insisted on smoke-free workplaces. The 2002 ban also forbid employers from not hiring someone just because they didn't want to work around tobacco smoke.
My heart bleeds for him - I applaud the restaurants that have refused him service. I don't know about in Pueblo, but most everywhere else I've been I'm very familiar with a sign that states "We Reserve the Right to REFUSE Service to Anyone." And his face on a dartboard - hey freedom of speech is a wonderful thing!!!!
A Pueblo representative of the American Lung Association, who helped push for the ban, was threatened with being tarred and feathered, he said.
Oh, for shame, someone spoke their mind and the poor little antis go running scared. Poor widdle babies.
After recounting his Naval flying experiences with a malfunctioning aircraft, and military or maritime situations faced by Schilling and Lopez, Occhiato said ban critics had no right to treat the council members "as POWs in our own community."
But I'm sure he finds it perfectly acceptable to not even give smokers the accepted treatment of POWs. Tyrrants do not believe in the edicts of the Geneva Convention and that is exactly how he and his proponents are treating smokers - worse than POWs and even worse than second class citizens.
You all deserve a major round of applause for the work you have done. Good job.
Funny watching politicians lie!
Occhiato lied to the public in the local paper saying he supported the compromise, and would vote for it. The Monday council meeting was not as packed as it would have been.
WAHHHHH!
Voters next Tuesday make their choices known on 16 candidates, four City Council members and a ballot question.
Voters will be asked if they want to recall council members Bill Sova, Mike Occhiato, Ted Lopez Jr. or Bob Schilling.
Upon answering either "yes" or "no" on recalling a particular councilman, voters may then cast a vote for the challenger they prefer to replace him.
If a voter does not cast a "yes" or "no" vote for recalling a particular councilman, their vote for a replacement candidate will not be counted.
A field of 16 candidates is seeking to replace the four incumbents. The four councilmen were targeted for recall because of their votes for a ban on smoking in most indoor places open to the public.
Voters also will be asked if they are "for" or "against" adopting the smoking ban.
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