Tobacco policy clears first reading

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

The Nevada City Council met in regular session Tuesday at 7 p.m., in the council chambers.

The meeting opened with the pledge and an invocation led by David Crook. Following which the minutes from the previous meeting were approved.

Mayor Brian Leonard then put before the council the consideration of the reappointments of Annie Daugherty and Richard Perkins to the Park Board, both reappointments were approved.

The council moved on to approve a bid from Utility Solutions Associates, Inc., for a total of 292 water meters in the amount of $31,081.10.

At this point, Butch Beeman from Troutt, Beeman & Co., P.C., presented the results of an audit of Nevada’s Annual Financial Report for the year 2016.

“In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly,” Beeman read from the printed report adding, “the key thing there is that they present fairly, and that’s what you in your fiduciary capacity as members of the council would hope that you would receive.”

He reported that governmental and business-type activities both showed increases for a total of $990,000. “That’s good, there’s nothing wrong with that,” he said.

The council then moved on to new business with consideration of a bid accepting the bid of $19,723.45 from Quality Exteriors, of Joplin, Mo., for the replacement of 17 windows at city hall. The bill passed first reading with none opposed.

The next item of business was consideration of Bill No. 2017-033 which would amend Chapter 42 of the city code by prohibiting smoking and the use of electronic cigarettes in public places.

“I’m a big anti-smoking person,” Lance Christie said beginning the public comment period. “That all said, I don’t think that trying to regulate something like this by forcing us to not being able to smoke in whatever areas they want to, I think it needs to be a market driven approach,” he said. He suggested the city write an ordinance to back up businesses who chose to become non-smoking.

Christie took issue with the exceptions in the bill, “If you’re going to ban it because it’s bad and you want people to stop, why are there exceptions?”

He continued saying, “I don’t want to regulate morality in our town … it needs to be a market-driven approach. I think it’s much more effective.” He said the city should celebrate the businesses who choose to go smoke-free as opposed to writing an ordinance banning it.

Following Christie’s comments, Mayor Leonard reminded everyone this was the first reading and that amendments could be made.

Kelly Ast then took the podium, “We do appreciate the effort on behalf of the city attorney and the city council for looking again at this ordinance.” She said they’ve worked the past two years to create a coalition to educate and raise awareness of overall health. The group targets the smoking population because Vernon County has a very high smoking population she said.

“We see it amongst our children, our youth, we see it amongst our adults and among our death rates,” she said. She pointed out there has been a free-market approach and referred to a successful restaurant that went non-smoking and saw an uptick in their business.

“I think that’s positive,” she said “that’s where we want this community to go. We want progressive policy. We want to say ‘this is who we are.’”

She spoke about comments from the internet which indicated support for this policy. “We want to show that we care about our community by getting a tobacco policy,” she said.

“We’re not looking at representing the rights of people who smoke ... Let’s represent the majority that don’t. And let’s also remember that second-hand smoke hurts everyone,” she said.

Phil Thompson, with the ELKS Lodge, told the council how the lodge recently went smoke-free and has experienced a 50 percent decrease in their three major revenue categories. He expects those revenues to bounce-back but was concerned about the ordinance affecting the lodge’s patron’s ability to smoke on the deck outside.

“If it doesn’t fit the ordinance then we’re going to take a bigger hit … operating costs have to be met, so what it takes away from is the charities like the veterans and the kids,” he said.

Council-person Jayne Novak asked if the city had passed the ordinance instead of the lodge making its own decision if the membership wouldn’t have been split.

“Probably,” Thompson said.

“Cause then everyone would’ve been mad at us,” Novak said.

Cindy Gibbs then told the council about her daughter who suffers from asthma and is affected by second-hand smoke and breaks out in hives when exposed to the emissions from electronic cigarettes.

“I don’t feel like the children are represented real well in this case,” she said. “I’m sure you all have a little girl … that you know, who is just like [my daughter], but you aren’t always concerned about taking her places or what happens if an inhaler runs out. These are things we have to worry about all the time.”

Following the public comments, the council amended the ordinance to clarify the exception for patios and private homes and to set the implementation date to Jan. 1, 2018. Then passed the first reading of the amended ordinance with none opposed.

The council then began consideration of Bill No. 2017-034 which reads in part:

“All other provisions notwithstanding, if at any time in the sole, unfettered and exclusive analysis and judgment of the city council, the financial condition of either the hospital or the nursing home has continually reflected losses for a period of three years, the city council may exercise the authority, if it deems it reasonably necessary, after consultation and coordination with the hospital board and/or the nursing home board, to suggest or require that either or both boards effect nonrenewal or such changes in professional management as the city council deems necessary and prudent.”

Dr. William Turner addressed the council on the importance of the local hospital and on its having a management company.

Mayor Leonard reported he had good conversations with Steve Russ and Brad Copeland about the ordinance. “We … are going to set a meeting within the next month … and we will discuss with the hospital board and see where all this needs to go,” he said. The ordinance then passed its first reading with none opposed.

The council then recessed before going into closed session.

Comments
Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: