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Brown County Update
Smoking bans infringe on business owners' rights
Column
By Tom Murphy
To inhale or not to inhale.
Is that the question, or is it all about the First Amendment?
Well-meaning Appleton residents recently underwrote a successful referendum that bans smoking in all "public" places. Never mind it steps on the toes, if not the rights, of owners of private businesses.
Now, thanks to Sam Dunlop, a student at St. Norbert College who doubles as a De Pere alderman, that city is on the same path.
And, though there are considerable doubts that a county has jurisdiction in a purely municipal issue, a Brown County Board member may upstage Dunlop.
The supervisor, who doubles as a trustee in the Village of Allouez (a double dip that begs for elimination), contends a smoking ban across Brown County would be preferable to individual municipal prohibitions.
One school of thought is the county cannot supercede its municipalities with such legislation. The sup's premise could use some research.
The De Pere push is in its infancy, according to Dunlop. At this point, the city's Board of Health has agreed to study the smoking issue. Nothing, yet, is before the City Council.
Now, there's nothing much nice that can be said about smoking. It's hazardous. It's intrusive. It's expensive. Very expensive.
But there's a lot to say about the Constitutional phrase. "These truths are self-evident..." and government shall not impinge.
As best we can tell, it all started when government outlawed outdoor advertising of liquor. Then it banned booze on over-the-air television. Maybe the TV ban came before billboards. That's not important.
The importance is that Big Brother and the Politically Correct have joined hands once again. Street Talk smoked for years. Among the dumbest things ever.
Quit about 20 years ago. Among the smartest things ever.
Just because the light came on, however, doesn't endow me the right to force others to open their eyes. Jab them. Jibe them. Suggest, cajole, pester, remind. If someone else's smoke bothers you, move on. If it doesn't, move in.
That's not the tack taken in this neck of the woods by the anti-smoking contingent.
They're turning to legislation that flies in the face of the first amendment. As Warren Bluhm, editor of the Door County Advocate, put it: "It's not a right that the Constitution gives us; it's a self-evident truth on which the Constitution says the government may not infringe...a distinction many people seem to have lost sight of."
If governmental bodies want to ban smoking in their public buildings, that's fine. And if private business operators choose that route - and more do than don't - that, too, is fine.
But for government to impinge on private business on private property (yes, in most cases they must to the government to get a license), it says here that that is an infringement.
http://www.greenbaynewschron.com/
Brown County joins smoking-ban debate
Board of Health to consider call for advisory referendum
May 02, 2005
By Mike Hoeft
mhoeft@greenbaypressgazette.com
The Brown County Board of Health on Thursday will discuss a communication calling for an advisory referendum on a countywide smoking ban in certain workplaces.
The meeting will be at 5:15 p.m. in Room 122 of the Neville Public Museum, 210 Museum Place, Green Bay.
The issue is smoldering in several cities across Wisconsin. People for and against a smoking ban packed a De Pere Board of Health meeting recently. Several weeks ago, Appleton residents voted in support of a ban on smoking in public places.
Brown County supervisor Pat Collins said an advisory referendum would help gauge the public's sentiment and may lead to a middle ground acceptable to restaurant and tavern groups.
Some county supervisors said the issue is moot since it does not fall under the county's jurisdiction to authorize a countywide ban on municipalities. Collins said he just wants the public to have a say in a referendum.
But others say local ordinances are not the answer.
Susan Robinson, president of the Brown County Tavern League, said as long as cigarettes are legal, property owners should be able to decide.
"It's a rights issue, not a health issue," said Robinson, who owns Bourbon Street, 821 S. Broadway, Green Bay.
The Wisconsin Restaurant Association in the past has opposed all local smoking bans and argued that business owners should have the right to set their own policies.
But the climate in Wisconsin is changing, said Peter Hanson, director of government relations for the association. The vast majority of the public does not smoke and the number of employees raising questions about exposure to second-hand smoke is on the rise, the group said.
Hanson said the association knows of no current proposals for statewide action, though bans continue to be proposed at the local level.
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/
Survey seeks businesses' opinions on smoking ban
April 27, 2005
Chamber will use results to form position
By Karen Rauen
krauen@greenbaypressgazette.com
In anticipation of the smoking-ban debate filtering into Brown County, the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce on Monday turned to its members to find out their views on smoke-free legislation.
The survey went out Monday morning to about 1,500 organization members and subscribers to the chamber's Friday Report newsletter. It asks a series of questions about smoking bans in an effort to gauge the pulse of Green Bay-area businesses.
"It's going to make it easier for us to take a position in Madison as well as locally," said Paul Jadin, chamber of commerce president.
The final survey question is the referendum question Appleton voters approved earlier this month. That measure banned smoking in all indoor public places, including places of employment.
But the survey, which is intended for chamber members only, has gained a good deal of attention outside of the chamber.
"We're a business organization, and we're trying to represent those people who pay their dues," Jadin said.
By early Tuesday afternoon, the organization had received more than 400 responses, said Vikki Perkins, communications manager for the chamber.
"Within about five minutes (of sending out the survey), we were already getting significant response," Jadin said.
Since October 2003, the chamber of commerce has done 10 surveys on various topics, all aimed at getting a feel for how members feel about key issues.
"This is the biggest one we've done ... in terms of response," Perkins said.
The survey will run through May 6.
"I believe that businesses need to come to the conclusion on their own that clean air is good for their bottom line, and we do that by making it clear as consumers that we're not going to patronize businesses that allow smoking," Jadin said. "But it should be their decision and not government's."
Jadin's waiting to see how the survey results come in before the chamber takes an official position on the debate.
"We, in general, have a pretty good handle on how business feels about this, particularly the hospitality industry," he said. "If for some reason we find that there's an enormous response that suggests the willingness to go the clean-air route, obviously we need to reconsider."
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/
Supervisor to Propose County-wide Smoking Ban
April 21, 2005
By Jason Allen
There could seen be another proposal on the table to ban smoking in our part of Wisconsin. It could happen in Brown County.
County Supervisor Pat Collins plans to introduce the idea Wednesday night to the county board, adding Brown County to the growing list of areas in Wisconsin to consider some type of smoking ban.
All the restaurants along Ashwaubenon's Oneida Street could be affected by it. So potentially could the bars around Lambeau Field. Maybe even parts of Green Bay's entertainment district on Washington Street.
Collins, though, says he isn't pushing to snuff out smoking once and for all. "If it's just a bar, tavern that sells pizza and chips, and they want to... allow smoking, fine. We should have a place where smokers want to go and be able to light up," he said.
It was the votes for a citywide ban earlier this months in Appleton and the current discussion happening in De Pere that spurred Collins to action. Businesses shouldn't get stuck with a local ban, he says, when it's easy for their customers to go somewhere else.
"If it's countywide, that argument kind of goes away because if you live in Green Bay or De Pere, are you going to drive to Kewaunee County just to light up?" he asked rhetorically.
Brown County's Tavern League president still isn't convinced. Businesses could feel financial impact, she says, from any sort of new restrictions.
"It doesn't escape the issue of rights for property owners and small business owners, and until cigarettes are illegal we shouldn't be discussing this at all," Sue Robinson argued.
Collins's request is for an advisory referendum. Assuming the proposal is sent to a committee and gets through that process, some research, and maybe public hearings, voters could eventually get their say at the polls.
http://www.wbay.com/
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