Hennepin County Update
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October 26, 2005
Hennepin County Commissioners voted 4-3 to hold a public hearing to consider amending the smoking ban. The hearing will be held on November 15, 2005 at 3 PM at the Hennepin County Government Center.
October 26, 2005
I testified yesterday at Hennepin county''s open forum meeting regarding the smoking ban. Over the past year I have testified regarding the air quality standards as per the city of St. Louis Park, MN . and the fact that actual secondhand smoke levels in 19 establishments ranged from 500 - 15 times safer than OSHA requires. Yesterday I took a different approach and provided all seven county commissioners documentation of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant activity. These were just a sampling of grants RWJF provided to the American Lung, American Cancer, American Heart Assoc., American Non-Smoker''s Rights etc. totaling just over $100,000, 000.00. These organizations then took that money and spend it lobbying our politicians to demand smoking bans, claiming that secondhand smoke is a health hazard. However, what the non-profits didn''t count on was the St. Louis Park study which showed the median establishment, Applebees, having air quality 152 times safer than OSHA requires for airborne nicotine*. The point I didn''t get in during testimony was that Hennepin county officials seem to be content with the air quality standards in its factories, where workers are exposed to welding smoke and plasma smoke at concentrations heavier and more carcinogenic than tobacco smoke. At the factories Hennepin county commissioners are content to let OSHA guidelines dictate, however in the bars & restaurants the air quality, even though 152 times safer than OSHA guidelines, secondhand smoke is considered a health hazard. Quite a hypocrisy isn''t it? So the question is, do county commissioners and local politicians care less about the health of our factory workers than they do about the health of our restaurant and bar workers? I hope and believe that is not the case. I believe were it not for the fact that some influential non-profits are bombarding our politicians with reams upon reams of their "studies", government officials would have never taken the secondhand smoke issue upon themselves. That is the reason I provided county commissioners with the RWJF (Nicoderm) grant information. Nicoderm benefactors demand a smoking ban as part of their marketing strategy, however since recent air quality studies show that there is NO health hazard government officials need to know they don't have to give in to the Robert Wood Johnson / Nicoderm demands. * Nicotine is the only unique or "trace" chemical in secondhand smoke. If you measured for formaldehyde, the carpet and other interior sources of formaldehyde would corrupt the test result, formaldehyde is also formed naturally in our atmosphere due to photochemical oxidation. Benzene is given off from burning foods in the kitchen and also diesel exhaust outdoors, so again a false reading would be obtained. Therefore, nicotine is the ideal chemical to measure for in secondhand smoke. And then our comparison to OSHA guidelines is the logical manner in which to determine if secondhand smoke levels pose a health hazard. **
**both the St. Louis Park Environmental Health Department and the California EPA Air Resources Board measured air quality for the "trace" chemical nicotine.
(colored text is a hyperlink to supporting data)
Mark Wernimont
Anti-smoking group to lobby Hennepin County on smoking ban
August 24, 2005 By Conrad Defiebre. With a reconsideration of Hennepin County's strict smoking ban expected soon, Minnesota's richest and most controversial anti-tobacco group took steps Tuesday to hire lobbyists to influence County Board deliberations.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5575826.html
A smaller smoke-free island?
August 9, 2005 By Jeremy Stratton. A weaker Hennepin County smoking ban could hurt Downtown bars that back the move
http://www.skywaynews.net/
Smoking ban reconsidered
Study - whatever it finds - will be first step as economic impact gets another look BY BETH SILVER
Aug. 05, 2005
As Hennepin County commissioners consider rolling back a four-month-old smoking ban, it's unclear what a study to determine whether bar and restaurant business has suffered will say, or even how many establishments would fall under an exemption if one were granted.
Commissioners acknowledge the study is more of a conversation opener than a scientific analysis of the county's economic climate post-smoking ban. When the results are discussed in September, the question will be whether to go the way of Ramsey County, which has excluded traditional bars from its ban, to save the county's bars that say they could go out of business.
The study will look at restaurant and bar receipts from the second quarter of this year and compare the total with the same time last year, before the ban was enacted. It also will examine similar information from Ramsey and Anoka counties. If the board reverses the ban, it likely won't do so until fall.
"I hope it will persuade a change of attitude on some of our members," said Commissioner Mark Stenglein, who voted against the ban and asked for the study. But he added that he didn't know how the study would come out.
The state restaurant association has asked commissioners to exclude from the study businesses that ban smoking on their own, such as fast-food restaurants. And the association wants the study to account for an improved economy and the higher prices restaurant and bars are charging to compensate for an increase in the minimum wage, said Tom Day, spokesman for the Minnesota Restaurant Association.
Since the county's ban was enacted March 31, dozens of bar and restaurant owners have crowded commission hearings to complain that business is bad. Last week, the commission voted to conduct the study. But now that the commission has shifted into reverse, it may start to hear from an equally loud group of smoking-ban supporters, said Commissioner Gail Dorfman, who co-authored the ban.
"I don't know how valid that's going to be in terms of a serious study," she said.
Dorfman said it appears restaurant and bar owners have shifted the board's focus from a health issue to an economic one. And if they are successful in reversing Hennepin County's ban, she said it might be easier to persuade city councils to do likewise.
If Hennepin County exempts bars from its ban, most in the county will still fall under city bans. Minneapolis, Golden Valley and Bloomington make up the bulk of the county, and their smoking bans remain. Of the county's 6,800 restaurants and bars, 4,400 are within the three cities' limits, said Bill Belknap, spokesman for the Hennepin County public health agency.
That leaves 2,400 businesses subject to the ban in the rest of the county. Hennepin County could follow Ramsey County, which exempts bars that make at least half their money from liquor sales instead of food sales. But no one at the county seems to know how many businesses in Hennepin County fall in that category. The county does know it licenses only six bars outside of Minneapolis, Golden Valley and Bloomington - all on the county's outer west edge - that primarily serve liquor, according to Belknap.
Tommy's Tavern in St. Bonifacius is one of those bars.
The tavern's owner, Rick Bloomquist, said he bought the bar March 1 knowing the county would enact a smoking ban. But he said he never thought business would drop off once the ban began.
If smokers continue to shy away from the tiny tavern, Bloomquist said, his business would likely only survive another six months to a year.
"Instead of coming in here and having a couple of beers after work, they're just going right home," or going to bars in Carver County just three blocks away, Bloomquist said.
Since local governments started passing smoking bans several years ago, a few have amended their ordinances. Duluth, Minn., went through a series of changes after it first passed a smoking ban in 2000. The idea was to keep businesses from losing money because of the ban, said Duluth City Council Member Donny Ness, so the council kept carving out exemptions.
In the ordinance's original form, it allowed businesses an exemption from the ban if they could prove they lost money after the ban took effect. Others who could prove hardships also were added to the exemptions, Ness said.
But the changes created new problems, he said.
"Once you start getting into modifying it or changing it because of political pressure, then each and every person affected is looking for an exemption," Ness said.
Ultimately, the council weakened a voter-approved referendum that required restaurants and bars to be smoke-free. Now, the city allows restaurants to allow smoking in their bars if they are separated from eating areas.
"If it were to be done over or if I were to give advice to the communities, it would be to establish the most consistent ordinance possible that you can justify in very simple terms and then stick with that," Ness said. "There are unintended consequences to those tinkerings."
Beth Silver can be reached at bsilver@pioneerpress.com or 612-338-6516.
http://www.twincities.com/
McLaughlin aiming for delicate balance in mayor's race
Mike Kaszuba
Star Tribune
August 3, 2005
Peter McLaughlin is performing a high-wire act in both running for mayor of Minneapolis and trying to keep his political balance as he serves as a Hennepin County commissioner. Hours after he emerged at a County Board meeting last week as a swing vote on a possible softening of the county's new smoking ban -- an exemption for bars being pushed by bar owners -- McLaughlin was guest of honor at a mayoral fundraiser hosted by some of the same bar owners.
While McLaughlin insisted the timing was a coincidence, bar owners were clearly pleased he was reconsidering his stance on the ban.
Anti-smoking advocates were caught flat-footed.
"I actually am surprised," said Isis Stark, the American Cancer Society's lead lobbyist last fall when Hennepin County adopted the smoking ban. "Disappointed and surprised."
Stark said the American Cancer Society planned to meet with McLaughlin today, and hopefully steer him back to his original vote.
For McLaughlin, whose campaign to unseat Mayor R.T. Rybak is picking up steam, the episode was not the first to put the longtime county commissioner on the spot politically.
In May, McLaughlin cast a pivotal vote on another hot-button issue: the $478 million plan to build a new Minnesota Twins stadium in downtown Minneapolis using a countywide sales tax to fund most of the construction. Though his "yes" vote upset stadium opponents, McLaughlin said it was an example of how he was not afraid to make a difficult decision. He was quick to contrast his stadium stance with Rybak's.
The mayor initially withheld endorsement of the plan, but committed to it after nervous stadium proponents urged Rybak to speak up.
McLaughlin said he accepts the political pressures his dual role intensifies.
"I have a job," he said. "I vote on things. It's part of the job. I just think I have to deal with that.
"The easy political vote is to go along with the status quo," he said of reconsidering the countywide smoking ban. Bar owners in Hennepin County, particularly those bordering other counties and cities without smoking bans, are being economically hurt by the four-month-old ban, he said, and may need to be listened to as they argue they should be exempted.
The fundraiser, however, quickly raised eyebrows, and both mayoral campaigns used it to make a point. McLaughlin said that having a mayoral fundraiser with bar owners was not a conflict, and was no different from Rybak hiring Jeremy Hanson, a former public policy director for the Minnesota Smoke Free Coalition, as his communications director.
"Peter McLaughlin's trading his smoking ban vote for money," responded Hanson, who said he was not dictating smoking policy to the mayor. "Peter McLaughlin is doing the work of 'Big Tobacco.' "
Political clout
The smoking ban's sudden impact on the mayoral race continued this week. Dozens of bar owners again crowded into Tuesday's County Board meeting to push for an exemption, and the president of the Minneapolis Hospitality Association -- which helped organize the turnout -- predicted in the hallway that the group "could get Peter McLaughlin elected" by using its political clout.
McLaughlin, for his part, pointedly questioned Dr. Michael Belzer, the medical director for the Hennepin County Medical Center, who asked the County Board not to relax the smoking ban.
As McLaughlin prepared for the mayoral campaign, he found himself -- for better or worse -- at center stage in a variety of political dramas.
• After years of taking criticism as Hennepin County's leading advocate of light rail, McLaughlin shared in the generally positive reviews Minnesota's first light-rail line received this summer as it celebrated its first anniversary with higher-than-projected ridership.
• He was a vocal opponent of the county's decision, in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks and a shooting that killed one person and wounded another at the Hennepin County Government Center, to install metal detectors in the building. He called it a "crude" response and a "misdirected investment" and saying the shootings were "an isolated event in our history."
• Before he embarked on his mayoral campaign, in which he has pushed crime as a defining issue, McLaughlin was publicly critical of Sheriff Pat McGowan's attempt to fill 24 jobs in his department that were created by early retirements. The issue, McLaughlin said last week, was not about fighting crime but about holding to a budget-cutting agreement.
"I haven't seen him be wildly different from the kind of course he would typically take," said Penny Steele, a Hennepin County commissioner who is often at odds politically with McLaughlin. But Steele also said Rybak's supporters on the County Board, in a variety of subtle ways, are "trying to box him [McLaughlin] in" as he faces ticklish County Board votes as the mayoral election nears.
After the board moved last Tuesday to study the economic impact of the county's smoking ban, Commissioner Gail Dorfman -- a Rybak supporter -- made it clear she saw McLaughlin as the pivotal vote. "Peter makes the difference on this," she said, referring to the bar exemption.
'A straight shooter'
James Surdyk, who co-hosted McLaughlin's fundraiser after the County Board meeting, said the event had been planned for more than a month, and only coincidentally occurred the same day bar owners led a crowd of more than 100 smoking ban opponents at the meeting. "I think he's a straight shooter," said Surdyk, who owns a popular liquor store by the same name in northeast Minneapolis.
Sue Jeffers, who owns Stub & Herb's, a Minneapolis bar, said McLaughlin's move toward possibly amending the ban to exempt traditional bars led her to donate $250 to his campaign at the fundraiser. Last fall, when McLaughlin voted for the smoking ban, Jeffers said she sent him an angry e-mail and then did not speak to him for six months.
But last week, at the fundraiser, that changed.
"I had so much fun," she said. "A lot of the talk was about the smoking ban," Jeffers added. "I think what we're seeing now is politics at its messiest."
Mike Kaszuba is at mkaszuba@startribune.com.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5539993.html
Smoking ban reconsidered
August 2, 2005 By Susan M.A. Larson
No one's saying, "I told you so," but...
http://www.erstarnews.com/
Hennepin rethinks smoking ban
July 27, 2005
Mike Kaszuba, Star Tribune
In a sudden change of direction, Hennepin County moved closer Tuesday toward a partial rollback of a smoking ban that the state's largest county put into effect only four months ago.
The county has been under pressure to scale back the ban, and more than 100 smoking-ban opponents held signs and applauded Tuesday as commissioners voted overwhelmingly to undertake a study of the ban's economic impact.
It appeared to signal the first significant backlash to the wave of smoking bans adopted last year by metro area governments, including Minneapolis, Ramsey County and Bloomington.
Afterward, Commissioner Gail Dorfman -- who coauthored the ban last fall -- acknowledged that there may be enough votes on the board to exempt traditional bars from the ordinance.
"There seems to be some shifting going on, on the board," she said. "Hopefully, we can hold firm here. But we're under some pressure."
County officials -- and bar owners -- said that the voting pointed to the fact that the bans had created an uneven playing field, forcing bars on the edge of Hennepin County to lose money and lay off employees while customers scooted to bars in Anoka County, where there is no smoking ban, or to Ramsey County, where the ban exempts bars.
"I'm worried about making my house payment," said Cheryl Irving, a bar manager at Rostamo's, a bar in Crystal. "My personal income is down 40, 50 percent. I now have to work six shifts, where I used to work four."
Irving was among the onlookers who crowded together to watch as the county's commissioners debated the topic -- and left disappointed that the commissioners did not simply scale back the ordinance.
"I think it's shameful," Irving said before leaving the meeting.
John Alexander, who owns Johnny A's, a sports bar in Minneapolis, agreed. "I can't pay my taxes," said Alexander, who said he has dismissed his private security staff at the bar. "My business has gone down by 35 percent.
"It's a slow death," he added.
Key vote: McLaughlin
Commissioner Mark Stenglein, who called for the economic impact study, said his goal is to roll back Hennepin County's ordinance to match the ban in Ramsey County, where bars that derive at least 50 percent of their sales from alcohol (as opposed to food) are exempt.
Hennepin County's current ban, which took effect March 31, is modeled after the ban Minneapolis adopted last year, and it covers nearly all eating establishments, including traditional bars.
Commissioner Mike Opat, who voted for Hennepin County's ban, represented the change in thinking that has taken place since the ban passed last fall by a 5 to 2 vote.
"For me, our ordinance goes a little too far," he said Tuesday. "I'm interested in carving out some exemptions." While Opat said he wanted to "decrease the pain" for bar owners, he said he doubted the changes to the new law would satisfy all of the ordinance's critics.
With the economic impact study expected to take perhaps a month, county officials said any change to the ordinance would likely not be voted on until the fall.
That timeline also would probably put the political spotlight on Commissioner Peter McLaughlin, who is considered a swing vote on any exemptions to the ban and who is also campaigning to be Minneapolis' next mayor. McLaughlin, who approved the ban last fall, voted Tuesday for the economic study.
Although McLaughlin did not directly state his intentions, he clearly sympathized with the bar owners. "We got people who are bleeding here, so let's get on with this," McLaughlin said at one point during the meeting.
Said Dorfman: "Peter's the swing. Peter makes the difference on this."
Economic effects
Dorfman said Tuesday's development was almost sure to lead to a countermove by anti-smoking advocates to uphold the ordinance. She said that smoking ban opponents had changed the focus from public health to economic impacts.
"When we passed the ban, we talked about our responsibility to protect public health. There was none of that today," she said.
Should Hennepin County scale back its ordinance, the move would not immediately affect Minneapolis or two suburbs in the county, Bloomington and Golden Valley, that adopted ordinances that go beyond what the county passed.
Last October, Golden Valley not only banned smoking in restaurants but prohibited it in restaurant outdoor seating areas, city parks and on the city-owned golf course.
Bill Nicklow, whose family owns five restaurants in Hennepin County, watched Tuesday's meeting and then shook his head. "I was under the impression the world was created to support the people, and not punish them," he said. "We're losing our customers. We're losing our help."
Mike Kaszuba is at mkaszuba@startribune.com
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5527730.html
TO: "mike opat" Commissioner.Opat@co.hennepin.mn.us>
CC: "Commissioner Stenglein" Commissioner.stenglein@co.hennepin.mn.us>, "Peter McLaughlin" Commissioner.McLaughlin@co.hennepin.mn.us>, "Linda Koblick" Linda.Koblick@co.hennepin.mn.us>, "randy johnson" randy.johnson@co.hennepin.mn.us>, "sue jeffers" S1U2E3@aol.com>, "Matt Janda" mjanda@mnsun.com>, "gail dorfman" gail.dorfman@co.hennepin.mn.us>, "Sue Dearborn" SuzieDear@mn.rr.com>, "penny steele" Penny.Steele@co.hennepin.mn.us>
RE: Smoking Ban
DATE: July 6, 2005
I do not understand why you say that no one has come up with a plan regarding the smoking ban. This will be my third e-mail to you, and I think I have the perfect solution. You come up with a percentage of liquor over food sales to qualify, then those that choose to allow smoking in their establishments pay a yearly "Smoking Permit" fee and we allow our patrons to smoke in the BAR area only, and not int he restaurant part of our building. (By the way, the Crystal VFW has 11 smoke eaters upstairs, and 12 smoke eaters in our banquet hall downstairs). We could all post a "WARNING - SMOKING ALLOWED IN THE BAR" sign.
Commissioner Steele is absolutely right - not one of us will be in business a year from now if you do a 12 month "study", in fact not one of us will still be open by the end of the year.
If you want to do a "study" - study how many millions are being lost because we are all paying tens of thousands of dollars LESS every month in sales tax, plus loss of real estate taxes when we close, and the loss of the yearly license fees we all pay for liquor, food, gambling, entertainment, & vending machines. This "study" should take all of 15 minutes - All of this information is available from the State, Ms. Dorfman, you don't need a committee or panel to investigate it, - just one finger on the proper key on the State's computer!!!
It is my intent to testify before the Board on July 12th, and I certainly hope that Commissioner Johnson doesn't decide to push the open forum back a couple of hours and leave the building because he has a birthday party to go to, or rudely play with his lap top during our testimony. Also, it would be polite and proper if everyone would listen to us and not leave the room.
One final fact for you - this establishment paid just under $16,000.00 LESS gambling tax for the month of June than we paid in March and our net income for June was $34,000.00 LESS than the month of March, all due to your smoking ban. Let me put it more succinctly - since your smoking ban took affect, this establishment has lost $103,000.00. You read right, ONE HUNDRED AND THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS!!! And that is just from gambling - the losses from bar and food sales are proportionally as devastating. The state has lost over $36,000 in gambling tax from this VFW. Kind of puts my statement into perspective that this state, county & the cities have lost MILLIONS OF DOLLARS in revenue,all because you won't admit that you made huge mistake and voted for the smoking ban.
Shame on Commissoners Dorfman, Johnson, Koblick, McLaughlin & Opat for voting for this ban based on lies and mis-information from MPAAT and MAAT's illegal lobbying for the smoking ban.
Commissioners Steele & Stenglein should be proud of their stand on this issue, please keep fighting for us and busting the others on the Board for their mis-deeds, mis-information and inappropriate actions toward the citizens of Hennepin County. I guess we all know who will be re elected.
We're all still waiting for the non-smokers to patronize our businesses - oops, I forgot, they're all going to Ramsey, Wright & Anoka County, with their smoking buddies!!
With all due respect,
Nanci Holler, Crystal VFW Post 494
From: Jenny Fortman
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2005 6:29 PM
To: Commissioner.McLaughlin@co.hennepin.mn.us; Mark Stenglein; Don Samuels; mayor@ci.minneapolis.mn.us
Cc: info@dianehofstede.com; Mayslacks
Subject: Smoking Ban Hurts Communities
Dear Leaders,
Though I am a smoker, bar patron and bar employee I have been uncharacteristically closed mouth on the smoking ban until now. I was aware that the city and the county were voting on this issue. I guess, like many people, I considered this a guilty pleasure and felt sheepish about fighting for it. Now I see that this ban is hurting more that my own favorite leisure activities. It is hurting the small businesses, their employees and the too easily taken for granted way that neighborhood meeting places bring the community together.
My husband and I moved to our house in lower Northeast 8 years ago because we know the area and like the community. To us, a large part of that idea of community is the neighborhood bar. Neighborhood bars are more social than church and more important to be able to walk home from. We chose a house near Dusty's Bar and I began working there part time. In this case, part time means I fill in for other bartenders from time to time. I enjoy the work and the people. When I'm not working there, I stop in several nights a week to visit with friends and neighbors.
Since the smoking ban started I go less often and so do many of the people I hope to see when I drop in. I asked a non-smoker friend if she and her husband are enjoying the change. She said "it's ok, but we miss our friends". My husband plays in a band. Many friends and family had said that they would come see the band more if there were no smoking. They have since come out a few times, but don't stay long and don't spend much money. In essence, that crowd had made up for only a fraction of what the bars have lost.
I used to fill in at the bar at least twice a month. Since the smoking ban I have worked once. I don't count on the money, so it's not hurting me much. But it is hurting the regular bartenders. Hospitality staff rely on tips as an important part of their income. They no longer need me to fill in because they can't afford to take any time off. One bartender told me after 20 years in the industry this is the first time she's had to scrape rent together.
As I understand it, the hospitality industry is the second largest employer in this area - second to Graco. Unlike Graco, the restaurants and bars of Northeast Minneapolis are small family run operations who really take it in the teeth when just a few patrons decide to stay home or go a mile up the road where they can smoke. I can tell you from my own experience the handful at Dusty's last night was half of what it used to be. And as we all stand outside smoking, including the bartender and the one non-smoke who doesn't want to sit alone, we just look at each other and say "this is stupid!".
It's not so bad to be outside right now, but what happens come winter? Our climate is more similar to Siberia than any where else. It's typically warmer in Anchorage, Alaska than Minneapolis.
My guilty pleasures turn out to play an important part in the economic, social and cultural fabric of my community. In that light, the smoking ban's current form is not something I can be quiet about any longer. I hope you are all willing to look at this issue again and find a way to protect these community institutions. It will be a factor in deciding my vote in November and I will encourage others to consider it, too.
Sincerely,
Jenny Fortman
Dear Councilmember;
I want to thank you again for the extension of the comment period last night at the council meeting in order to listen to our (smoking ban opponents) side of the continuing debate relative to the impact of the Bloomington and Hennepin County smoking bans.
I would like to recap our position on this issue to make certain what we said is what you heard. I will try to make this brief.
1) The majority of the business that addressed you last night, they ones that are experiencing the full financial burden of this ordinance, are not pro-smoking. We do not argue the health issues even though we feel that much of the health risks of second hand smoke are overstated. As adults we realize that smoking is a risky behavior, but then again so are some forms of sexual activity or the jobs of a police officer or a fire fighter. There are risks inherent in many things and we believe that as adults we should be allowed to evaluate the risks/rewards of any activity and come to our own conclusion about whether we chose to engage in them or not.
2) The financial losses are real and we have the figures to prove it. Examine our books, sit down with us and discover the depth of our problem and you may come to realize why we are so concerned, so desperate. We ask relief not because we want to encourage smoking in our business but because those 4 non-smokers you promised back in July that would replace every smoker we lost have not made their appearance. The operations that are most affected by this ban catered to the smoking clientele because the demand was there. The demand remains but is unmet because we can no longer accommodate 40% to70% of our customers.
3) Time is of the essence. You heard last night that many businesses are already in fear of closing their doors. Do you really want to be at the helm when the American Legion is boarded up, or the VFW, or Shantytown or Andy's Tap or Fong's? I can't believe you would willing sit idly by while over 3000 veterans and their spouses and children lose their club. That's an awful lot of voting public that will not view your efforts very kindly come election time. I'm not asking you to consider their plight because it makes good political sense. I am asking that you give these businesses every consideration because they have been established in this community for many, many years and are worthy of being saved.
4) We addressed the issue of charitable gambling. All of the clubs in Bloomington (except Minnesota Valley CC) and the 3 bingo halls are experiencing dramatic reductions in lawful gambling proceeds and that equates to hundreds of thousands of dollars that will not be available to the charities and neediest citizens in our city. Ask yourself who will make up this shortfall. I won't try to itemize all of the donations that will be directly affected. Suffice it to say the Jim Crary of the Eagles Club just scratched the surface when he rattled off over 30 different beneficiaries of charitable gambling.
5) Finally, to the question of jurisdiction of Hennepin County. Many of us still firmly believe that the testimony by the Hennepin County attorney at the TRO hearing, as well as judge McShane's ruling on that matter, clearly indicate that Bloomington could even vacate their ordinance and not fall under the Hennepin County ordinance without the approval of the council. That being said, I will defer that argument for a different venue. In the final analysis we believe that the councilmembers have it in their power to encourage the City Council of Minneapolis and the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners to reconsider the language of their ordinances and provide some relief to those businesses most adversely affected by these smoking bans. All we're really asking is that our ordinance(s) mirror the Ramsey County ordinance to that we can survive until the State of Minnesota enacts a statewide ban. We are not asking you to change your opinion about the necessity of a ban, only how it is implemented and enforced.
In summary, our future is in your hands. Although councilmember Wilcox was successful in requesting a financial impact update at the August 15th meeting we fear that process, in the end analysis, will be too little, too late. While we are encouraged that we may have begun a process that may bear some fruit at some point in the future, we are concerned that, even for the best of intentions, it will akin to closing the barn door after the cows are out. Our need is immediate. The council passed this ordinance within 3 weeks of the 4-5 month study by the Advisory Board of Health. Perhaps you can work in the background to accomplish a major revision within the same 3 week period.
Thank you for your time and consideration. We are willing to work with you in whatever role you think would be helpful and we anxiously await a timely, positive resolution to this dilemma.
Best regards,
Jim Algeo
11009 Ewing Avenue South
Bloomington, MN 55431
952-842-1064 (h)
952-884-5009 (w)
jma@genesis-computer.com
Bar, eatery owners ask county to reconsider smoking ban
By Matthew Janda
Sun Newspapers
(Created 6/16/2005 10:28:19 AM)
Nanci Holler, club manager at the Charles R. Knaeble VFW Post 494, 5222 56th Ave. N., Crystal, is smoking mad.
Holler was one of more than two dozen Hennepin County bar and restaurant owners and employees who bombarded the county board June 7, begging its members to reconsider its countywide smoking ban.
Those who joined Holler say that the ban, which prohibits lighting up in all food and liquor establishments within the county, has already devastated their businesses. They say they have had to cut employees' hours or let them go altogether. Many of those workers are going right back to the same line of work in neighboring counties, where they find more freedom, or at least a more palatable set of smoking restrictions.
Also, many testified that the deluge of celebratory non-smokers that was supposedly ready to flood previously smoky bars has yet to materialize.
Many bar owners made impassioned pleas to the county board's general government committee during the meeting's open forum.
Martin Duffy, owner of Duffy's Bar and Grill in Osseo, said his income decreased 35 percent from March, the last month before the smoking restrictions went into effect, and May.
Part of the problem for him, Duffy told the board, is that Anoka County, with its restriction-free smoking, is a welcoming sight to his customers and only five minutes away.
"I'm very, very angered. My customers are angered. My employees are angered," Duffy said. "I talk to them every single day and I can't understand why [the county] would do that to us."
Jeff Ormond, who owns Gabby's Saloon and Eatery in northeast Minneapolis, said he has seen his business slip 12 percent in April and 24 percent in May.
Ormond co-founded the Minneapolis Hospitality Association, a group of more than 60 bars and restaurants in Hennepin's largest city.
Ormond presented the county board with a copy of the association's membership roll, and said that every business on the list has reported losses of 10 to 50 percent of its regular monthly business in two months.
He said that he has personally cut 10 of his 93 employees in the past two months. Those employees, he said, are more concerned with their paychecks than their health.
"The people I've seen leaving us are going back into a smoking application," Ormond told the board. "They're going to Anoka. You haven't helped them. You've only hurt us."
After the board heard more than an hour of similar testimony, Second District Commissioner Mark Stenglein made a motion that would have directed the county's staff to make a study of taxes collected from bars and restaurants in 2005. Stenglein was one of the two commissioners who voted against the smoking ban.
Seventh District Commissioner Penny Steele, the other nay vote, seconded Stenglein's motion.
"I don't think there would be support to just abolish the ban, but maybe we can take a pragmatic look at this," Steele said. "We should look at how this has worked and its economic impacts, and not just on the bars that were going to go away anyway."
First District Commissioner Mike Opat spent a few minutes after the open forum in the hallway visiting with those attending the meeting. He suggested to them, and to the board, that some sort of compromise may be possible, but one should be brought forward first.
"I think an outright repeal is unlikely. Personally, I don't think there should be smoking in any eating area," Opat said. "We proposed an ordinance that had a percentage of sales provision aimed more at exempting bars, but it failed. [Bar owners] didn't have a compromise for us."
Stenglein's motion was progressed for further discussion and should be brought up at a later date.
Holler makes no attempt to hide her distaste for the county board or its ban. In fact, a "Rogues Gallery" flyer, featuring the photos, phone numbers and emails of the five commissioners who voted for the smoking ban, hangs near the VFW's front door. But Holler said she has an idea for a compromise. According to numbers she gave the county board, a compromise is very necessary, and not just for the smokers.
The Crystal VFW donates 100 percent of its pulltab receipts to local and statewide nonprofit organizations, schools and clubs. She said the VFW gave $161,707 to 26 organizations - including Districts 281 and 279, Minneapolis' Patrick Henry High School and the city of Crystal - between April 1, 2004 and March 31, 2005, when the ban went into effect.
In March, she said the VFW's gross receipts exceeded $400,000. In April and May, she said receipts are closer to $250,000. Gambling receipts, she said, are down 46 percent.
Money lost to the smoking ban, she said, is money lost for local charities. No VFW, she said, will ever let its veteran membership will suffer a loss of funding before another group does.
For the Crystal VFW, she said, the ban has been devastating. Holler said she has had to order less of everything, from liquor to food to cleaning supplies, and has had to even cut her own hours.
"I don't feel that employees should have to lose hours while I don't," she said.
When she heard that Opat would like ideas for a compromise, she snapped off a five-page e-mail to the county board, with a suggestion.
Holler agrees with Opat that smoking should not be allowed in eating areas. But, she said, the Crystal VFW and dozens of other businesses affected by the smoking ban are bars first, and food establishments second.
She proposes smoking restrictions similar to Ramsey County's - she said they should be based off of percentages of liquor sold compared to percentages of food sold - but there's a twist.
By now, she said, she is convinced any bar hit hard by revenue losses would be more than willing to pay a fee to get back its smokers.
Once a food/liquor percentage is agreed upon, Holler said establishments wishing to offer smoking areas could be assessed an equitable fee, or a percentage of the cost of a liquor license, for a smoking permit.
She said her plan would not only save jobs and keep eaters and drinkers in Hennepin County, but also generate millions of dollars for the county through smoking permit fees.
"I even told them that they didn't have to tell anyone that it was my idea," Holler said. "I said they could have it for free."
Whether her proposal falls on receptive ears is anyone's guess. In Holler's mind, until something changes, that Rogues Gallery flyer is staying right where it is.
http://www.mnsun.com/story.asp?city=Minnetonka&story=159876
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