Council rejects smoking ban delay
By Diane Strand
August 22, 2007

The DeKalb City Council rejected a request by seven bar owners to delay the start of a total smoking ban until Jan. 2008. The city had earlier set a Sept. 1 deadline, but, in the meantime, the state has adopted a ban on smoking in public places, which will take affect January 1. The merchants wanted a delay till the state ban starts.

Second Ward Alderman Kris Povlsen had argued the case for a smoking ban for two years.

The bar owners asking for the change were Edward Tadevich, Mardi Gras Lanes, Kim Knowlton and Jim Drury, K. J.'s Tap, Mike Petros, Twins Tavern, Greg Sullivan, Sullivan's Tap, Eric Hjelmberg, Lord Stanley's, Jeff Dobie, Fatty's, and John Sanfilippo, Molly's.

In responding, Povlsen said, “This is an issue that was two years in the making - two years of research and community surveys and a recommendation from the city's Environmental Committee.”
  
Povlsen said to make a change at this time would be bad policy and leave DeKalb open to numerous requests to go back and make changes in what already has been adopted.

However, Fourth Ward Alderman Donna Gorski pointed to new information and said, “I would support a delay until the state ban takes effect in January.”

Seventh Ward Alderman Brent Keller asked, “Are there any indications that we are losing sales tax revenue to other communities?”

Mayor Frank VanBuer responded that the important issue was safety, not revenue. “To make the change would be a sorry footnote (to the ordinance) and data around the world doesn't support a loss in revenue.”

Mark Biernacki, city manager, said the only comment he's heard on revenue was a restaurant owner who said his business increased after the smoking ban.

The proposal was rejected, with two council members voting for it - Gorski and Victor Wogen.

In other action, the council gave tentative approval last week to participation in an intergovernmental consortium for employee and retiree health insurance-after projecting a 25 percent increase in the cost of coverage for the coming year.

The massive increase was due to several “catastrophic” claims in the past year (each totaling $100,000 or more).

The Intergovernmental Personnel Benefit Cooperative pays claims over $30,000, while the city handles the “smaller claims,” said Marty Lyons of Gallagher Benefit Services in Itasca. While taking advantage of a lower risk pool of 46 municipalities, the city can still offer the same benefit plans, said Rudy Espiritu, assistant city manager for business and finance.

If the co-op experiences relatively lower claims during the year, it is possible for the cities to receive partial rebates. Last year, the cooperative experienced a 5.8 percent reduction in claims.

Espiritu said many communities have been swamped with major claims, so they have abandoned complete self-insurance and joined the cooperative.

If the council votes to enter the co-op, the start date would by Jan. 1, 2008 and open enrollment would occur in October, Espiritu said. He said he had good experience with the consortium when he worked in Rolling Meadows.
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With smoking ban a done deal, what's next?

March 3, 2006
Colin Leicht

Exactly 11 months ago today, I quit smoking. Ten years of filling my lungs with smooth and satisfying charcoal-filtered smoke had taken its toll on my health.

At various jobs over the decade, my lungs also were subjected to airborne kitchen grease, diesel fumes, the wonderful smell of xylene-based cleansers and finely powdered plastic dyes. There's nothing like blowing blue and purple out of your nose after an eight-hour night shift and wondering if it's healthy.

The DeKalb City Council passed a smoking ban 5-2 Monday; what they forgot however, was to ban everything else.

Of course, local health departments and the Occupational Safety and Health Act already regulate many of the job hazards listed above, and these have changed practices in the American workplace in the last 50 years. I remember a former boss telling stories of the old days, when they used to make 100 pizzas an hour, cigarettes hanging from their mouths the whole time.

At the council meeting Monday, Third Ward Alderman Steve Kapitan said the employee health issues swayed his vote. He said people should not have to face the choice of working or not working based on the presence of tobacco smoke. However, Kapitan and the rest of the council omitted the possibility that DeKalb might have other disagreeable environments.

Crusading under the health flag, the city council should ban traffic next. Riding a bike down Lincoln Highway can be hazardous; the ban on sidewalk riding puts bicyclists in the street, and diesel trucks often sit at the stoplights waiting for trains to pass.

If you've ever inhaled a blast of truck exhaust, you know how disagreeable it can be as you mourn your pulmonary health.

But why stop there? After all, "healthy" is a term open to interpretation. Health comes in various forms: physical health, mental health, emotional health and even spiritual health.

Last week, at 8:30 on the groggiest of mornings, I hopped an overcrowded bus to class. Finding a seat by a stroke of pure luck, I sat next to a crowd of pajama-dressed neighbors. The driver turned up the stereo to the point where the over-capacity passengers could not ignore the lyrics: "I'm in love with a stripper ... I'm in love with a stripper ... "

Talk about inappropriate timing. My nervousness level shot up, my heart started racing - not because I was excited, but because my eyes could not avoid coming in contact with the mob of people surrounding me.

I tried to block it out, but I couldn't help wondering what the women thought: Is he staring at me? Is he a pervert? Does he think that I'm HIS stripper?

Paranoid? A little. However, this music affected my mental health and well-being. I should not have to ride the bus and endure listening to explicit music on a public transportation route. I should not have to lose my mental health because of sexual thought pollution I did not choose to hear.

If we are going to allow smoking regulations based on physical "health," we may as well allow the regulation of everything else.           

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Smoke 'em if you got 'em - for now
DeKalb will likely ban smoking in restaurants in Sept. '06 and bars in Sept. '07

2/14/06
By Chris Rickert - City Editor

DeKALB - Smokers will be unwelcome in DeKalb's bars and restaurants - but not just yet.

The city council on Monday gave initial approval to an ordinance that bans smoking in nearly all indoor public places, but delayed its implementation until September for restaurants and until another year after that for bars and the city's one bowling alley.

Whatever other businesses or public venues - likely few in number - that are covered by the ordinance but still allow employees or patrons to smoke must become smoke-free 90 days after the ordinance's final passage, probably in two weeks.

For restaurants, the city's liquor license structure provided a rationale for phasing in the ban.

City liquor licenses come up for renewal Sept. 1, and City Attorney Norma Guess told the council that it could be construed as unfair to change the terms under which those licenses are used - such as by banning smoking in licensed establishments - before the licenses expire.

So as not to disadvantage restaurants that don't serve liquor, the council voted to implement the ban for all restaurants on Sept. 1.

Taverns - where smoking is more common - were given an extra year after that to retool their businesses for a smoke-free city.

Second Ward Alderman Kris Povlsen, the ban's sponsor on the council, contended that "when all is said and done," as long as a bar owner runs a good business, its longtime customers will "certainly not drive over to Sycamore to make friends" just so that they can smoke.

He and Jim Grosklags, head of the DeKalb Smoke-Free Coalition, said they hoped the city would work with the bars before Sept. 1, 2007, to aid them in remarketing themselves to help attract a nonsmoking clientele.

Public comment before Monday's council vote saw the same arguments and battle lines as in previous meetings on the ordinance.

If smoking bans didn't hurt business - as the antismoking forces contend - bars and restaurants would be all for them, said Kim Knowlton, co-owner of K.J.'s Tap & Grill.

She asked the council to permanently exempt bars from the ban.

"This would be much more realistic than imposing an all-out ban," she said.

But advocates of the smoking ban said the measure was about protecting the health of nonsmoking patrons and employees.

"This is a public health concern," said Kristin Mock, a physician with Kishwaukee Medical Associates in Sycamore. "Those employees need to be protected ... from the risk from the things that I see every day."

Grosklags acknowledged that some businesses are hurt by the bans, but that economic activity overall in smoke-free communities improves after the bans go into place.

The vote for the ban was 5-2, with council members James Barr, 7th Ward, and Donna Gorski, 4th Ward, voting no.

Barr acknowledged that government should protect public health, but he said it also should "protect the public from the excesses of government."

He pointed to recent city regulation on everything from how long a trash can may be left outside to how high grass can be allowed to grow and complained, "we've gotten much into the business of regulation," to the detriment of doing things like attracting more industry to town.

"It's not advisable to ban smoking in bars," Gorski said.

Monday's action represents a successful end to more than two years of planning and preparation by the DeKalb Citizens' Environmental Commission and its affiliated group, the DeKalb Smoke-Free Coalition.

The activists tapped outside groups like the American Center Society and American Lung Association for funds and research help, as well as conducted their own local survey to gauge support for a smoking ban.

They also had Povlsen on their side from the beginning and were able to provide the rest of the council with reams of information on the dangers of secondhand smoke.

Alderman Steve Kapitan, 3rd Ward, said he noticed in talking to constituents that support for a smoking ban was "almost always from the standpoint of their consumer behavior."

But Kapitan said that it's "not just a matter of going into a bar and coming out smelling like a butt," and he urged advocates of the smoking ban to do a better job in the months to come educating the public about the dangers of secondhand smoke.

After the meeting, the general manager of Andy's Tavern, which has been in DeKalb since 1933, said the ban will likely cause him to shorten business hours because there won't be enough customers for the bar to stay open during the day.

"They'll either stay home or go to Sycamore," said Robert Goering.

DeKalb is the latest Illinois city to approve some measure to curb smoking in public places in recent years. Chicago and Springfield are among the others. Legislation now being considered in the Illinois House would implement a smoking ban statewide.

Chris Rickert can be reached at crickert@daily-chronicle.com.
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The Birth of a Smoking Ban

February 2, 2006
Mike Swiontek

DeKalb is engulfed in the debate over the priority between smoker and non-smoker rights.

Movements to ban smoking have come to city councils through different avenues. The DeKalb smoking ban came about after the former chair of the DeKalb Environmental Commission, Jim Grosklags, began the DeKalb Smoke-Free Coalition citizen's group. The coalition began because the environmental commission could not devote appropriate time to promoting a smoking ban proposal. A former biology professor at NIU, Grosklags is now the president of the DeKalb Smoke-Free Coalition.

Second Ward Alderman Kris Povlsen came to a DEC meeting a couple of years ago to explore information about a possible ban. At the time, Povlsen was the alderman most interested in a smoking ban, said Julia Fauci, chair of the DEC. Since then, his determination has not waned.

The commission discussed to what degree a smoking ban would be appropriate and unanimously recommended a total smoking ban to the city council.

A statewide ban potentially could be introduced in the next few years that would supersede any city decision. In that case, one of the potential side effects of a smoking ban would be alleviated if smokers did not have an alternate destination nearby, like Sycamore, where smoking is allowed.

Some state lawmakers are pushing a proposal through the House that would allow individual counties to ban smoking, proposed by state Sen. John Cullerton (D-Chicago).

Fauci also sits on the DeKalb County Board and said if counties could ban smoking in public places she would be in favor of a ban at the county level.

"A statewide or county ban would be smarter so that DeKalb and Sycamore aren't warring over customers," Fauci said.

One local business owner would not be against a smoking ban if it would not adversely affect business revenues.

"I wish it was a statewide ban, I could support that. It would make it a level playing field." said Debbie Witmer, owner of O'Leary's Irish Pub and Grill, 260 E. Lincoln Highway, at the Jan. 23 city council meeting.

At the city council meeting Feb. 13, the smoking ban will come up for a first reading in an ordinance calling for a ban including bars and restaurants. If there is no opposition, the council can skip the second reading and pass the ordinance.

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Second-hand smoke not a significant health risk
February 1, 2006
I believe non-smokers, like anyone else, have rights. But how far do these rights extend? Should it take priority over someone else's rights? Airplanes, court houses, publicly owned buildings and anywhere else an individual might be forced to go should properly be included in any smoking law. What should not be included are places located in or on private property, providing an individual is not compelled by necessity or law, to frequent or work at that specific location.
Thomas Laprade
Thunder Bay, Ontario
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Health-risk argument for smoking ban falls flat

January 27, 2006
Jennifer Calanca

This is in response to the ongoing debate of a smoking ban in DeKalb. The cornerstone of the argument, for those who favor a ban on smoking, is the health risks imposed by cigarette smoke.

However, no one ever entertains, or even addresses the implications this argument has when discussing banning smoking in bars. In restaurants, schools and stores, the health argument holds up. When we try to argue we must ban smoking in bars to make the environment healthy, we miss a fundamental flaw. The flaw of this argument is that in order to make a bar healthy, you must also take away the alcohol.

Some might point out when a person drinks they are only affecting themselves. This is untrue: DUI-related accidents cause thousands of deaths each year. When people drink they tend to become aggressive and use poor judgment; alcoholism creates innumerable costs for society and families, cancer and cirrhosis of the liver cause health problems. If everyone that frequents the bars in DeKalb is going there for their once-a-week glass of red wine, well then I suppose they can argue the smoke in the bar diminishes health. However, I suspect most everyone going to the bars is, by definition, binge drinking. If the ban does pass, DeKalb is really telling us our lungs are more important than our livers.

As to the argument that the employees have a right to not work in a cancer-causing environment, it is dead on, but we do not need a ban to ensure this. People in this country have the right to choose where they live, where they work and whom they associate with. If you choose to work at an establishment that allows smoking, you are assuming the risk and you have the right to choose to not work there.

You always have the right to not patronize establishments that permit smoking. After all, no one is forcing people to go to smoky bars, people are entering the bars on their on volition. They are assuming the risk. "Please government, oh please, save us from ourselves."

Is this the message we are sending'

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October 26, 2005
By Diane Strand
The MidWeek
  
If banning smoking brought in more customers to bars and restaurants, the hospitality industry would have banned it long ago.

That was the message by Steve Riedl, executive director of the Illinois Licensed Beverage Association, who spoke to the DeKalb City Council at last week's workshop on outcomes of a total smoking ban.

Riedl reported, one after another, on businesses and communities that have lost revenue, sales tax and jobs due to a complete smoking ban in bars and restaurants.

However, some members of the council argued that "the other side" of the issue, presented by groups such as the American Lung Association, was backed up by statistics in formal studies. The ban proponents even argue that some bars and restaurants gained customers after a smoking ban.

However, some aldermen described the anti-smoking evidence presented by Riedl as only "anecdotal"-that is, based on stories and letters from businesses and communities that reportedly lost revenue-rather than a scientific study.

Nevertheless, Second Ward Alderman Kris Povlsen, a supporter of a total smoking ban, told Riedl that he definitely did a good job in his presentation.

Riedl sited as one example a large restaurant in north shore suburb. In a written communication, the owner of the restaurant said his business was devastated when all smoking was barred. Though he had many regular customers from outside the community, after the smoking ban, many customers switched to restaurants in neighboring suburbs.

"There is a reasonable approach that bans smoking in all but a small segment of public places," Riedl said. "This approach allows hospitality businesses to survive while banning smoking in dining areas of restaurants.

"Keep in mind, if hospitality industry businesses lose revenue, the city of DeKalb also will lose sales tax revenue. Can DeKalb really afford to lose a substantial portion of this revenue?"

That revenue is "trending between $l.3-$1.4 million" for this fiscal year, said Assistant City Manager Linda Wiggins. The figure includes restaurants, bars and retail liquor stores.

"The establishments include six private clubs, 15 retail stores and 40 fast food sandwich places," she said. "The rest range from family type restaurants to bars."

The sales taxes from these establishments amount to 13.8 percent of the total sales tax revenue received by the city.

Putting the issue in perspective, Wiggins said 10 percent of the $1.3 million is $130,000-"which could pay for two police officers or two firefighters, or one street sweeper or four squad cars."

Restaurant and bar taxes brought the city $1,019,806 in FY2000 and increased to $1,244,821 in FY2005.

From his evidence, Riedl cited the following examples:
• The Massachusetts Restaurant Association study of restaurant smoking bans in 23 communities found that there was a 21 percent decline in restaurant jobs on average, and in communities with total smoking bans, the job loss averaged 30 percent.

• The American Beverage Institute reported that 1,000 bars and restaurants that serve alcohol permanently closed their doors in the first year of California's smoking ban.

• The Madison, Wis. City Council is seriously debating amending their smoking ban ordinance. Former Madison City Council member Dorothy Borchardt surveyed 40 establishments that serve beverage alcohol and found business was down 30-60 percent, compared to the same time the prior year.

• A UCLA study that evaluated 100,000 people concluded their results do not support a casual relationship between second-hand smoke and tobacco-related mortality. Similarly, a British Medical Journal study tracking 35,561 Californians over 39 years, concluded: "The results do not support a causal relationship between environmental (second-hand) tobacco smoke and tobacco-related mortality."

Supporters of a total smoking ban argued that a person working eight hours a day in a place where smoking is allowed ends up with the equivalent of smoking 16 cigarettes a day.

Riedl proposed an ordinance for adoption by DeKalb which will excuse only the following areas from a complete smoking ban:
• private residences;
• private vehicles;
• hotel and motel sleeping rooms that are designated smoking rooms;
• retail tobacco stores;
• bars, taverns and pubs;
• restaurant bars and any tables within 15 feet of a free-standing bar;
• bowling centers;
• gaming riverboats, horse track racing facilities;
• off-track betting parlors;
• adult entertainment facilities.

Riedl also supported a posted notice to employees and prospective employees of smoking establishments that warn them of the danger of second-hand smoke.

Sixth Ward Alderman David Baker asked Riedl for examples of more rural areas like DeKalb, saying it is more like "an island" than a suburb where people can go to the other cities in five minutes. Riedl said he would provide some information.

Steve Kapitan, who filled in for Mayor Frank VanBuer, told a standing-room only audience in council chambers that aldermen need more time to review the new materials just presented by Riedl. Though members of the audience, most of whom opposed the total smoking ban, wanted to talk about the issue, Kapitan said it couldn't be done in a workshop session of the council. He noted, however, there will be a public hearing when the issue goes to the council at a regular meeting, and there will be plenty of time for input.

October 18, 2005
By Chris Rickert - City Editor

DeKALB - Smoking pays.

Or more specifically, according to the head of a statewide trade group for the bar and restaurant industry, it pays waiters, bartenders, bar and restaurant owners, and even police and firemen whose salaries depend in part on the taxes generated by smoke-friendly businesses.

That was one primary message from Steve Riedl, executive director of the Springfield-based Illinois Licensed Beverage Association, to city council members during a workshop meeting Monday.

Smoking bans are "devastating to our industry," Riedl told the council. "If this were good for us, we would do it."

To support that point of view, Riedl ticked off government statistics purportedly showing a decline in bar and restaurant business in smoke-free cities, read testimonials from business owners hurt by the bans, and cited studies questioning the link between secondhand smoke and health problems.

And keno revenues are down in Lincoln, Neb., he claimed, after that city enacted a smoking ban.

A month after a group called the DeKalb Smoke-Free Coalition - with considerable backing from national health groups like the American Lung Association - argued to extend DeKalb's nonsmoking ordinance to bars and restaurants, Riedl was there to warn council members about the alleged negative consequences of such measures.

"Smokers will continue to smoke," he said. "These (bans) do not have the intended impact that they're supposed to have."

Riedl also gave the council a copy of a model ordinance, supported by his group, that would ban smoking in essentially all public places but bars, bowling alleys and the bar sections of restaurants. It would differ from current city ordinance only in eliminating restaurant smoking sections that are not attached to bar areas.

But more than two years after the DeKalb coalition began working on its own proposed ordinance, the council appeared far from ready to make a decision on the issue. No date was set to consider either ordinance, and each side was encouraged to submit responses to the spate of studies, research and statistics put forth by the other.

Alderman Dave Baker, 6th Ward, pointed out that unlike some or the other areas that have enacted the bans - including Minneapolis and suburbs north of Chicago - the DeKalb area is somewhat isolated amid the cornfields and there are only so many places a person can go for a drink and cigarette.

"We're faced with the argument, are they going to go to Sycamore or DeKalb," he said.

Riedl also warned that if smokers are pushed out of bars and restaurants and into the street, they will contribute to noise and litter problems.

"Patrons would be smoking outside and making noise at all times of night," he said.

Monday's meeting was punctuated by bursts of applause and other spontaneous commentary from the capacity crowd in council chambers, many wearing stickers that said "Support hospitality businesses. Oppose the smoking ban." Alderman Steve Kapitan, 3rd Ward, told them they would get a chance to address the council once aldermen had a specific proposal to vote on.

To show the opposition to the proposed ban, Riedl came armed with petitions against it that he said were signed by 1,444 local bar and restaurant customers, 910 of whom identified themselves as smokers.

After Riedl's presentation, Jim Grosklags, head of the smoke-free coalition, said his group would look over Riedl's sources and respond. He emphasized that the push behind further restricting smoking was to improve public health and asked why the city would choose to protect some employees from secondhand smoke but not others.

"If we don't have a health issue, then basically we don't have much of anything," he said.

Chris Rickert can be reached at crickert@daily-chronicle.com.
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September 25, 2005
By Chris Rickert - City Editor

DeKALB - With both sides getting help from outside organizations skilled at arguing their positions, the coming battle over banning smoking in all public places in DeKalb is just the latest front in a larger war.

Meanwhile, thousands of city residents have reportedly signed petitions either in favor or against the ban, but there appears to be little support for the proposal from one of the main groups it is designed to protect - restaurant and bar workers.

Jim Grosklags, the head of the DeKalb Smoke-Free Coalition, said that his group has gotten help from the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association and the American Heart Association, among others. Work leading up to the smoking ban proposal has been going on for more than two years.

"We've relied heavily on them and of course they're all biased on this issue," he said.

Much of the help has come in the form of resources showing the reported health and economic effects of smoking bans, and in the form of strategies for implementing them. The coalition also received a $4,000 grant a year and a half ago through the Illinois Coalition Against Tobacco. It was for newspaper ads and other efforts to get the group's message out.
 
A group of seven or eight DeKalb bar and restaurant owners also have begun working with the Illinois Licensed Beverage Association, according to Steve Riedl, the executive director of the trade group, which represents businesses in Illinois that sell alcohol.

"The bottom line for this is that this (smoking bans) is economically devastating to our industry," Riedl said, although he added that his organization supports smoking bans as long as they don't apply to the hospitality industry.

The co-owner of K.J.'s Tap & Grill on East Lincoln Highway, Kim Knowlton, is one of the local business owners working with the ILBA.

Knowlton said the ILBA has provided statistics from other places with smoking bans but that her group has not received any outside funding from it or any other group.

She also said she alone has collected some 1,000 signatures on a petition opposed to the smoking ban.

Riedl said his group provides information to business owners about the purported negative economic impact the bans have had on the hospitality industry - much of it culled from government statistics or industry-funded studies.

Riedl and Kathy Drea, a lobbyist for the Illinois chapter of the American Lung Association, acknowledge that in many respects the fight over smoking in DeKalb is just the latest incarnation of a fight seen elsewhere in the state, nation and around the world.

But Grosklags and fellow coalition member and 2nd Ward Alderman Kris Povlsen also claim there is local, grassroots support for the ban, pointing to a petition with hundreds of signatures and 400 postcards signed by people who support a ban. The postcards were to be sent to city council members.

"This was generated from the Citizens Environmental Commission," Povlsen said, referring to the city-sanctioned, volunteer group. "The council didn't sit one day and say 'What new laws can we put into effect?'"

But Povlsen - whose full-time job as a prevention specialist includes working to cut down on youth smoking and substance use - and Grosklags acknowledged that there's been little outcry from those who would arguably benefit the most from a smoking ban: people who work in restaurants and bars that allow smoking.

"It (smoke) doesn't bother me," said Lizette Gonzalez, 22, a nonsmoker who works at The House Cafe, which has a smoking section. "I think they have a right. If you want to smoke, you can smoke."

Employees at Fatty's Bar & Grill, the Lincoln Inn and The House all reported that they had either rarely or never heard co-workers complain about being exposed to smoke.

Although, added Morgan McKendry, a smoker and a waitress at Fatty's: "I don't really know a lot (of waiters and bartenders) that don't smoke."

McKendry said she actually was in favor of smoking ban for restaurants, but not for bars.

Riedl says the organizations that push for smoking bans have searched "high and low" for a hospitality industry employee who will speak out in behalf of smoking bans, but they can't find them, in part because tips from people who sit in smoking sections generally are far higher than those from patrons in nonsmoking sections.
 
Kathy Drea, who has worked with the DeKalb coalition, said "people who work in the establishments cannot speak out because they will lose their jobs if they speak out."

She added: "They should be protected from something that causes cancer and heart attacks and stroke no matter where they work."

The notion that restaurant and bar workers should be protected by government from exposure to second-hand smoke - even if they themselves don't actively seek out such protection - doesn't sit well with 26-year-old Poland native Cammillo Sobi, who also works at The House and is a former 10-year smoker.

"I think that America is going to be a police country," he said. "They (government) have to protect me from other things. They don't have to protect me from the smoke."

Chris Rickert can be reached at crickert@daily-chronicle.com.
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