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REGULAR MEETING MARCH 29, 2016 Council Vice President Oliver Davis asked the supporters of the Bill to find the numbers for the percentage of Allen and Marion counties not affected by the city smoking bans. He asked Councilmember Ferlic if there is any reason for why the bars in the city of Elkhart closed but the businesses in the county of Elkhart did not close. Councilmember Ferlic stated he had no confirmation that evidence is true. Council Vice President stated he has been given information that during this recession the Elkhart County area did not lose any bars but the City did under the ban. Councilmember Ferlic stated he does not know if that is verified and he can't speak for why that would happen. There is a wealth of data analyzing many cities in similar situations to South Bend that it does not have an economic impact. Council Vice President Davis stated he is trying to focus on Indiana cities and specifically the ones closest to them, which would be Elkhart, and we have done no studies on Elkhart or on the potential impact on South Bend. He asked the supporters or anyone who would answer why did that city get negatively impacted by a smoke free ordinance when all the national studies said that would not happen. Councilmember Ferlic stressed that we should look at the viable research on this issue that can isolate certain factors to really determine what happened when these ordinances were passed. The public was given an opportunity to speak in favor and opposition of the bill. Those wishing to speak in favor to Bill 11 -16: Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Offices on the 14th Floor of the County City Building, stated as Mayor he is responsible for both the public safety and economic direction of South Bend. He has been following this debate closely and hearing from the public on both sides of the issue. In reviewing the bill, there are things the Mayor stated he likes about the bill and things he does not like but this is clearly a move in the right direction. If it passes it will be signed and enforced effectively. The lead departments charged with enforcement have all stated without issue they could enforce this bill if it becomes ordinance. There are three (3) reasons for why he intends to sign the legislation if passed by the Council. The first reason is public safety. Any tradeoff between safety and liberty deserves to be taken seriously but here the case for safety is very clear. Research tells us secondhand smoke will kill an average of fourteen (14) people in the City of South Bend this year alone. That is just non- smokers. If we knew of any threat that was going to kill over a dozen residents of South Bend and injure many more in a single year, we would of course act to stop it. Just like seat belts, restaurant inspections, or building inspections it is a tradeoff in personal liberty that we accept in order to save lives. The second reason is to reinforce South Bend's standing as a leading community. We have all been working hard together to place South Bend ahead of our peers, but in his respect we are behind. South Bend is the last of the five (5) major Indiana communities to enact such protections. Eighty (80) percent of Americans already live under some kind of smoking bans and fifty (50) percent live under one that bans smoking in all restaurants and all bars. We are uncharacteristically behind the times. This is not an experimental policy and we don't have to speculate on the effects because such policies are already the law of the land for most Americans. His office was not able to find a single case of an American city that moved in the opposite direction. If this were such a bad idea you would expect that at least some of those cities would have decided to repeal their smoking ban. We found no evidence of any community that chose to go from smoke free back to the old way. Third, the Mayor stated he has tremendous confidence in the bars and restaurants in this City. If it were not for that confidence he would not be comfortable signing this legislation. Both as a Mayor and a resident he has enormous appreciation for what these businesses mean to our community. Hospitality and retail have never been an easy line of business to be in. Any disruptive change can be a threat to them but he has enormous confidence in these businesses. He does not expect to see them fail where others have succeeded. If a law like this did not ruin