05-12-14 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING MAY 12, 2014 Lance O'Nearler- 5547 Ivy Road- I own three houses, and pay taxes. My parents came here for their freedom and their rights. People have the right to choose. Rhonda Redman- 518 N Scott St apt a- I don't advocate for smokers or nonsmokers. It is unfair to ban South Bend and not to look at the County and Mishawaka, make it across the board and fair for all. Don Kulowsky- 5028 Portage St.- I speak on behalf of our veterans, consensus of our club we are for smoking, don't take their rights away. We made $6 thousand smoking, we shut -down and started with no- smoking and made only half, we re- opened the next week and made $6 thousand again. Tommy Marshall- Those who work in the police department and the military protect and serve the citizens of South Bend. An occasional drink and smoke help them to forget their troubles please don't take away those rights. Deborah Stellar- 3128 Spring Brook- I own a business, we all know smoking is bad, I don't think a ban is appropriate. If you ban smoking you will be effecting businesses and employees who benefit from those profits. It is not the job of elected officials to control the city instead to represent their constituents. Instead of the ban you should have a vote for all the people as to what they want. Lonnie- I'm a bar owner. Smoking is a legal substance. I will lose my bar if we ban smoking. I've never loved anything more than being in my bar. In my bar there are smokers and nonsmokers. We have the right to not lose our business. John Burgraft-5218 S Fur Rd- I'm in the tavern association, bars owned by families by years have kept their doors open by their own decisions not from the council. Bar Owner on South Michigan - The state hands out licenses for smoking and I didn't know I had to shut down for three weeks, when I did my business went down to 1/3, I'm almost lost my bar. Mathew- 1615 Arcadia Ave- We are aware of the health hazards, which is why we have the freedom of choice. No one forces these people to come in. We are protecting they and them, I did not see one worker speak on behalf of banning smoke. We have over 1,000 signatures that say they knowingly go in to the establishment that is a smoking environment. Rebuttal: Councilmember Mr. Ferlic- First I would like to address a casino, Indian Casinos have their own jurisdiction. The intent is not to put businesses at a disadvantage, you can smoke outside, and over the long -term it has shown businesses stay neutral or increase. This is primarily about workplace safety. We legislate South Bend and want to pass an ordinance for clean air. John Voorde read a letter written by Councilmember Derek Dieter about his concerns about the air free regulations, as there is no list of businesses that will benefit from this ban. I am pro - business and pro - health, there should be grandfather clauses for already established businesses. Councilmember Scott- I've gone to mom and pop bars where it was full of smoke, it was the only business in the area. When they passed the law to ban, he thought he would go out of business, but was shocked that he did not. He actually has doubled his business as he enticed non - smokers. We talk about choice of work places, I was on a specific career path, and I didn't have a choice as I needed to learn the trade and had to deal with the smoke. It's not always a choice, I saw people die from lung cancer who smoked and did not smoke. Councilmember Henry Davis- I'm frustrated with this issue at this point, we rally around smoke - free areas but not poverty, and providing jobs. If we don't worry about our economy we won't have a city to worry about smoking. You give an example of a small city with one bar, of course it's going to grow no -one lives there. Who's going to fight for South Bend and how we can grow the city. We talk about bike lanes, when we have winter 7 months out of the year. We asked two years ago to have a conversation with the County and Mishawaka but we have not done that. 10