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than a puppet master in control of the remaining Council. By passing this ordinance, the Council <br />only stands to cripple a free society. Most on this Council speak of the rights to employees to <br />work in a free society but that already exists. Employees have that freedom of choice right now. <br />If a bartender or manager is good at their trade then the door is wide open for their choice of <br />employment. For some on this Council to twist the numbers and say several employees <br />complained but have fear of retribution from the owners is ignorant. We have whistle blower <br />laws in place and protections for those employees who wish to speak out. Some on the Council <br />have expressed the hopes that this ordinance will have a positive impact on the South Bend <br />community. The key word is "hopes ". He cannot base his business on predicted hope but rather <br />defined pros and cons. The Council has yet to provide a long term professional study regarding <br />the cause and effect on our local economy. Why aren't these grants from the City and Smoke <br />Free St. Joe to help businesses transition already being done and why are the bars and clubs who <br />have gone smoke free not benefitting from these funds currently. The Council is just providing <br />lip service with these programs in an attempt to pacify some opponents and have no plans to ever <br />disperse money. This proposed ordinance will encourage patrons to go elsewhere to smoke and <br />vape including the planned casino. The City will gain approximately $2 million dollars from the <br />casino and maybe that's why the Council doesn't care if the privately owned business will close. <br />There is also the political and personal gain that some on the Council seek and this will help <br />them achieve their high political aspirations, including White House positions. This proposal <br />may be no more than a personal victory for them. Instead of listening to the masses they are <br />keeping their eyes on their personal agendas. Taking our Police Department and Code <br />Enforcement to enforce this ordinance is taking valuable resources away from the protection of <br />our city. He asks the Council to table this proposal until we can find out the real implications it <br />would have on our city. <br />Drew Duncan, 439 S. Michigan St., student and store manager of a vape shop in South Bend. He <br />messaged Mr. Ferlic on FaceBook and also spoke to him on the phone about the affect this could <br />possibly have and he claimed he does not want to hurt small businesses and Mr. Duncan believes <br />that but this one shoe fits all businesses is ridiculous. For a vape shop, regardless of how much <br />marketing is done their only business is allowing people to try our product. No amount of <br />trinkets or marketing materials will keep us in town because this will force our customers <br />elsewhere. One thing that has been greatly ignored is people do have a choice where they work, <br />there is over 90,000 businesses in the South Bend area and people can find a place of work that <br />does not have smoking. He advocates staunchly against smoking but that does not mean freedom <br />of choice should be taken away. There are no citizens or workers being harmed in the vape shop. <br />No one has come to speak with his shop because we will have to leave. We need to do a specific <br />study on the city of South Bend and the affect his ordinance would have on businesses here. Mr. <br />Duncan stated his love for South Bend and how we are unique and how one boot does not fit all. <br />This is a blatant smack to the people who elected this Council and their trust. This ordinance will <br />simply bog down our law enforcement services to do the job that matters. <br />Warren Diltz, 1454 Garland Circle, presented a list of the Elkhart bars that closed since the <br />ordinance passed and his beliefs for why they closed. The list and explanation is on record in the <br />City Clerk's Office. Elkhart is a good example case because just like Elkhart people would have <br />other bars to go to where they could smoke. These bars that closed were not the big national <br />stores but the small neighborhood taverns. The important thing to realize is most of them are <br />2 <br />