Over a long and sometimes trying night of bargaining, city officials and competing lobbyists forged a smoking ban that won the City Council’s overwhelming approval just hours later on Wednesday.
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The negotiations resolved key sticking points, leading the way to an acceptable compromise that had eluded the council for months. Under the eye of Mayor Richard Daley, whose endorsement helped seal the compromise, the council voted 46-1 to approve the ordinance.
Now, the cigarettes will get snuffed and the cigars stubbed out in most public places, from Chicago Transit Authority train platforms to condominium lobbies and hallways, on Jan. 16. The ban also will close smoking sections in restaurants that don’t have bars.
And smokers who light up outdoors will be required to stay at least 15 feet away from the entrance of any building where smoking is prohibited, which means just about every public building in the city.
But under terms of the compromise ordinance, smoking would still be allowed in taverns and restaurants with bars until July 1, 2008. Anti-smoking groups that championed the ban as a health issue for workers chafed at the delay. But they were also concerned by a provision that offers the hope of a permanent exemption for any place that meets yet-to-be-determined rules for scrubbing the air.
Some smokers said they may head to the suburbs when smoking is outlawed in their favorite Chicago spots.
“They should just let you have the choice,” said Kate Gramercy, 24, a smoker who was lunching with a friend at the Golden Nugget Pancake House, 2720 N. Clark St. “I think there are enough non-smoking restaurants.”
Owners of restaurants that have bars on the premises expressed confusion over whether the new ordinance would apply to them, and how soon.
Brian Comer, marketing director of Blue Bayou Bar & Grill and Cullens Bar & Grill on North Southport Avenue, said he favors the smoking ban. But he wondered how it would apply to places that are a restaurant during the day and turn into a bar at night.
“We are restaurants, we serve food,” he said. “But we stop at 10 o’clock. Will we have the opportunity to serve smokers after 10?”
The city departments that the ordinance directs to answer those and other questions will be scrambling to prepare.
“By the 16th [of January], our department will have developed an internal process and will be working with the business community to inform them what that process will be,” said Rosa Escareno, a spokeswoman for the Department of Business Affairs and Licensing.
Aldermen earlier had lined up behind two competing proposals. One, sponsored by Ald. Ed Smith (28th), called for a smoking prohibition in virtually all public locations. The other, backed by Ald. Burton Natarus (42nd), called for a similar ban but exempted taverns and bars in restaurants that are walled off from dining areas.
By Tuesday afternoon, the two sides reached an agreement in principle, but with two issues to be ironed out: when the ban would take effect for taverns and restaurant lounges, and how the clean air standard must be met by venues seeking to allow smoking beyond the 2008 date.
Participants in the discussions, which moved to the phones after initial bargaining failed to produce a quick result at City Hall, included Natarus; Smith; Ald. Patrick O’Connor (40th), a supporter of the Smith measure; John Dunn, Daley’s chief lobbyist, who was charged with helping forge a compromise; and Jeffrey Levine, a senior city lawyer responsible for drafting the proposed ordinance.
One team of lobbyists, which included Chicago Police Board Chairman Demetrius Carney, an attorney in private practice, represented anti-smoking advocates who were for the Smith proposal. The other team, which included Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin, also a lawyer, represented the Illinois Restaurant Association, which favored the Natarus proposal.
Over the course of the evening, both sides finally agreed to change the grace period for taverns and bars, initially proposed at three years, to 2 1/2 years, O’Connor said.
The permanent exemption for bars with equipment that would clean the air to an appropriate standard–something officials for the American Cancer Society and American Lung Association contend doesn’t exist–was a sticky issue, according to the alderman.
“The original language was that … you have to prove the air quality in the [bar] was the same or better than the air quality outside,” O’Connor said. “Their position was you could be next to the steel mills … or by the expressway and you technically could have better air quality [inside], but still have secondhand smoke carcinogens.
“The break in the thinking for us was we would compare secondhand smoke air quality indoors to secondhand smoke quality outdoors,” O’Connor said.Under terms of the ordinance, the city’s health and environment commissioners jointly are responsible for drafting regulations “specifying what types of technologies, when and if available,” would pass muster.
“With this legislation being as new as it is, the details … remain to be worked out and will be at an appropriate time,” said Health Department spokesman Tim Hadac.
Joel Africk, chief executive officer of the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago, said his group will be monitoring closely.
Natarus said that a final draft of the proposed ordinance was not completed until after 9 a.m. Wednesday, less than an hour before the council met.
Even then, it got a last-minute tweak at a Finance Committee meeting that preceded the council meeting.
Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th) argued successfully that the penalty for a person who smokes in a prohibited location should be a fine of no more than $100, rather than $500.
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Businesses or public places that unlawfully permit smoking face fines as high as $2,500 and suspension or revocation of their business licenses if they have three violations within a year.
The only no vote on the proposed ordinance came from Ald. Brian Doherty (41st). He predicted smaller mom and pop restaurants and bars in his Northwest Side ward will lose business to competitors in nearby suburbs.
Other aldermen were in a joyful mood after averting a distasteful showdown on the council floor and surviving intense lobbying by interest groups.
“During the entire time this was going on, a tune kept passing through my head,” said Ald. Bernard Stone (50th), who added that he was dared to sing it–and then broke into something resembling a song.
“Cigarettes and whiskey and wild, wild women. They’ll drive you crazy. They’ll drive you insane,” he crooned to laughter and applause.
“Ladies and gentlemen, smoking will kill ya, and if it doesn’t kill ya, it’ll destroy your health,” he declared. “We’re doing the right thing.”
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