Smoking Ban Petition Takes Step Forward

Opponents of the smoking ban submit their petittion with more than 3,000 signatures

Posted on Tue Nov 6, 2007

While the focus for most Columbia residents is on Tuesday's election, others are working on the next election in April.

Residents against the smoking ban in bars and restaurants have been working for months to collect signatures to repeal the ban or send the issue to voters.  They now have the signatures and are waiting for the City Clerks office to validate them.

When the smoking ban first went into effect back in January there was a lot of grumbling from opponents and shortly after the petition began making its way around town. 

Petition sponsors say it got off to a good start, but hit a snag when a number of the signatures had to be removed because some people were not registered to vote inside the city limits of Columbia, but now they think they have enough and its time for the next step.

Joel Thiel, the owner of Otto's and co sponsor of the petition says, "We finally hit the total we wanted.  We needed 2580 and we turned in just about 3000 signatures.  I think that will be a nice cushion going in."

The petition has now made its way to the city clerk and if all checks out it will head back to city council for the second time; something some members say is just fine.

Karl Skala, representative for the 3

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But that doesn't mean Skala is on their side.  He expects the council to uphold the ban and send it to the voters, and that's exactly what those against the ban want. 

Thiel says they have support from both smokers and non smokers.  He says, "They say this is private business rights and private property rights and this is too much government.  They feel it wasn't handled right and I find that is very encouraging for us when it goes to the ballot."

But Mayor Darwin Hindman believes just the opposite.  He says he thinks there will be pretty overwhelming support in favor of the ban.

Thiel he doesn't have a campaign strategy set up for the spring yet, because he's just taking it one step at a time.  He says he's just focused on getting the signatures approved.

If the clerk's office finds there aren't enough valid signatures, petition sponsors will have ten days to get more, or the issue will be considered dead.