Soglin joins with taverns, others to push repeal
Smoking ban foes mobilize Soglin joins with taverns, others to push repeal
With allies such as former Mayor Paul Soglin and reports from 73 bars that business in July was off by roughly one-third, a new coalition says it is prepared to overturn Madison’s smoking ban.
“I don’t go into battles like this to lose them,” former north side Ald. Dorothy Borchardt said Wednesday as the newly formed group, the Coalition to Save Madison Jobs, made sure that it was properly registered with the City Clerk’s Office.
The coalition’s central argument is that the month-old smoke-free ordinance is badly hurting the livelihood of bar staff. That, Borchardt said, will play prominently in their slogan, the T-shirts they plan to begin selling this weekend, a rally downtown and possibly also in advertisements.
“If it comes to a referendum, you can bet we’ll be running ads,” Borchardt said in an interview. For now, the Coalition to Save Madison Jobs – led by bar owners Joe Klinzing and Patty Telvick – is focusing on changing the minds of three more members of the City Council.
Telvick, who owns the Buckeye Inn on the east side, said that it is “very possible” that they are attaining that goal as more and more bar staff tell firsthand stories to their City Council representatives.
“We’re honestly in to fight for our lives,” Telvick said. “We’re in for the long haul, whatever it takes.”
She reported that business in her bar, at the edge of the city on the southeast side, was down 23 percent compared with last July and that they have gone from three bartenders on a Friday night to one. Additionally, her beer orders have plummeted. She used to order 100 cases of beer per week from each of two main distributors. Now she said she orders 25.
Gathering steam: The City Council originally passed the smoking ban with only five voting against it, but with changeover from last year’s elections and Alds. Santiago Rosas and Lauren Cnare rethinking their position, the vote is coming closer to the 11-vote majority.
“We can’t pick up enough votes to override a veto by the mayor,” Borchardt said. But by her calculations, they will reach 11 or 12 votes, relying on newer members to reconsider the effects of the ban.
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz’s spokesman George Twigg acknowledged Wednesday that the future of the smoke-free ordinance was something that the mayor’s office was discussing. But when asked about a veto, he declined to say what Cieslewicz would do.
“It’s hard to say,” Twigg said. “We don’t know what we’ll be looking at.”
“We’re not going to talk about a veto,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ald. Brian Benford, who represents the northeast district that was formerly Borchardt’s, said that he has gotten “heartbreaking” calls from bar employees who say their hours and tips are vanishing, and that they are not able to pay bills.
“I know it’s very tough on a lot of people,” he said. “It just tears your heart out.”
He said that when he voted to enact the rules that forbade smoking in all bars, bowling lanes and other indoor venues, he believed that he was representing the majority of his constituents. He avoided making any promises about whether he would cast another vote in favor of the smoking ban.
He offered the arguments that succeeded in passing the ban: clearing the air of smoke improved the health of workers and other places that forbade smoking did not report a significant economic impact. He said his constituents were behind him when he voted in favor the ban.
“In the end, I’ll vote for what the majority of my constituents want,” he said.
Benford is a member of the local political party Progressive Dane, which has taken a lot of abuse from critics who blame it for the smoking ban. But Benford said that former Ald. Steve Holtzman had more to do with the smoking ban than Progressive Dane, and he said his party had nothing to do with his vote on the issue.
He said that there would be no punishment if he were to change his vote on the smoking ban.
“They certainly wouldn’t do that,” he said. “They wouldn’t throw me out of the party.”
Ald. Mike Verveer, another member of Progessive Dane, was among the five City Council members who originally opposed the smoking ban.
Direct legislation? If a reconsideration of the smoke-free ordinance does not overturn the law, which took effect on July 1, the other course that’s open to The Coalition to Save Madison Jobs is called a petition for direct legislation.
Under this state law, a petition would have to gather a number of signatures in Madison greater than 15 percent of the voter turnout in the last gubernatorial election. Then, the City Council would have to either adopt the petition or hold a referendum on the matter.
In a conversation with Nitty Gritty tavern owner Marsh Shapiro, Soglin said he advocated this route – petitioning the city to return to the old smoke-free ordinance that kept cigarettes out of restaurants but still allowed them in bars.
“I think that campaign can be won,” Soglin said Wednesday, adding that a successful referendum would “stick it” to the City Council.
Once a smoker himself but no longer, Soglin said that the current law fails because it has landed on the backs of Madison workers and it has hurt efforts to regulate smoking statewide.
“There are a lot of values that are at stake in this public discussion,” Soglin said.
First, he said that it was a mistake to think that because California or Manhattan enacted smoking bans that something similar – or even more restrictive – would work in Madison.
“I don’t think much thought was given to all the consequences,” he said. Not only is Madison a city of jagged and irregular municipal borders, but the smoking ban came on the heels of other actions that Soglin said “drove up the cost of doing business” in the city.
Now, it’s putting the city’s leaders in on a “dangerous philosophical path” as some argue that the state should not enact a less restrictive statewide ban on smoking. Soglin said regulating smoking is an appropriate action for the state, and one it could do with greater effect than the city of Madison.
Ban the ban: The coalition began meeting on Monday and this weekend they plan to begin selling “ban the ban” T-shirts, Borchardt said. Their rally is planned for 5 p.m. Aug. 16 in front of the City County Building.
“We’re saying ‘Call an Alder, save a job,’ ” said Borchardt, who does not smoke. “That’s what this is all about: jobs.”
Borchardt collected reports from 73 bars, nearly all of which reported being hurt by the ban. She said those losing business ranged from Mickey’s Tavern on Williamson Street to VFW Post 1318.
Originally written By Lee Sensenbrenner
