Ban Damage: WI Madison Page 2

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Madison Update

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Lawyer lights a fire under smoking ban

October 27, 2006
By Mike Miller

Another legal challenge is looming for Madison’s anti-smoking ordinance, but this one comes not from tavern owners but from a customer who was ticketed for smoking at an east side beer and booze joint.

It started Wednesday afternoon at Mr. Roberts, 2116 Atwood Ave., when Madison attorney John Koberstein plopped himself down on a bar stool and ordered a beer. Nothing unusual about that.

Then he lit a cigarette, in defiance of the city’s smoking ban in taverns and all other workplaces.

The bar owner responded by telling Koberstein he had to put out the cigarette, that he couldn’t smoke in the bar and he wouldn’t be served anymore. And that he had to leave.
“No,” replied Koberstein.

With that the cops and Health Department were called and Koberstein finally got his wish. He was given a citation for violating the ordinance and will now challenge it in court as unconstitutional because of the exemptions in the ordinance.

“It is unequal protection of the law, basically,” Koberstein said.

“This (ordinance) is going to go,” he said Thursday, after claiming it took two days of making phone calls and hanging out in the bar most of Wednesday afternoon before a police officer finally showed up to write him a ticket.

“It was great,” Koberstein said. “I’ve been trying to do this for several months, ever since the cigar bar got their exemption,” he said. “Finally I got one,” he said of the citation, which carries a $172 fine.

Originally, the ordinance exempted membership clubs with liquor licenses if they applied to the city for an exemption. So far, seven clubs have taken advantage of that.

Then, after saying it had lost most of its business, the Maduro Cigar Bar just off the Square at 117 E. Main St. went to the City Council and was also given an exemption from the ban.

That, said Koberstein, adds up to an unconstitutional ordinance which does not give equal protection under the law.

“There is no legal reason for those exemptions,” said Koberstein, who added that smoke, coming from a cigar or cigarette, is equally harmful. He said he did not oppose the smoking ban until the city began making exceptions to it.

Koberstein has a court date for late November and plans to plead not guilty and file a motion to dismiss the charge on constitutional grounds. If that is denied, he can appeal to Dane County Circuit Court as a next step.

Only a few people have been cited for smoking in bars, according to the Health Department, while bar owners have also been cited. The closest thing to an appeal of any of those was brought by David Wiganowsky, who owns Wiggie’s bar on Aberg Avenue – in the city of Madison – and is a longtime member of the County Board, representing the town of Burke.

Wiganowsky was issued citations and found guilty by Madison Municipal Court Judge Dan Koval of allowing smoking in his bar by patrons on two occasions. Wiganowsky has appealed that to Circuit Court and has asked for a jury trial, but that case would focus on the facts involved.

Koberstein makes no bones about the facts in his case. He was smoking. He got a ticket. But he does complain that it took him the better part of two days to make sure that happened.

“On Tuesday, I called the Police Department non-emergency number and the Health Department to tell them that a guy was going to be lighting up at Mr. Roberts bar on Wednesday at 1 p.m.,” he said.

No one from the city showed up. So Koberstein lit up and the authorities were called again. Even after a police officer arrived and found a cooperative Koberstein waiting to get a citation, “It took her an hour in the squad car to figure out how to write the ticket,” Koberstein said.

Should Koberstein eventually win his case, it would not necessarily end the smoking ban. The city instead could end the exemptions.

The seven clubs with exemptions are the Madison Club, Elks Club, Moose Lodge, Grieg Club, Nakoma Golf Club, the Labor Temple and most recently, the VFW Club on Lakeside Street.
E-mail: mmiller@madison.com
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Spittoon Talk Spills Into Cigar Bar Debate

February 22, 2006
By Lee Sensenbrenner The Capital Times

Tobacco could be returning to Madison bars under a new proposal submitted by downtown Ald. Mike Verveer that so far has the support of at least half the City Council.

But unless you’re a cigar smoker, don’t break out that lighter. Consider instead practicing to hit the spittoon or, if you’re old-fashioned, the cuspidor. That’s right: Where there once was the cigarette, there could soon be the plug of chewing tobacco.

As part of a proposal that mainly aims to bring cigars back to cigar bars, Verveer is also trying to reintroduce smokeless tobacco citywide, something that’s been prohibited in Madison since before the smoking ban took effect last summer.

“I am not interested in a smoking ban repeal,” Verveer said after introducing his proposal at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. He said he doesn’t want this debate to explode into another attempt at toppling the city’s smoking ban, something that’s now failed twice.

“This is about keeping a small business in my district from shuttering its doors,” Verveer said, referring to Maduro, a cigar bar on the Capitol Square.

A cigar bar exemption to the smoking bar was attempted last summer and it failed on an 11-9 vote. This attempt differs because this time, patrons at a cigar bar would not be allowed to smoke cigarettes — only pipe tobacco or cigars. In its draft language, the new proposal also spells out rules for any other business owner who would like to open a cigar bar instead of only grandfathering in existing establishments.

“It certainly means a lot,” Maduro owner Brian Haltinner said. “It’s been tough for us.”

Business at his bar, which is named for a type of cigar, has dropped by 40 percent, he said, and three of the five musical acts that he had scheduled weekly have been canceled.

Maduro or any other cigar bar would have to submit paperwork annually to the city showing that 10 percent of its sales come from tobacco or the rental of on-site humidors.

When the exemption for cigar bars was attempted last summer, Haltinner had argued that it would be difficult to tell patrons they could not smoke cigarettes when others were smoking cigars. Now, with months of no smoking at all, he said he figured it would be easier to explain the distinction. The proposed law says a cigar has a tobacco leaf wrapper and no filter.

Overwhelmingly, though, most of the initial reaction to Verveer’s proposal focused not on cigars, but on allowing the return of chewing tobacco.

In the hallway outside the City Council’s chambers, departing crowds joked about spittoons and gave Ald. Lauren Cnare a friendly heckling for her tentative support of the proposal.

“They’re worried about giant 50-gallon spittoons of brown saliva,” Cnare said.

Ald. Robbie Webber raised the specter that along with the supposed return of spittoons would come tuberculosis.

A return of TB in Madison bars?

“I mean, flu, cold, anything,” she said. “Obviously, bodily fluids can be a public health issue.”

What about people kissing in Madison bars?

“That’s between the people who are engaged in it,” Webber said.

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz took no immediate position on the issue, saying that he had not yet had the chance to read the proposal.

“We’ll take a look at it,” he said. “I’m a little bit concerned about the slippery slope” that might lead to further exemptions from the smoking ban.

One factor that several noted was that as the debate moves forward on allowing smokeless tobacco back in bars, it will do so absent the city’s most zealous anti-tobacco activist, Ira Sharenow, who has moved to California and pledged to stay out of Madison’s politics.

Verveer said that he included the chewing tobacco language because when the smoking ban took effect, many people opposed to the ban ridiculed the city for prohibiting a form of tobacco that did not pose secondhand smoke risks. These critics used this point to argue that the city was not purely pursuing a public health policy.

“I’m willing to separate it, I’m willing to drop it,” Verveer said of the chewing tobacco part of the proposal.

As others joked about big brass spittoons ready to be kicked over, stepped in and so on, Verveer pointed out what he sees as the reality. Many people in Madison chew tobacco, whether they are students surreptitiously spitting into a soda can during late-night studies or bar-goers emptying the juice into a beer bottle.

sensenbrenner@madison.com

Tavern owners say smoking ban has kept business down

MADISON, Wis. Even five months after the smoking ban was implemented, tavern owners continue to blame the ban for declining business.

Spokesman for the Coalition to Save Madison Jobs Joe Klinzing says regular customers are no longer coming in and virtually no new customers are replacing them.

Klinzing blames the smoking ban. He says because of slower business, payroll at his bar is down 17-thousand dollars. He says that means the regulation is actually taking money from the same workers the ban was designed to help.

(Thanks, WIBA-AM, Madison)

Wisconsin State Journal :: OPINION :: C2

Sunday, October 9, 2005
ROBERT CASPERSEN

The vote is over! In the end there is no winner. The smokers are still smoking, the bar owners and employees are struggling for their very existence and the Madison City Council is fractured.

All the money spent fighting for or against the ban could have been used more productively to help people quit smoking, maybe a citywide hypnosis.

I witnessed husbands and wives crying because their hard work will no longer ensure them the American Dream, their nest egg for retirement now gone.

Where do these people go? Do they get jobs at other establishments? Not likely. If they’re still in business, they’re probably not hiring.

The only positive is that there are truly good people still on the City Council. These people are heroes to the common man, especially Santiago Rosas, Mike Verveer, Larry Palm, Judy Compton, Tim Bruer and Isadore Knox.

They listened to the business owners who invested their life and savings to have a “Cheers” in their neighborhood, a place where “everybody knows your name.”

Knox changed his vote because he remembered how hard it was for his grandparents to live and work the American Dream. They had to work in coal mines to put food on the table, much worse conditions than a bar.

Two small business owners, Zach Brandon and Lauren Cnare, backed the ban and never batted an eye to these fellow members of “the small business club.”

All for what? For a small group of “only for our cause do-gooders” to protect us from ourselves.

Brenda Konkel is embarrassed to represent Madison because the lobby law was not to her liking. Well, Ms. Konkel, we are embarrassed to have you on the Madison City Council.

I am a nonsmoker. I do respect the right of the individual to enter an establishment, because they want to and not harm the rights of others. What happened to voluntarily backing the ban? Let the Harmony Bar and Hawk’s go no smoking or any other bar for that matter. This would have been the “independent Madison spirit” that built Madison.

I think this best sums up the situation. A neighbor of mine said: “These small taverns are like icons in much the same way as the small farmers.” They are the backbone of this great state.

Caspersen lives in Madison

It sounds like this group may be able to help the bars in Madison. Read the story below…individual names are given. It can’t hurt to check. More information on Citizens for Responsible Government at http://www.crgnetwork.com/. Here is their contact information:

CRG Network
PO Box 371086
Milwaukee, WI 53237
414-801-0800
crg@crgnetwork.com

Attendees say about two dozen people, many of them bar owners, showed up. The focus was Madison’s smoking ban.

Garnet Dawn
The Smoker’s Club, Inc.
Midwest Regional Director
The United Pro Choice Smokers Rights Newsletter – http://www.smokersclubinc.com
Illinois Smokers Rights – http://www.illinoissmokersrights.com/
mailto:garnetdawn@comcast.net – Respect Freedom of Choice!

——————————————————————————–

Banning The Mayor?
Friday, October 7, 2005
Melanie Conklin
Leaders of Citizens for Responsible Government like to tell people that three-and-a-half years ago it dropped a nuclear bomb on Milwaukee.
Now its sights are set on Madison.

The group was instrumental in recalling seven Milwaukee County Board members over the pension scandal that also led to Milwaukee County Executive Tom Ament’s resignation.

The conservative watchdog crusaders usually hammer on taxes being too high.

Last Friday, its leaders came to Madison for what’s been dubbed a “secret” afternoon meeting at Boulevard Lanes bowling alley to talk about gaining a foothold here. The goal: recalling Mayor Dave Cieslewicz.
Attendees say about two dozen people, many of them bar owners, showed up. The focus was Madison’s smoking ban.

“We’re an action group, we do things,” says field operations director Orville Seymer. “It’s better than a 50-50 chance that something will occur here,” Seymer says CRG is “trying to get ground in every county in the state.”

The group acts as a resource for press releases, marketing and teaches its slick petition circulation system. (A mayoral recall would need signatures equivalent to 25 percent of the residents who voted for the office of president in 2004, says Election Board attorney George Dunst.)

But attendees who we discovered were present at the meeting were quick to distance themselves from a potential recall campaign targeting the mayor. (City Council members, who have been discussed as potential targets, were all elected last April and therefore not eligible for recall until next April.)

David Wiganowsky, Wiggie’s bar owner, county supervisor and one of the smoking ban’s top detractors, says he was at the meeting representing The Dane County Tavern League and the Coalition to Save Madison Jobs. He stresses neither back the effort. “I was there as an observer more than anything,” he says. “It’s kind of like going in for an open heart surgery to see if your appendix is OK.” He guesses any recall effort would fail: “There’s a better chance that the Pope will become Lutheran.”

South Bay Lounge owner Joe Klinzing, spokesman for the Coalition, agrees. “I’m not going to suggest we switch our focus to a recall. ” He says the anti-ban Coalition is intent on finding a compromise on smoking. Adds restaurateur Larry Schmock, “We don’t want to be tied in with that whatsoever.”

The one attendee we found who isn’t backing down is Libertarian Party activist Rolf Lindgren, who has pushed for recalls of Cieslewicz and Gov. Jim Doyle. He calls it an “exploratory” meeting to “learn about the recall tool.” And, he adds, “regardless of what happens here, there’s going to be recalls initiated in the spring against City Council members if something hasn’t happened with the ban.”

How does Mayor Dave react to news that CRG came to town and is exploring his recall? “I love my job, but there have been times during some of those six-hour Council meetings when I would have signed my own recall petition, just so I could go home.”

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Smoking Ban Violators

September 30, 2005
Justin Ware

Madison health officials say they’ve had to write about 30 citations since the ban took affect in July.

That might sound like a lot, but city officials say it could be worse.

Those 30 complaints have all gone to only nine different establishments…

And the people in charge of handing out the citations say that’s a pretty small percentage of the businesses that are affected by the ban.

“Approximately 300 places were affected by this smoking ban … and we’ve had nine establishments who have had complaints against them.”

Voegeli says they’ve been following through on complaints from customers since the ban took affect.

If the owner doesn’t take action to stop smoking in his business, then the case is referred to the city attorney.

And so far, only one establishment has been referred to by the city attorney … that would be the Locker Room Sports Bar and Grill.

For smoking ban foes, a flame lingers
They regroup, plan compromises

By Samara Kalk Derby
September 22, 2005

Smoking ban opponents wasted no time regrouping after an all-night City Council meeting ended early Wednesday morning with a razor-thin vote to keep Madison’s smoking ban in place.

More than a dozen members of the tavern industry’s Coalition to Save Jobs met at the Coliseum Bar on Wednesday afternoon to strategize.

The group’s spokesman, Joe Klinzing, said that although the repeal of the 2-month-old indoor smoking ban failed on a 10-9 vote, the coalition was encouraged.

It was encouraged that as many as 50 bartenders and bar owners turned out and stayed until the wee morning hours to support their efforts.

It was also encouraged that with changes in council members last spring and some changing their minds, there were now four more votes against the ban since the original ordinance passed 15-5 in April 2004.

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Bar Owners Not Ready to be Snuffed Out

Sep 21, 2005
Leigh Mills

No butts about it: bar owners say they’re not done yet.

“You can see by the crowd,” shows Dave Wiganowsky, owner of Wiggie’s Bar, as he points to his bar full of empty tables, “Usually my lunch hour runs until 1:30.”

After nearly 3 months with a smoking ban, Wiganowsky and his wife can’t afford their bills, thanks to lagging lunch hours like they had Wednesday.

“We’re going to have to borrow about $15,000 or take it out of our retirement fund to catch up and make things go, and then we’re going to have to sit back and evaluate to what our status quo is,” explains Wiganowsky, “Is it going to change, are we going to look at civil disobedience, are we going to close?”

About a dozen bar owners met this afternoon to make a plan of action.

Joe Klinzing, who owns South Bay Lounge and Grill and spoke on behalf of the Coalition for Jobs, says they vow they’re not going away.

That amidst rumors that some bars, struggling to stay afloat, have begun turning a blind eye to smoking in their bars.

Mike Hanson of the Madison Police Department says, “People have asked, ‘How is the police department going to respond to that?’ Well, frankly, we wouldn’t encourage anyone to break the law or to have their patrons or anyone else break the law.”

But they won’t be responding, the health department will. They’ve had no calls since July 1st, when the smoking ban went into effect.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

“I’ve talked to bar owners and bar tenders,” says Wiganowsky of the rumors, “And I mean if you have a place that’s going to close down and he’s bankrupt and he’s going to loose everything he’s got, would you not try to get what you could on the way out? Try to help build something back?”

He says he’s still upholding the law, but pressure from his customers to disobey is growing, and he’s not done fighting for them.

“There’s going to be several next times.”

There are a number of strategies on the table: reintroducing a resolution, lobbying for the state’s looser smoking ban bill, recalling city alders and filing lawsuits, among others.

Nothing has been formally decided on.
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Smoking ban debate rages into morning

September 21, 2005
By Amanda Becker

Supporters and opponents of Madison’s comprehensive smoking ban argued passionately into the morning hours today as the Madison Common Council considered three separate motions to amend the contentious ordinance.

As of press time, the public hearing was still in progress. Members of the public, including residents, bar owners, bartenders, researchers and health advocates testified before the council. More than 100 signed up to offer their perspectives on a possible advisory referendum, the allowance of hardship exemptions or a complete repeal of the ban. Proponents and opponents alike presented arguments into the early- morning hours Wednesday.

“Smoking does not only ruin the smoker’s body, but the bodies of those in the perimeter,” said Joelle Parks, a UW-Madison student speaking for the Tobacco Free Coalition of Dane County.

“This city is losing the reputation as being a great place, a place where people want to do business,” bartender Scott Toomey said. “I am now making about 50 percent less in tips.”

The City Council debated three possible changes to the smoking ban. The first proposal would allow smoking in bars, bowling alleys and ventilated rooms in restaurants. Another proposal would grant a temporary exemption for businesses hurt by the ban, and a final proposal would let the public decide on the issue in a referendum.

Executive Director of Smoke Free Wisconsin Maureen Busalacchi said the Common Council made the right decision when it adopted the smoking ban this summer.

Many bartenders voiced the negative impacts the smoking ban has had on their income.

Dave Heath, who has been a bartender for over 17 years, said his wages have dropped over 50 percent and said he struggles with decreasing the hours of his employees.

Organizations such as SmokeFree Madison, American Heart Association and the Tobacco Free Coalition of Dane County described the risks of second-hand smoke.

The language of an advisory referendum would read, “Shall the City of Madison repeal its comprehensive smoking ban and allow smoking in taverns within the City?” It would be held at the General Spring Election on April 4, 2006. Total costs associated with this referendum are estimated at $16,200.

The ordinance presents the possibility of a hardship exemption, which would temporarily allow smoking in certain establishments. Bars can adopt this exemption if they can show a 10 percent decline in sales from July through October compared to the average income of those same months over the last three years.

To receive a hardship exemption, a tavern must prove that the loss of revenue is due to the smoking ban and not some other unrelated circumstance.

-Chris Fleissner contributed to this report.
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Madison keeps smoking ban

By Lee Sensenbrenner
September 21, 2005

The Madison City Council decided early today to keep the ban on smoking in taverns intact and not go to a referendum on the issue.

The attempt to repeal the ban failed by a narrow margin – 9 for repeal to 10 against it. The Council rejected the plan to take the issue to the voters in a spring referendum, with only 5 votes for a referendum and 14 against.

A proposal to allow bars temporary hardship exemptions if they can prove that the ban has significantly hurt their business also was not approved, or acted upon, during the overnight meeting.

Speaker after speaker took the podium, four minutes at a time, alternately telling those dozing around them in the Council chambers that it was about paying bills, or it was about health, or it was about being an American and making your own choices.

For Madison decision makers, the issue appears finally to be over. For those fighting the ban, the next step they pledged was to push for less restrictive statewide smoking rules, although Gov. Jim Doyle has said he is resistant to the idea.
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Mayor Wants Truce; Ads for Smoke-Free Bars

September 17, 2005
By Bill Novak

Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz is willing to put up $10,000 in room tax revenue to help promote Madison bars, but only if the anti-smoking and pro-smoking forces also kick in some cash.

The mayor issued a challenge Friday to both sides in the smoldering fight, urging the combatants to put down their rattling sabers and come together to see what can be done about the financial loss some Madison bars have reported since the smoking ban took effect on July 1.

“I’m concerned about the relatively small number of tavern owners, especially on Madison’s periphery, who say our smoke-free ordinance is hurting their business,” Cieslewicz said in letters sent to smoking ban supporters SmokeFree Wisconsin and the Tobacco-Free Dane County Coalition, and to smoking ban protesters including the Coalition to Save Madison Jobs and the Dane County Tavern League.

SmokeFree Wisconsin accepted Cieslewicz’s challenge and urged the others to do likewise.

“We accept the mayor’s challenge and commit up to $10,000 to this effort,” said Maureen Busalacchi of SmokeFree Wisconsin. “A positive promotional campaign to benefit Madison’s hospitality industry is far more beneficial to the industry and the community than a prolonged and heated debate.”

Cieslewicz is committing the $10,000 from room tax revenues, which are earmarked to be spent on helping promote Madison business. Property tax revenues won’t be used for the challenge.

“I am willing to commit city resources to help taverns gain new customers to replace those who may have left because of the (smoking) ban,” the mayor said. “But this needs to be a partnership with tavern owners and smoke-free advocates.”

Tavern owners are hoping to be allowed to show they’ve suffered a hardship because of the smoking ban so that patrons can light up once again while enjoying a beer.

Some bar owners and others against the ban want a referendum but the mayor prefers the challenge route.

“This is a far better option than a referendum,” Cieslewicz said.

The council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to hold an advisory referendum in April.

Cieslewicz said it’s far more beneficial to have opposing groups come together and try to promote the city’s bars, instead of seeing if the smoking ban can be done away with. Repealing the ban, which was attempted once but failed this summer, again has little chance of being rescinded by the City Council.

“Tavern owners and smoke-free advocates have two choices,” the mayor said. “They can both spend substantial amounts of money battling each other for the next seven months for the public’s support of their respective positions, or they can pool their resources and join together to help taverns thrive under the ban so they both win.”

There was no word Friday from the Dane County Tavern League if it would accepting Cieslewicz’s challenge.

Council Sends Smoking Ban Repeal To Committee
Mayor Supports Temporary Hardship Exemption

September 7, 2005

MADISON, Wis. — The debate over the Madison smoking ban continues as the Common Council sends three possible changes to the ordinance on to committee.

Possible changes include:

Repealing the ban
Holding a referendum
Creating an exemption for some bars

The council plans to vote on the three possibilities in two weeks.

Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said he is supporting a business exemption. He said he realizes some businesses, such as Wiggies bar, are having a hard time staying afloat since the ban.

However, Cieslewicz said he will only support a temporary hardship exemption, and only until a referendum, if one is created.

“Ultimately, we need to get back to a level playing field where the same rules apply to everybody,” Cieslewicz said.

Bar owner Dave Wiganowski said a few months is not enough to help his business survive.

“It’s not going to really help,” Wiganowski said. “It’s going to fix it for awhile. Then, I have to go back and say, ‘Oh, they changed their minds again. You have put the cigarettes away.'”

To qualify for the exemption, bar owners would have to show they have lost at least 10 percent of business directly because of the smoking ban.

WISC-TV Editorial: Hold Smokiong Ban Referendum — Soon!

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Critics%20of%20smoking%20ban%20air%20ad

GEORGE%20HESSELBERG%20 ghesselberg@madison.com

September 2, 2005

A group opposing the Madison smoking ban is going nonfilter, sending a plaintive message of job loss via the radio and an urge to action through telephone messages.

The group, the Coalition to Save Madison Jobs, has targeted six aldermanic districts with a recorded telephone message, urging residents to contact their City Council representatives. They are considered by the coalition to be worthy of criticism because of their support of a referendum.

At least one, Lauren Cnare, considers the campaign “a bunch of baloney” that has already backfired.

Scott Toomey, coalition spokesman, said the radio spot started airing a week ago on about a half-dozen stations. It features Kristi Gilmore, a bartender at Wiggy’s, reciting a tale of dire personal and financial effects of the loss of business caused by the smoking ban.

Toomey said the ad and a “concerted grass-roots effort will continue until the smoking ban is repealed. There is no timetable.”

He said the ad is being paid for from the “$25,000 to $30,000” the group has collected from donations and sales of “Ban the Ban” T-shirts at $5 each.

Toomey added: “And we don’t have one drop of tobacco money.”

The goal, said bar owner and spokesman Joe Klinzing, is to keep the issue before the people.

“People need to know what is going on in our industry. We will do the ads as long as we can because if you don’t keep the message out there, people will forget about it.”

Toomey said the coalition is also behind automated telephone calls to the districts of council members Cnare, District 3; Zach Brandon, District 7; Brian Benford, District 12; Larry Palm, District 15; Paul Van Rooy, District 18; and Noel Radomski, District 19.

Toomey described the telephone message as “urging a compromise agreement, and one that points out the effect this has had on the city of Madison, the income individuals have lost.”

Toomey said, at first, that “approximately eight” council members were targeted, but named the aforementioned six, the majority of whom have “not come out in support of a total smoking ban, who have at one point or another made reference to that they realize that this ban is affecting business owners and employees.”

He said the money for the campaigns has come “from restaurant owners, bar owners, bartenders, waitresses, waiters, all here locally, the majority in contributions of $100 or less.”

Cnare, whose constituents in District 3 on the far East Side, got the telephone calls, said the tactic of automated phone calls urging the recipients to call their alderman was “a bunch of baloney, kind of interesting and not effective.”

She said of the “slew of calls” she received Wednesday, for example, “I called them all back, and half the people I converted to being in favor of the ban.”

Cnare said she supports a referendum on the issue, something the callers are not told in the message, she said.

“Personally, I am in favor of the ban, but I have told people many times I represent the district, not me. As the district goes, I will go,” she said.

Klinzing said in targeting those districts such as Cnare’s, the goal is to “tell them under this referendum, our industry is not involved in this process,” and that if the city waits until April to settle it with a referendum, it will be too late for the bars to recover.

Lisa Davidson, speaking for the American Cancer Society and the Tobacco-Free Dane County Coalition, responded to the ads and telephone campaigns by repeating that “the reason the policy is in place is to protect Madison residents and visitors from second-hand smoke, the most preventable cause of death and disease in our country.”

She said claims made by the opposition coalition of economic ruin have not been borne out with facts.

“The numbers, at this time, are purely anecdotal. We don’t have really (reliable) sales tax receipts or data. When you talk to different people, the numbers vary, one person says business is down 10 percent, another 20, another 33.”

Davidson said the bartender in the advertisement complaining about family discomfort and loss of income from the smoking ban might remember that “no one should have to choose between job and health.”

She said the anti-ban group’s campaigns are “clearly a call for action,” and because of that, the group should be required to register with the city as a lobby.

“All of their money is going to efforts to change policy,” she said. “Wouldn’t they rather see that money being spent in their businesses, instead of being used to get the ban repealed?”

Davidson said the groups she represents are registered as lobbyists with the city.

Downtown bars report suffering from smoking ban despite student clientele

8/31/05
By Luke Behnke/The Daily Cardinal

Months after the Madison City Council launched the controversial tobacco ban this summer, some bar owners say their business has been plummeting. The ban outlaws all forms of tobacco in public establishments, including chewing tobacco.

“My business has been down at least 30 percent,” said Dave Wiganowsky, owner of Wiggie’s, 1901 Aberg Ave. “By implementing this ban, the city has kicked the spokes out of my wheel that I had spinning very nicely for 25 years.”

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said that although the city council approved the tobacco ban in April 2004, a lot of taverns did not realize their businesses would take such a dramatic hit financially.

“Now these businesses are scrambling to do what they can to make a living,” Verveer said. “We’ve had a lot of requests for outdoor areas where smoking is legal, and we’ve approved all of them so far.”

Dustin Bruecher, bartender at the Plaza Tavern and Grill Inc., 319 N. Henry St., said his bar and others cannot provide outdoor smoking areas.

“A lot of people are pissed off because drinking and smoking go hand in hand,” he added.

Verveer added the City Council is trying to provide some relief to the taverns that have taken significant financial hits.

Ald. Zach Brandon, District 7, already wrote and submitted a hardship clause to city officials which requires bar owners to show a 10 percent drop in revenues over the past three months compared to the past three years to earn a hardship exemption. Brandon is one of six alders to sponsor the language.

According to Verveer, taverns applying for the hardship clause would need a certified public accountant to swear that the 10 percent decline in gross revenue is the direct result of complying with this ordinance and not a result of other factors.

However, exemptions to the tobacco ban would be awarded only if a referendum takes place.

If approved by the city council, a referendum on April 4 would ask voters: “Shall the city of Madison repeal its comprehensive smoking ban and allow smoking in taverns within the city?”

Although Mayor Dave Cieslewicz supports a hardship exemption, his spokesperson, George Twigg, said the smoking ban is a good public health policy and should remain in place.

“It’s been a fairly even split between people who support and oppose the ban,” he said.

Twigg added that it is too early to look at changing the law because there has not been enough time to see the real economic impact of the ordinance. However, he said, bars are complying with the ordinance.

“There have been minimal problems,” Twigg said.

However, Wiganowsky said he hopes for a change in the law in the very near future.

“The city has taken our competitive edge away,” he said. “I don’t have the opportunity to try and compete.”

-Chris Fleissner contributed to this report.

Smoking Ban Critics Rally Downtown for Repeal

August 16, 2005
Dana Brueck

Police estimate 6,700 people gathered outside of the City County Building to rally for a repeal of Madison’s smoking ban, saying it is hurting businesses and their employees.

Many people carried signs, or they carried maps of Madison’s Aldermanic Wards, to encourage people to call their alders and call for a repeal.

The Coalition to Save Madison Jobs organized the rally, which brought tavern owners, employees and other supporters. Marsh Shapiro, owner of the Nitty Gritty, criticized a proposal by six alders that calls for the smoking ban to go to referendum in the spring. He says “don’t play politics with people’s livelihoods.” Shapiro says “suspend and amend this ordinance now before businesses are closed …”

Critics of the ban say they would support a statewide ban on smoking in dining areas, if their effort for a repeal fails.

Following the pixels, no smoking gun
Kristian Knutsen. 08/24/2005 It’s a fairly simple question. Who owns the domain name for the “Ban the Ban” group opposed to the Madison ordinance prohibiting smoking in taverns? The answer is unclear. And repeals are being debated.

He’s put signs out front that read, ‘The Ban is Bad for Business,’ and is selling shirts inside saying ‘Ban the Ban’ to show his disapproval. Klinzing is not the only one speaking out, referendums are being proposed.
”

Read:

Give Me Cigarettes or Give Me Breath!
08/16/2005
By Kristian Knutsen. A sizeable crowd rallied this evening in downtown Madison from 5 to 6 pm to “Ban the Ban.” The event was organized to demonstrate public opposition to the city ordinance banning smoking in taverns in Madison, which was passed this spring and went into effect on July 1. The line-up of speakers, excepting the first and final entrants (Marsh Shapiro and Dorothy Borchardt, respectively), was heavily weighted towards showcasing Madison tavern workers who spoke about reductions in patrons, hours, and pay over the last seven weeks. In fact, the primary focus of the protest, organized by the Coalition to Save Madison Jobs, was the economic hit reportedly taken by a number of taverns since July 1.
Read: http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/node/71

Ban Battle Continues
August 16, 2005
By Natalie Swaby
The lunch rush is slower says restaurant owner Joe Klinzing, and he says smoking ban is to blame.
“We’ve already had lay offs, hours have been cut, we are bringing people in later,” tells Klinzing.
He’s put signs out front that read, ‘The Ban is Bad for Business,’ and is selling shirts inside saying ‘Ban the Ban’ to show his disapproval. Klinzing is not the only one speaking out, referendums are being proposed.
“A referendum will give every single alder the assurance that we are doing the right thing,” says Lauren Cnare, the Alder for District 3.
And repeals are being debated.
Read: http://nbc15.madison.com/news/headlines/1683616.html

Ban Battle Continues August 16, 2005By Natalie SwabyThe lunch rush is slower says restaurant owner Joe Klinzing, and he says smoking ban is to blame.”We’ve already had lay offs, hours have been cut, we are bringing people in later,” tells Klinzing. He’s put signs out front that read, ‘The Ban is Bad for Business,’ and is selling shirts inside saying ‘Ban the Ban’ to show his disapproval. Klinzing is not the only one speaking out, referendums are being proposed.”A referendum will give every single alder the assurance that we are doing the right thing,” says Lauren Cnare, the Alder for District 3. And repeals are being debated.Read:

Madison Smoking Ban May Get ‘Temporary Reprieve’
August 10, 2005
Smoking could be back in Madison bars — even without a repeal of the smoking ban.
With talk of an upcoming referendum on the smoking ban sometime next spring, there’s a growing push for a temporary break from the new ordinance until that time. Madison bars went smoke free on July 1. Since then, some bar owners say they are going broke from slow business.

Smoking-ban advisory referendum proposed
8/08/05
Gena Kittner
Two Madison aldermen who support the city’s smoking ban in bars and restaurants are proposing a referendum on the issue in response to complaints from bar owners and employees.

Smoke ban foes seek action
Two alders push for referendum
By Bill Novak
August 6, 2005
Madison voters might get to voice their opinions on the smoking ban through a referendum next spring.

Lampert Smith: Bar owners say no-smoking ban is choking them

Susan Lampert Smith Wisconsin State Journal
August 3, 2005

I’ll start with a warning.

The surgeon general says smoking causes cancer.

And another warning: Ira Sharenow and the rest of the anti-smoking crowd don’t want you to read one more negative word about Madison’s no- smoking ordinance.

“Your paper,” Sharenow writes, “has turned into a tool for smoking interests.”

Our crime is talking to Madison tavern owners about how their business has plunged since the smoking ban started July 1. We’ve been taken to task by UW-Madison cancer folks, and by the mayor’s spokesman George Twigg, who called our coverage “one-sided.”

“The mayor does fundamentally think this is a public health issue,” Twigg said.

It is about health, but for bartender Lucy Cuccia it’s also about paying the bills.

Like a lot of service people, Cuccia makes money mostly on tips.

No customers, no tips.

No tips, no rent money.

“I’m down at least a third,” said Cuccia, who works at Tail Gators, near the corner of East Washington and Stoughton Road, and at the Locker Room, located in the parking lot of Oscar Mayer’s. Cuccia’s boss at the two bars, Dale Beck, has already laid off six night bartenders and the day cook, after seeing his business plunge 60 percent.

Cuccia, who used to tend bar at the Ohio Tavern, has been making the rounds, getting signatures from bartenders and waitresses who are losing money and jobs.

“I’m not stopping until the city tells me what I’m supposed to do without my wages,” said Cuccia, who hopes to meet with Mayor Dave Cieslewicz.

Having once worked for tips myself – a bond so strong I still vacation with my ex- waitress pals 25 years after I hefted my last tray – I have sympathy.

I also have asthma, so I hate smoking nearly as much as Sharenow does. But I love taverns and – after visiting a half a dozen empty ones this week – I’m worried that the city is putting some of its corner taps out of business.

Taverns are as much a Wisconsin icon as the small dairy farm. And like the farms, they support a lot more people than just their owners.

Joe Klinzing, who owns South Towne Lounge, showed me figures indicating his sales are down 33 percent compared to July 2004. That’s bad for Klinzing, and bad for his bartender, Stephanie Hall.

“They wanted to look out for my health,” she said. “I wonder if they’ll pay my rent?”

It’s also bad for the beer saleswoman who stopped by while I talked to Klinzing. He told her he couldn’t reorder. She didn’t want to give me her full name but said she’s been to some Madison bars that haven’t ordered liquor or beer since mid-June.

No beer, no commission for her.

And so the list goes: the cleaning supply companies, the people who cut the lawns, the charities who hit up bar owners. Owners of blue-collar bars haven’t seen the promised rush of nonsmokers to the pure air. As the sign outside the Sports Pub on Stoughton Road reads, “Mayor Dave: Where are you?”

It could be that the mayor is right, that it’s too early to tell until the economic impact numbers come in from a study being done by UW-Madison researchers. And maybe the public interest in clean air supersedes the survival of a few small businesses. But when the government decided to get rid of commercial fishing on the Great Lakes, or to reduce the number of dairy farms, it bought out the current owners.

Someone smarter than me will have to figure out if we’ve reached that point.

My job is to tell the story.

Ignoring it would be downright Soviet.

Of course, some barkeepers think we’ve already become Moscow on Mendota.

At Busse’s Markway Tavern on North Sherman Avenue, owner Mark Deadman is flying the old Soviet hammer and sickle flag.

“There’s a lot of symbolism,” said Deadman. He said Madison’s smoking ban reminds him of Soviet rule, adding “they had a central committee that decided everything.”

Say you want a revolution?

Then keep ignoring what the bar owners are saying.