People Ban: GA DeKalb

By Jonathan On Jul 5, 2017

DeKalb Update

DeKalb kills proposed smoking ban
September 13, 2011
By April Hunt, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
DeKalb County Commissioners on Tuesday snuffed an effort to ban smoking in all public places, including parks, bars and strip clubs.
Four of the commissioners present agreed with owners of DeKalb’s eight adult clubs and 20 other nightclubs, that the ban would hurt business.
Commissioners Jeff Rader and Kathie Gannon dissented, and Commissioner Lee May was absent.
“I don’t want us going down a slippery slope where we end up telling people what they can do in their own home,” said Larry Johnson, the commission’s presiding officer. “You start in the business realm and we could have some unintended consequences.”
The vote drew out more than 100 supporters and opponents, who have battled over the proposal since the county Board of Health first unveiled it four months ago.
Opponents cited expected business losses – customers of some clubs could travel just a few miles into Fulton or Gwinnett counties to smoke at bars there – as well as the right for clients and customers to make their own choices about smoking.
But supporters argued that second-hand smoke costs every DeKalb household $548 in direct healthcare charges each year.
“We keep hearing about choice, and I wish we did have a choice,” said Gordon Draves, a member of Live Healthy DeKalb. “I would like the choice of not having to pay the medical bills for smokers.”
Compromise appeared a possibility, when some club owners asked not for an outright rejection of the ban but for the chance to install air purifiers and filters in smoking establishments.
Rader also tried a substitute bill, which would have given club owners two years before the ban took effect, to adapt to a new business model and also encourage neighboring counties to adopt similar bans.
That effort failed 4-2, with only Gannon voting with Rader in support.
“I (was) hoping we could move ahead to establish DeKalb as a leader in this area,” Rader said. “DeKalb’s future depends on health, biotech and science industries that take this kind of ordinance very seriously.”
The commission did not discuss some of the less controversial parts of the proposal, such as banning smoking in parks. The board of health did not separate those elements from its overall recommendation, though some expected commissioners to break those items out in order to approve at least part of the proposal.
Johnson said that the commission may elect on its own to revive those pieces, possibly by year’s end.
DeKalb adopted its current smoking ordinance, which bans it in all enclosed workplaces but exempts bars and restaurants where people under 18 cannot work or enter, in 2003 . Georgia adopted a statewide version of that law, the Smokefree Air Act, two years later.

Vote on Expanded Smoking Ban Delayed in Georgia’s DeKalb County
Decatur, Georgia August 31, 2011 – DeKalb County Commissioners have delayed voting on a proposed expansion of their smoking ban, despite pressure from county’s Board of Health. The delay was supported by the Columbus, Georgia-based International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association.
“The commissioners are listening to both sides, and we are grateful. We believe, in the end, that this is all about jobs.? In this economy, reason must prevail and the ban must not be expanded,” said Chris McCalla, legislative director of the IPCPR. “Many small business owners and the state would be seriously hurt by the loss of jobs and tax revenues.” McCalla said.
Owners of several small businesses have protested that a move to expand the ban will drive their customers to do business in other counties.
“There is no doubt that legislated smoking bans are bad for business, in any state. For example, in Ohio, the coin machine industry – including jukeboxes, pool tables and the like – recorded record losses. Wholesale liquor sales were down by three million bottles, sales tax revenues were lost immediately across the beer, wine, liquor and related industries.? An amazing 5,400 jobs were lost in the first 12 months of the ban’s implementation in Ohio’s hospitality industry alone,” McCalla said.
McCalla said these are documented facts, whereas prohibitionists more often site exaggerated claims that have no basis in fact.
“When they say secondhand smoke contributes to healthcare costs in the county, they should be made to back that throw-away statement up with facts.? People – including the media – should challenge those claims.? Just because they say it doesn’t make it true. Statistics can be manipulated but the truth is the truth. For example, the truth is that OSHA – the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration – has set safe levels of secondhand smoke and those levels are up to 25,000 times higher than those normally found in the average bar or restaurant that allows smoking,” he said.
“It should be up to the business owner to determine his enterprise’s smoking policy.? It’s just not right for politics and government to interfere with private ownership and the inherent rights of business owners,” McCalla added.? “Georgians want choice, not Big Brother,” said McCalla.
For more information about IPCPR, go to www.ipcpr.org.
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Contact:?????????
Tony Tortorici
tony@tortoricipr.com
678-493-0313

Outdoor Smoking Ban to Blow Away Business Says Two Premium Cigar Associations
Decatur, Georgia May 2, 2011 – If DeKalb County Commissioners vote to expand its no-smoking ordinance, it will be doing its best to drive away local business, says two Georgia-based premium cigar associations.
According to the Atlanta-based Georgia Premium Retail Tobacconists Association and the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association, expanding the current smoking ban to include bars, clubs, restaurant patios and other outdoor areas would cause customers to seek other, more smoker-friendly businesses in other communities.
“No time is a good time for legislated smoking bans, but this is a particularly bad time to remove no-smoking exemptions which would jeopardize businesses throughout the county,” said Jim Luftman, president of the GPRTA. Luftman owns Blue Havana II Cigars in Alpharetta which approved an ordinance earlier this year that bans tobacco use at its six city parks and along more than six miles of greenway trails.
“If an owner of a business or property designates it as smoke-free, then that’s his or her business to do so or not, and that includes all city or county-owned property,” Luftman said. “But it’s just not right for politics and government to interfere with private ownership and the inherent rights of business owners.”
Anti-tobacco advocates say the move to smoke-free should be made to protect the health of employees.
“Customers can choose the businesses they patronize just as workers can choose where they work,” said Chris McCalla, legislative director for the IPCPR, based in Columbus, Georgia. “They don’t need government passing convoluted laws telling them where to shop or work.”
McCalla cited standards by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that set safe levels of secondhand smoke in the workplace.
“OSHA’s safe levels for secondhand smoke are up to 25,000 times higher than the air quality found in most bars and restaurants where smoking is allowed,” said McCalla, “so their arguments are fabricated to create fear and misunderstanding. Challenge what the prohibitionists say. Just because they say it doesn’t make it true. Statistics can be manipulated but the truth is the truth.”
McCalla and Luftman urged DeKalb County residents to contact their County Commissioners and tell them to vote down the proposed smoking ban extension.
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Contact:??????????????????
Tony Tortorici
tony@tortoricipr.com
678-493-0313

DeKalb’s tough smoking ban is vetoed
‘Sometimes our government goes too far,’ CEO Jones says

10/30/06
By PAUL DONSKY, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Saying he was hoping to “snuff out” an overly restrictive smoking ordinance, DeKalb County Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones this morning vetoed a measure that would have banned smoking in bars and on county property, including parks.

“Sometimes our government goes too far,” he said, “and I think this is one of those cases.”

Commissioner Burrell Ellis sponsored the legislation, which was applauded by the American Cancer Society. He said last week that the state prohibition that exempts bars is inadequate because it doesn’t protect bar workers. Ellis was not at Jones’ news conference to announce his decision.

The law would affect only bars in unincorporated parts of the county, not the municipalities in DeKalb, such as Lithonia or Decatur. Such a stark difference in what’s permitted on opposite sides of a city border presents unfair competition, Jones said, because one bar could welcome smokers and the other couldn’t.

“It will put small businesses out of business,” he said.

The ordinance was passed by the Board of Commissiners, 6-1. It would take the votes of five commissioners to override the veto at its meeting next week.

But Jones said he has talked to at least three commissioners who have since expressed reservations about the law, and he’s confident the veto will not be overridden.

He said the smoking rules now in effect are “perfectly fine.”

DeKalb CEO Vetoes Tough Smoking Ban

October 30, 2006

DECATUR, Ga. — DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones said “No” Monday to a tough no-smoking ban.

Jones vetoed the ban approved by the DeKalb County Commission last week.

That ban would have outlawed smoking in all bars, public parks and public parking lots.

Jones says the ban would be difficult to enforce.

“We don’t think it’s good to have officers engaged in trying to stop smokers when there are other more serious activities they should be following thru on,” said Jones.

The CEO said he vetoed the bill because there was no public input and because it would be detrimental to some businesses.

Jones: Smoking Ban Too Strict

October 25, 2006
By Julie Wolfe

It’s too strict. That’s what the man with the veto power in DeKalb County says about a new smoking ban passed by county commissioners on Wednesday.

The Taylors and Larsons have both been coming to Evans Restaurant in DeKalb County for decades. Both recommended the grits there. But when it comes to the county’s latest efforts to make strict smoking bans even more strict, they part ways.

“It is good to have smoke-free areas, even public areas,” said Sharon Taylor.

Roger Larson disagreed.

“We don’t need any more, and if people want to smoke, I think it’s up to them,” Larson said.

Evans Restaurant falls into unincorporated DeKalb, with current smoking bans stricter than the state requires.

Now, the county commission has recommended an even stricter law, banning smoking in all bars, and all county-owned property like parks and parking decks.

DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones says the proposal goes too far.

“Most commissioners didn’t realize that this legislation had so many far-reaching implications. I cannot have police officers arresting people in parking lots for smoking a cigarette,” Jones said.

Back at Evans, John — who’s been waiting there 10 years — remembers busy lunches when the diner was thick with smoke. It went non-smoking years before the ban.

“You can keep it where it is. You can keep the fines and the penalties, but I don’t think you have to extend the ban on smoking,” John said.

It is an argument that might not have to be made. Jones says he is leaning toward a veto.

“I don’t believe at this point that I’m going to be signing that bill until I finish my research,” Jones said. “And probably I will seriously consider vetoing it.”

Jones says the proposed ban has serious privacy issues. It calls for no smoking on any land owned by the county. That could include public right-of-ways like sidewalks — even if they’re right in front of residents’ own homes.

Jones says he expects to make a decision on the veto within the next 24 to 48 hours.

DeKalb approves smoking ban in all bars, parks
CEO Jones must approve commission’s legislation

10/24/06
By TY TAGAMI, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

DeKalb County officials threw more water at smokers Tuesday, adopting legislation that would ban smoking in bars, public parks and other public places if Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones approves it.

Jones said he will talk to county businesses and other constituents to determine whether he’s comfortable with the effects of the proposed ban, before considering a veto.

State law already prohibits smoking in many public places, but includes exceptions, such as one allowing people to light up in bars where children are not permitted.

The new legislation in DeKalb would ban smoking in “establishments” including bars, regardless of whether children are admitted.

It also would ban smoking in county-owned parks and even county parking lots, said the author of the legislation, County Commissioner Burrell Ellis.

The vote was 6-1 in favor, with Commissioner Elaine Boyer voting against the legislation.

Jones said he was concerned the ban might put some businesses at a competitive disadvantage with competitors in neighboring jurisdictions that have less restrictive smoking laws.

DeKalb’s new legislation amends an existing but less-restrictive county law on smoking. It applies only to unincorporated areas. It will take effect 60 days after Jones approves it, if that is what he chooses to do. He said he has until Friday to issue a veto.