Three Senate Democrats want the state labor commissioner to bar lawmakers from smoking in a legislative lounge behind the Senate chamber.
Labor Commissioner Leann Bertsch said she lacks authority to ban smoking in the room, which the Legislature controls during sessions.
Democratic Sens. Joel Heitkamp of Hankinson, Tim Mathern of Fargo and Aaron Krauter of Regent took their request to Bertsch when the 2005 Legislature convened Tuesday.
They contend it is hypocritical to force state workers who smoke to go outside while providing an indoor lounge for legislator smokers.
Lawmakers have used the lounge for smoking since 1990, when former Gov. George Sinner banned smoking in the Capitol a few months before the 1991 session. Normally, state workers in the Capitol go outdoors to smoke.
The Legislature will consider a measure this year to impose new statewide restrictions on indoor smoking. Bertsch says she wants to wait for lawmakers to decide the bill’s fate.
The lounge is a former office, once used by the lieutenant governor. It has study carrels with telephones, and a motley collection of sofas and chairs.
A restaurant-style exhaust fan vents the air to the outside, but the room has a tobacco stench.
The smoking room has stayed in business even though legislators have not been able to agree how to regulate it.
Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem concluded in a legal opinion last year that a 1919 law gave the labor commissioner power to restrict workplace smoking. The law prohibits employers from maintaining working conditions that are “detrimental to (employees’) health or morals.”
Bertsch’s predecessor, Mark Bachmeier, decided against trying to adopt workplace smoking rules until the Legislature took up the issue. He resigned last summer, and Gov. John Hoeven appointed Bertsch to the job.
Sen. Bob Stenehjem, R-Bismarck, the Senate’s majority leader, said the lounge does not affect the Senate chambers or normal work spaces. Although it is used by legislators, other smokers also come by, and “no one has ever been kicked out of that room,” Stenehjem said.
Hoeven says it is up to lawmakers to decide whether to use the room for a smoking lounge. His lieutenant governor, Jack Dalrymple, was a vocal critic of the lounge when he served as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
“Down here, for some reason, we have established a policy that we’re different, that we think we’re special,” Dalrymple said in a House floor speech in February 1995. “I just think that is really indefensible.”
The lounge’s door has a combination lock, but it is often propped open, and lobbyists, visitors and legislative employees use the room along with lawmakers. The Senate has a handful of smokers, including Stenehjem, who favors cigars.
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