People Ban: WI Milwaukee County

County’s get-tough smoking ban on hold
Measure sent back to committee after several issues raised

Nov. 2, 2007
By STEVE SCHULTZE, sschultze@journalsentinel.com
A tougher smoking ban for Milwaukee County buildings, including Mitchell International Airport, hit unexpected resistance Thursday.

The County Board voted 10-8 to sidetrack the measure for further study, after potential problems were raised.

“I can hardly believe that I’m advocating for the smokers,” said Supervisor Mark Borkowski, a non-smoker and former marathon runner. “But this is a very extreme measure, especially for the airport.”

The ban on smoking within 30 feet of any county building and eliminating special smoking rooms at the airport and courthouse was proposed in August by County Executive Scott Walker. New signs on county buildings already announce the no-smoking zone outside the courthouse, based on a non-enforceable order from Walker.

Supervisors also questioned whether air travelers would avoid Mitchell because of a ban and said it posed a hardship for jurors who smoke. Supervisor Peggy West wondered whether there ought to be a specific exemption for use of tobacco for religious purposes, noting a Menominee tribal ceremony held at the Mitchell Park Domes might otherwise be banned.

Corporation Counsel William Domina advised against a special religious exemption for a smoking ban, saying existing county ordinances already include a general religious exception.

West said she will try to persuade the board to retain the airport lounge and courthouse cafeteria smoking sections.

“It’s not going to make people quit smoking because we say you can’t smoke in the courthouse,” she said. “There’s a compromise that needs to be made.”

Dona Wininsky, a spokeswoman for the American Lung Association of Wisconsin, expressed surprise at the board’s move. Arguments against the ban “were not based on any kind of evidence,” she said.

Walker said he still expected the measure to pass. He attributed the delay to supervisors who “hadn’t really thought it through,” Walker said.

The county adopted a general smoking ban in 1994, with special exclusions for separate rooms that meet certain ventilation requirements. Violations can be punished by fines of up to $500 and would apply if the new restrictions are approved.

Supervisors Borkowski, West, Gerry Broderick, Elizabeth Coggs-Jones, Lynne De Bruin, Lee Holloway, Willie Johnson Jr., Michael Mayo Sr., Jim “Luigi” Schmitt and John Weishan Jr. voted to send the tougher ban back to the board’s transportation committee. Supervisors Paul Cesarz, Dan Devine, Marina Dimitrijevic, Patricia Jursik, Richard Nyklewicz Jr., Roger Quindel, Joe Rice and James White voted against the committee referral.

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Walker toughens county smoking ban

By STEVE SCHULTZE, sschultze@journalsentinel.com
Aug. 21, 2007

A more restrictive smoking ban imposed Tuesday by Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker outlaws puffing or even carrying a lighted cigarette within 30 feet of all county buildings, including Mitchell International Airport.
The move was aimed at dispersing smokers huddled around building entryways so non-smokers aren’t forced to breathe secondhand smoke when they pass, Walker said.

Walker imposed the new restriction through a temporary executive order, though it carries no penalty for violations. He is asking the County Board to make that move permanent and to eliminate designated areas that now allow smoking, such as the courthouse cafeteria and some lounges at the airport.

If the changes are approved, violations would carry penalties of $25 to $500.

Walker said he was pushing for the restrictions after requests by county workers, but also noted that he wanted Milwaukee County to be a leader on smoking restrictions to promote public health.

“We are going to be setting the standard and serving as a role model,” Walker said at an outdoor news conference attended by smoking-cessation advocates. Walker said his “aggressive” public-sector proposal would match the smoking curbs Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. imposed on its buildings.

Walker displayed a new “No smoking zone” sign that he said would be posted at the entrances of all county buildings, including the airport.

If the new ban is approved by the County Board, Mitchell would join a substantial list of airports that don’t have designated smoking areas. A survey by the Web site TravelPost.com shows that 63 of 81 airports surveyed don’t permit any smoking. A different review by Smokingsection.com, a smokers’ advocacy site, lists 27 airports that ban smoking and 42 that permit it in some areas.

The lists show that airports without any designated smoking areas include Chicago’s O’Hare and Minneapolis-St. Paul International. Those with smoking areas include major airports in Atlanta, Charlotte and Los Angeles.

A 100% smoke-free policy was approved for Milwaukee city buildings in 2002, though the city does not have an outdoor smoke-free zone, said City Clerk Ron Leonhardt.

Such complete municipal smoking bans have become the norm in Wisconsin, said David Ahrens, spokesman for the Tobacco Surveillance & Evaluation Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“It’s quite common,” Ahrens said. “I’m surprised Milwaukee County doesn’t have it.”

A study done by the tobacco program late last year said 80% of Wisconsin counties and 73% of cities had total smoking bans for their buildings. The report did not specify practices of individual municipalities.

The study did not tally municipalities with outdoor no-smoking zones, but Ahrens said those also have become common.

National trend
Dona Wininsky, public policy director for the American Lung Association of Wisconsin, stood with Walker at his announcement and afterward praised his plan. She said such bans were “very common. . . . It’s following a very marked national and state trend.”

The focus of anti-smoking groups now is enactment of total bans on smoking in public places, said Maureen Busalacchi, executive director of SmokeFree Wisconsin. Twenty-three states have such bans, and Gov. Jim Doyle has proposed one for Wisconsin. A proposal for a citywide ban for Milwaukee failed to win approval in 2005.

Five Wisconsin municipalities have enacted public smoking bans: Shorewood, Appleton, Madison, Fitchburg and Shorewood Hills.

Milwaukee County adopted a partial smoking ban for county buildings in 1994, but specifically exempted the courthouse cafeteria and other facilities with adequate ventilation. Walker’s proposed change would eliminate those exceptions for designated smoking areas.

Denizens of the endangered smokers’ section in the courthouse cafeteria panned Walker’s plan.

“We have as much rights as non-smokers,” said Julia Kelley, an employee with the county’s Register of Deeds office. “It’s not like it’s illegal to smoke.”

Although she opposes both of Walker’s changes, she said, she especially disliked the 30-foot no-smoking perimeter because it would force her farther outdoors in bad weather.

Attorney Dennis Gall nursed several cigarettes as he spelled out his objections to Walker’s smoking bans.

“I’m just outraged by people who think they should set other people’s morality,” said Gall, a public defender who said he was speaking only for himself. “It’s the nanny state run amok.”

The county should not try to legislate smoking habits, he said, scoffing at the notion that secondhand smoke from smokers gathered at building entrances would hurt others. He also said the bans weren’t enforceable and would encourage surreptitious smoking.

Several county employees complained about the ban but declined to give their names, saying they feared retribution.

“I think (Walker) has got better things to worry about,” said one man having a cigarette near the W. Wells St. entrance of the courthouse as Walker made his announcement. “Start worrying about the budget.”

County Board Chairman Lee Holloway called Walker’s plan a “fine tuning” of the existing policy approved by the board more than a decade ago. Through a spokesman, Holloway said he was not opposed to Walker’s proposed strengthening of the ban.

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