Cape Girardeau City Council votes to put smoking ban on ballot for second time

Assistant city manager Heather Brooks had these words for the mayor Tuesday night: "Let's make this meeting as perfect as possible."

What Mayor Harry Rediger characterized as an oversight prompted the Cape Girardeau City Council to hold its second meeting in five days to get the controversial smoking ban on the ballot. The council voted unanimously, again, Tuesday to put the issue before voters April 5.

That's what the council thought it had done Friday with an emergency reading during a special meeting. But after that meeting, council member John Voss brought up a problem.

The mayor had only read the ordinance once. To fulfill charter requirements, an emergency reading requires the ordinance to be read three times.

"I declared it was an emergency reading," Rediger said Tuesday before the meeting. "But I didn't read it three times. I read it once."

Rediger acknowledged it was an oversight on his part, as well as city manager Scott Meyer and city attorney Eric Cunningham. At Tuesday's meeting, Cunningham read the ordinance three times to put the "Cape Girardeau Smoke Free Act" on the ballot. The council voted 6-0 Tuesday, with council member Mark Lanzotti absent because he was out of town.

While most council ordinances are discussed at two regularly scheduled meetings, the smoking ban ordinance needed to be done quickly to meet a Jan. 25 elections deadline. The ban would prohibit smoking in all enclosed public areas and work places.

Voss was the only council member to make comments during the meeting, saying he wanted to make sure the city had fulfilled its legal obligations set by the charter before the issue was sent to voters.

"As divisive as this particular issue is, I think it's important to dot our I's and cross our T's," Voss said. "There has been at least some discussion about lawsuits, and I wanted to make sure our house was in order before we send it to voters."

Breathe Easy Cape Girardeau, which is the resident group that collected enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot, had one representative at the meeting. Mary Jane Fieser, who lives in the county but works in Cape Girardeau, said afterward the group is satisfied voters will have a chance to weigh in on what she called an important public health issue.

"In a democratic society, voters should be allowed to vote on issues as important as this," she said. "We're glad they will have that opportunity."

smoyers@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, Mo