Cape Girardeau officials try to figure out next move on smoking ban

Cape Girardeau officials were scrambling for answers Tuesday to determine how -- and when -- to get a resident-proposed smoking ban before voters in an effort to comply with the city's charter and meet election deadlines.

City manager Scott Meyer said Tuesday his staff was reviewing options, including studying the city's charter, to determine how best to proceed.

"It's an open question, and we're trying to figure it out as we speak," Meyer said Tuesday.

The confusion started after the Cape Girardeau City Council voted 4-3 Monday night in favor of an ordinance to call an April 5 election to let voters decide the hotly debated smoking ban. The ban would prohibit smoking in all enclosed public places, including bars and restaurants.

After the vote, some council members thought the ordinance had passed, until city attorney Eric Cunningham consulted the charter and informed them that passage required a supermajority of five votes, not the simple majority of four. A supermajority was needed because the ordinance was an emergency reading to meet the election deadline of 5 p.m. Jan. 25.

Council members then discussed what they thought was a county clerk requirement for an ordinance to be passed to call an election, which was prompted by an initiative petition. But Tuesday, Cape Girardeau County Clerk Kara Clark Summers said she has no such requirement. Her office requires only a certified letter with the signature of a city official, which she said she told the city Tuesday.

"Some of the smaller towns just turn in handwritten letters with the mayor's signature," she said.

An ordinance is, in fact, a requirement of the city's charter that requires any legal action taken by the council to come in the form of an ordinance.

Meyer admitted that his office did not properly advise the council of what was required.

"We didn't do a good job going in of telling the council what the options were and what the consequences were," Meyer said. "But we're researching what the options are, to be in compliance with the charter."

Meyer said the language is somewhat vague in the city charter, which is basically the city's constitution. As it relates to initiative petitions, the council is instructed by the charter to either pass the proposed smoking ban outright or put the issue before voters. But there's no action mechanism in the charter that gets the issue on the ballot. That's one of the things that Meyer said his office was investigating Tuesday, which was slowed by the fact that Cunningham was out sick.

The timing is a problem, too, Meyer said. The charter says if the council fails to adopt a proposed initiative ordinance within 60 days, it must put the issue to voters no later than 120 days after the council's last action. That seemingly requires that the issue be put before voters April 5.

Now, the council has no meetings scheduled until 7 p.m. Jan. 25, which is two hours after the state-set filing deadline for elections. Meyer said the options, as he sees them so far, are to move the Jan. 25 meeting, changed to a Tuesday to accommodate a council member's scheduling conflict, back to Jan. 24, or to schedule a special meeting the week before that.

But Meyer's office is also researching to see if there's a way to legally set the election in June. Some council members said Monday that they'd prefer a June election, which would allow proponents and opponents more time to get their message out and for opponents to look into a legal challenge.

"Setting the election in June seems to be more complicated," Meyer said. "The charter is really unclear on this. But we'll get it worked out."

Meyer said he hoped to inform the council of his findings today.

"The bottom line is we're going to meet the requirements of the charter," Meyer said. "It's just a matter of figuring out what the options are."

smoyers@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

401 Independence, Cape Girardeau, Mo.