How Cape Girardeau smoking ban would be enforced not yet decided

Enforcement of a proposed smoking ban in Cape Girardeau workplaces would likely fall into the lap of the city's police department, city officials said Thursday, though they added they will await the outcome of the April 5 election before setting a definitive policy.

While some smoking ban laws in other places -- St. Louis, for example -- specifically name the health department as the enforcement agency, the proposed ordinance for Cape Girardeau says that the smoking ban is to be enforced by the city manager or someone he designates.

City manager Scott Meyer said Thursday it made the most sense to designate the police department, which would probably investigate possible violations based on complaints from residents.

"We have said all along that we don't have or plan to put additional people on to enforce this," Meyer said. "Many of our nuisance ordinances are on a complaint basis. We haven't worked this out, but it seems like the best agency to handle this would be the police department."

If approved by voters, the smoking ban would not take effect until 60 days after the election, which would give Meyer time to seek input and formulate a more specific policy, he said.

While some communities use other departments, such as fire, health or city inspection departments, Cape Girardeau County Public Health Department director Charlotte Craig said her four health inspectors wouldn't be sufficient. Craig, who quit smoking four years ago, said her inspectors already do more than 800 restaurant inspections annually, in addition to inspections of schools, special-events facilities, day care centers, hotels and septic systems.

"I don't think we're big enough to do that," Craig said of smoking ban enforcement. "I'm not saying we wouldn't, but we'd have to grow our staff and that's a problem because of money."

Police chief Carl Kinnison agreed it would most likely be his department that would enforce a smoking ban, which would prohibit lighting up in all public workplaces, including bars and restaurants. The way he envisions it, Kinnison said, is that the nuisance abatement officer would respond when someone calls to report a violation.

At some point the department would also probably do some "proactive enforcement," where a plainclothes officer would be sent in to observe to see if the law was being broken. That would occur, he said, if an establishment receives several complaints and the owner appears to be flagrantly ignoring the law. Warnings would probably be issued for a time, Kinnison said, to allow business owners to become aware of the ban.

The violations section of the ordinance sets out penalties. For a person who violates the law, a citation would be issued and the person could end up in municipal court to face a fine of up to $50. A business owner or manager would face a fine of up to $500. For business owners, repeated violations may result in the suspension or revocation of any permit or license, the ordinance says.

But the ordinance does not say how many offenses would lead to that, and both Kinnison and Meyer said that would be at the discretion of the city judge.

Municipal judge Teresa Bright-Pearson said she has looked at the proposed smoking ban ordinance and found it a bit vague as it relates to penalties. For example, it doesn't say how many violations business owners would have to make before having their business license pulled.

"If voters do pass it and it does end up in municipal court, then I would definitely want to set up some procedures and some protocols so that all businesses are treated equally and fairly," she said. "As the ordinance is written, there are no procedures and it's left pretty open. So I would have to take a look at that."

Mayor Harry Rediger, who personally doesn't approve of the ban, said he doesn't think business owners in Cape Girardeau will intentionally violate the ban if it is passed into law.

"I'm not really worried about that," Rediger said. "If it does occur with a particular person or business, we would have to deal with it, but I don't anticipate a major problem in our area."

In St. Louis, a smoking ban went into effect Jan. 2. Since then, it has issued only one citation to a private organization called the Missouri Athletic Club, an athletic, dining and social club. That organization is arguing it should be exempt because it has dues-paying members and is private, not public.

"If it's only caused one citation in St. Louis, I can't imagine it would be a big problem here," Rediger said. "I personally don't think the government should be telling business owners what to do, but I understand it's becoming a more common thing across the country."

Private clubs in Cape Girardeau that employ at least one person would not be exempt from the ban if it becomes law.

smoyers@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, MO