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Shawnee — Smoking will be prohibited in some Shawnee bars and restaurants beginning next year.

After three hours of discussion, the Shawnee City Council Monday approved an ordinance that would prohibit smoking in enclosed places of employment, enclosed public places and outdoor seating areas. Exemptions were given to allow smoking in 25 percent of hotel rooms, specialty tobacco stores, outdoor seating areas designated by a business as smoking, and drinking establishments that have 33 percent or less in food sales.

Like the Overland Park and Lenexa ordinances, Shawnee’s ordinance will take effect Jan. 2, 2008.

The ordinance was approved 7-1, with Council member Michelle Distler voting in opposition, but not before hours of argument and a failed attempt to pass the ordinance without the 33 percent food sales exemption.

While much of the time was spent talking about second-hand smoke as a health hazard, Council members acknowledged they had to do something to help protect local businesses.

“The question is to decide how do we come up with something that protects the most people without hurting the most people,” Council member Dawn Kuhn said.

Council member Mickey Sandifer said while he was opposed to smoking bans, believing the government interfered too much in people’s lives, he worried that doing nothing would lead to a vote on a smoking ordinance by petition, giving the Council no control over the law.

“If we do not enact a smoking ban, the public will enact one for us,” he said. “If we do enact one, at least we’ll have a little bit of choice.”

The Shawnee Smoking Task Force, organized in May to study the issue, presented several exemption options to the Council. They reported that they unanimously supported the exemptions for hotels, tobacco shops and outdoor restaurant patios. Other options a majority supported included a grandfather clause to exempt bars or restaurants that currently allow smoking and an exemption for Class A Private Clubs, which currently would only apply to the American Legion in Shawnee.

A majority of the task force members also approved the exemption for bars with low food sales, but they recommended a level of 40 percent or less in food sales.

But before any discussion took place, Kevin Straub, seconded by Dan Pflumm, attempted for the third time to pass Overland Park’s ordinance. Straub made the motion between items 8 and 9 on the agenda; the task force’s presentation was item 10. Mayor Jeff Meyers asked that discussion on the motion wait until item 10 was presented.

Pflumm first tried to get the Overland Park ordinance passed April 23, and Straub then tried to do the same Aug. 27. But other Council members said since they decided to use a task force to allow citizen input, they should follow through with that decision.

Straub later explained that he felt if he didn’t make the motion ahead of time, someone else would make another motion first. He alleged that Council members had discussed a motion to provide an exemption for bars with 35 percent food service or less ahead of time.

“I know the Overland Park attorneys went through this and I liked what I read, so I wanted this one,” Straub said.

But other Council members and the city’s attorneys said they were uncomfortable with the lack of legal definition in the Overland Park ordinance. Ellis Rainey, assistant city attorney, said the other city’s ordinance didn’t define bars or restaurants, had some conflicting wording and did not clearly define the hotel exemption.

Rainey also said the draft ordinance included in the Council’s agenda packet was just as prohibitive as Overland Park’s but aligned with Shawnee’s system of codification. Straub amended his motion to approve the draft ordinance rather than Overland Park’s, but with only the first three exemptions.

That motion eventually failed 6-2, with only Pflumm and Straub voting in favor.

Several members of the public spoke, and most who were restaurant owners asked that the Council consider the grandfather clause exemption. But Council members were uncomfortable with legal definitions of how a business would be grandfathered, and Mayor Jeff Meyers said he didn’t think the clause would serve the intent of the prohibitive ordinance, to make more public spaces smoke-free for the health and welfare of Shawnee families.

The Council eventually agreed to the ordinance with the 33 percent food percentage exemption, saying the American Legion could be included in this exemption. Pflumm and Straub said they would vote for an ordinance with this exemption because they thought the city needed an ordinance of some sort.

“I don’t believe it’s what a majority of the cities are going to; it’s a compromise,” Pflumm said. “I would much rather have seen something on a total ban.”

Distler continued her opposition to a prohibitive ordinance of any kind, seeing it as an infringement upon the rights of business owners. She said she believed if second-hand smoke is a health hazard, the state and county health organizations should prohibit it, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration should take steps to protect employees, not individual cities.

In other business, the Council:

• Approved the Dispatch as the primary official paper for legal publications.

• Approved semi-monthly claims totaling $3,999,817.

• Accepted dedications of land for public purposes contained in the final fourth plat of Reghan Place in the 6300 block of Lackman Rd.

• Conducted a public hearing and approved the 57th Street improvements, Barton to Flint, as the project for the 2008 Community Development Block Grant application.

• Conducted a public hearing and approved the issuance of federally taxable private activity revenue bonds for $1.5 million for Digittron Technologies, Inc.

• Approved renewal of a pawn broker/ precious metal dealer license for Shawnee Auto and Pawn, 10704 Shawnee Mission Pkwy.

• Heard the mayor proclaim the week of Sept. 23-29 as Fire Prevention Week in the city.

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