"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. -- C.S. Lewis
The following article appears at NKY.COM and is reprinted here for your convenience.
Opposition to smoking ban grows
By Amanda Van Benschoten • avanbenschoten@nky.com • December 12, 2010
As a vote draws near on whether to ban indoor smoking in Campbell and Kenton counties, a growing wave of protest is coming from cities in both counties.
A week ago, Fort Mitchell became the latest city to pass a resolution opposing the proposed smoking ban.
With the unanimous vote, Fort Mitchell joined Erlanger, Fort Wright, Newport, Alexandria and Wilder in opposing the ban.
One city, Crestview Hills, has passed a resolution in support of the smoking ban.
The resolutions are symbolic and do not prevent either county from enacting the ban.
But they are an official record of the cities' objections, which can be boiled down to essentially three issues:
City officials worry that the burden of enforcing the ban and dealing with violators will fall upon their already-overstretched police forces.
They worry that the ban will harm businesses, and they say the decision should be left up to the cities or the businesses.
"The market will dictate what happens," Newport Mayor Jerry Peluso told county officials last month. "I don't want to run a person's business."
They also feel county officials have shut them out of the process of drafting the smoking ban.
"(The county) gave the cities, including ours, no choice in the matter," Erlanger City Councilman Shane Longshore told The Enquirer last month. "They didn't get the ordinance out to any of the cities to review. They're just trying to push this thing through really fast."
That seems to irk both business and city officials most: The feeling that their voices aren't being heard.
"I think a lot of cities were waiting for the county to approach them on it, and they never did," said Ken Moellman, an opponent of the ban and party to a lawsuit against Campbell County over it.
County officials were tight-lipped about the ban from the beginning, refusing to release a draft to The Enquirer under the state's open records laws.
In a way, it was understandable. Officials feared that opening the process to scrutiny would derail the ban before it ever got off the ground, as has happened in the past.
"They always said, we're going to have a (community) conversation," Moellman said. "But I don't think a conversation was ever really had."
But by keeping the process secret, they bred resentment.
Now, county officials find themselves with very little public support. Many city officials are angry, the owners of small bars and restaurants are in an uproar, and at least one county official lost re-election due in part to his support of the smoking ban.
Still, county officials are moving forward.
Campbell County is set to hold a second reading and vote on the ban Wednesday evening, and it stands a good chance of passing.
"I don't think they're going to change their minds," Moellman said. "We've given them every opportunity to back out, and they haven't yet."
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