Restaurant Related News

Smoking Bill Is Adopted As Council Ends Its Year

By: Diane Cardwell
Source: The New York Times
Published: December 19, 2002

After months of negotiations, more than 20 hours of public testimony and some of the most intense, heated debates of this administration, the City Council approved Mayer Michael R. Bloomberg's anti-smoking bill yesterday at the last of its voting sessions this year.

The bill passed 42 to 7 with 2 abstentions, an unusually large number of negative votes for a Council that tends to vote in lockstep with its leaders. It could become law around the end of March, depending on when Mr. Bloomberg actually signs it.

Passage of the smoking measure, one of the nation's toughest, had been all but assured since Council leaders reached an agreement last week with the Bloomberg administration. Nevertheless, advocates on both sides of the issue milled throughout the City Hall corridors for most of the day, waiting to see the vote of the Health Committee, then of the full Council.

Speaker Gifford Miller said before the vote, "In my mind, we've worked hard to address the concerns that were raised by all sides, but ultimately this bill is about protecting the health of employees in the city of New York." He added, "Second-hand smoke is a dangerous toxic substance and employees shouldn't have to choose between their health and their jobs, and that's what this bill is focused on trying to accomplish, without punishing smokers."

Nonetheless, a small band of diehard smokers, brandishing signs and shouting slogans about their rights being trampled by the legislation, puffed away outside in the cold, lounging next to a giant cigarette with a crude message to Mr. Bloomberg written on it.

Inside, spirits also ran high. Over the course of about two hours, council members rose to tell personal stories of watching loved ones suffer with smoking-related illnesses, or to praise the leadership of Christine Quinn, the chairwoman of the Health Committee who shepherded the bill through the Council.

The bill essentially bans indoor smoking, covering most bars, restaurants and buildings, but includes a host of controversial exemptions. Among the places exempted are a handful of cigar bars already in operation, bars with no employees except the owners, nonproft membership clubs with no employees, and bars or certain health care facilities with enclosed smoking rooms.

Promising more oversight and more legislation to protect all workers, Ms. Quinn said the bill was amended to focus it specifically "on establishments that have workers." Some Council members objected to those provisions, as well as to other tobacco policies pursued by the Bloomberg administration, and voted against it.

The smoking bill was not the only cause for dissension at a meeting that had the feel of the last day of final exams. A bill introduced by Philip Reed of Manhattan that prohibits the use of cellphones during public performances, which faces an uphill battle with the Bloomberg administration, passed 40 to 9 with 2 abstentions. Several members of the Black, Latino and Asian Causcus voted against an antiposter bill that is aimed at ending street eyesores but is thought by some members to squelch political expression. That bill passed 44 to 7.

The session, which was the last for two members who were recently elected to the State Senate - Martin J. Golden, a Republican from Brooklyn, and Ruben Diaz Sr., a Democrat from the Bronx - became increasingly rowdy, even as the Public Advocate, Betsy Gotbaum, who presided, repeatedly admonished members to be quiet and speakers to stay within their two-minute allotments.

She, too, eventually succumbed to the giddiness as Melinda Katz of Queens explained that she could not support the cellphone bill because it started down a dangerous road of legislating politeness. She had been recently irritated at a movie theater, she said as an example, because people kept shining a flashlight on her.

"I don't know what I was doing," she quickly added, laughing and blushing. "It wasn't that good."

James S. Oddo, the Council minority leader, then rose to explain why he was supporting the smoking legislation, but began by asking Ms. Katz what she was doing Friday night.

"For you, I'm busy," came the response, eliciting a din of laughter.

Mr. Miller, speaking a few minutes later, warned his colleagues that if they kept their comments short, they could all get to the Council holiday party sooner.