Showdown today over county smoking ban

Daily Southtown

March 15, 2006

By Jonathan Lipman

Two days after it sailed through a committee unchallenged, a proposed countywide smoking ban is set for a fierce showdown today before the Cook County Board.

Commissioner Elizabeth Gorman (R-Orland Park) is proposing a compromise bill that would match Chicago's delayed enforcement for bars and some restaurants.

Restaurant lobbyists, irate senior citizens and confused local officials on Tuesday bombarded the county with phone calls as news spread of the proposed ban that would affect hundreds of suburbs.

The smoking ban's chief proponent, Commissioner Mike Quigley (D-Chicago), promised a bitter battle today, when its up for a final vote by the board.

"I told (Gorman), 'over my dead body,' " Quigley said of a compromise. "I'm going to call the restaurant association the agents of death if they succeed at this, as God is my witness."

The smoking ban would take effect within 60 days and would affect all Cook County suburbs except the 20 or so that have their own smoking ordinance. Any village that passed an ordinance in the future also would be exempt.

Chicago's smoking ban allows taverns and restaurants with bars to allow smoking for two more years. The county proposal has no such provision.

The Illinois Restaurant Association did not return repeated calls for comment, but Gorman said she spoke to officials there and their concerns mirrored hers.

"They were told (Quigley's) proposal mirrored the city's, so they didn't show up at the committee meeting," she said. "I figured that, too. ... Now that everyone's looking, we're seeing a lot of holes in the language."

Gorman said she's worried suburban bar owners will see patrons who want to smoke leave their bars for the city over the next two years.

"I just want to level the playing field," she said. "This is getting pushed along faster than anything gets pushed in Cook County."

Nursing home owners and many residents also were alarmed when learning of the bill, which bans smoking at their facilities.

"The situation is, the people here, they've been smoking all their lives," said Richard Potekin, owner of Riviera Manor Nursing Home in Chicago Ridge. "They live for cigarettes and coffee."

Quigley said he has agreed to amend the bill after it passes to exempt nursing homes, on the advice of anti-smoking advocates.

Local mayors and village boards are also trying to figure out what to do. Orland Park is one suburb with a smoking ordinance, though it only requires restaurants to set aside a non-smoking area.

Quigley said that's enough to be exempted from the county ban, though he will be encouraging Orland Park and other towns to pass tougher anti-smoking rules.

"We won't do anything until we see what the county passes and how restrictive it is," Orland Park spokeswoman Patty Vlazny said. "We'll see what they do first."

Contributing: Gregg Sherrard Blesch

Copyright 2006, Daily Southtown

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