6/21/2009

Petition drive attempt was notable, but it's good the effort failed

Thanks,

but no

thanks

Headhere

It's not easy fighting city hall. Just ask opponents of Salina's new smoking ban. They worked hard gathering more than 2,000 signatures on petitions seeking a special election to repeal the ban ordinance.

We respect those efforts. The petition drive got people involved. Organizers kept the discussion going in city commission meetings, in the media and certainly on the Journal's comments section on Salina.com. That public debate is healthy.

But the petition failed because it did not have enough valid signatures. It takes 25 percent of those who voted in the last election to call a special election, or 1,390. After checking each signature and address, Saline County Clerk Don Merriman said his office could verify that only 994 belonged to registered voters living in Salina.

While we appreciate the efforts involved in the petition drive, we also are thankful the attempt failed.

Certainly it can be argued that the ban infringes on individuals' rights to run their business the way they see fit, and if nonsmokers don't like a cloudy bar then they can go somewhere else.

But we put clean air requirements in the same category as food safety and fire codes. It is good public policy, and ultimately good business, to make environs as safe and pleasant as possible.

Besides the safety issue, we also don't like the way ban opponents held off filing their petition until after April's general election. By waiting, a successful petition would have triggered a special election costing taxpayers $20,000.

It's another example of ban opponents putting their own agenda above the best interests of other city taxpayers.

Some opponents say they will keep trying until they gather enough legitimate signatures to require a public vote. We hope they don't bother because the end result will be same.

Even if they gather enough signatures, the public will defeat the repeal attempt because the smoking ban is popular with most Salinans. Taxpayers shouldn't have to pay $20,000 to prove it.

-- Tom Bell

Editor & Publisher

tbell@salina.com

822-1491

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