The Madison City Council voted 13-5 Nov. 20 to ban smoking in most workplaces, the second anti-smoking ordinance to receive council approval this month.
The ban, which will go into effect March 1, 2002, would apply to any place of business that employs workers except for taverns, hotels and motels, home offices, and tobacco stores. Small businesses employing fewer than five people will have until Jan. 1, 2003 to comply.
Although most businesses have already banned smoking on their premises, the ordinance will give employees bothered by smoke leverage to force supervisors to provide them with a clean-air work environment, according to Council President Gary Poulson, District 20.
Violators of the ordinance would be subject to fines, he said.
Ald. Dorothy Borchardt, District 12, called the measure a \sounds-good""'an idea that sounds good but doesn't really mean much because it can't be adequately enforced.
""We have high school students smoking around our high schools and we don't enforce it,"" said Borchardt, who voted against the ordinance. ""You have to know your limitations'what you can legislate and what you can't.""
The council voted earlier this month to ban smoking in the common areas of apartment buildings. But Poulson indicated that this may not be the end of the anti-smoking proposals for the council. A proposal to extend the workplace ban to include at least some areas of hotels and motels will probably be introduced in the near future, he said.
""Within six months you'll see something introduced for consideration,"" Poulson said.
In other actions, the council approved a 25-cent-per-hour increase for downtown parking meters, raising the rates to $1 per hour.
Council also passed an ordinance prohibiting landlords from banning all guests in apartments. Landlords will still be allowed to regulate the number and frequency of guests but will have to spell out such regulations in the lease at the time it is signed.
