But first, a story…….
After a long interview process [I'm not complaining here - it was worth it] I finally secured my new job here in Eden Prairie in the early spring of 2002. On the final night of interviews, I interviewed before the City Council with two other people who were seeking the same job. Following the interview, on my drive home, I received a call from the executive search consultant who was assisting the City Council with the search process offering me the job. It was close to 10:00 p.m. when I got this call. I accepted the job and then went to bed.
I got up early the next day to head into my former office in Northfield. It was close to 7:00 a.m. when I got in. I noticed my telephone had a voice mail message on it. That was unusual because I cleared my messages the previous afternoon. I picked up the phone and checked my voice mail. The message was from a woman named Ms. Isis Stark congratulating me on my new job in Eden Prairie, and requesting a meeting with me at my earliest possible convenience to talk about a project she was working on in Eden Prairie. She was the first person to call me about my new job. She got to me before the media and before I could talk to my Northfield staff about my decision to move on to Eden Prairie. She went on to tell me that she was working on behalf of the American Cancer Society and that she needed my help in getting a smoking ban ordinance adopted in Eden Prairie.
The rest, as they say, is history in Eden Prairie. The City Council debated the proposed smoking ban ordinance for the better part of 2002 before resolving not to go forward with the first significant smoking ban in the metro area.
I want to share this story to illustrate a point. The proponents of the smoking ban ordinances are good people who believe strongly in the rightousness of what they are doing. As the instigators of a new initiative, they have the advantage of being able to plan and advance on a target (e.g. – such as a city or county government) to gain an early political advantage. They did that in Eden Prairie. They are doing it now in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
But there will be resistance to their initiative. There was in Eden Prairie. There will be in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The resistance will come first from hospitality business-owners who fear loss of business from their smoking customers. This resistance, surprisingly is not that strong because the debate always comes down to numbers – and both sides have numbers to support their theory.
The next wave of resistance, however, will be more formidable. This wave is populated by people who do not want the government to further suspend their personal liberty. Many of them are non-smokers. They want the market to sort out where people can smoke and where they can’t. They believe that free market forces will ultimately be more successful in resolving this issue than government intervention. These folks are strong and they are well organized. They vote. They were effective advocates for their cause in Eden Prairie in 2002, which was an election year, and I believe they will be effective in Minneapolis and St. Paul in 2004, also an election year.
The final wave of resistance to the smoking ban in Eden Prairie, and I’m sure is working feverishly in Minneapolis and St. Paul, is more murky. There are fringe elements out there in this debate that are quite devious. I used to get e-mails and letters from them on a weekly basis during Eden Prairie’s consideration of this issue. They will investigate the personal lives of elected officials in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and attempt to exploit any perceived political vulnerabilities with a vengeance. I think that we are still feeling some of the after effects of these folks in Eden Prairie. They poisoned our political atmosphere to get what they wanted, and I’m quite sure they don’t care. They pursue victory at any cost.
My unsolicited advice to the elected officials of Minneapolis and St. Paul is that the best way to successfully adopt a smoking ban ordinance would be to move very quickly through the ordinance adoption process. The compromise is that while you will achieve what you want to achieve, you will probably have to minimize public debate and discussion. The more public debate and discussion you engage in on this issue, the lower the probably is that you will actually pass the ordinance you want to pass.
I don’t like the sound of that, but on this issue, I believe it’s true.
Good luck.
