The City Council adopted a new resolution last night that puts us back into the metro-wide debate on where people have the privilege of smoking tobacco.
The resolution asks the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners to take up the issue and make decision for the entire county, including all of its cities – except Minneapolis, which is excluded because its municipal charter (I’m told) exempts it from Hennepin County regulations like this.
I will be passing on copies of the resolution today to the two County Commissioners that represent parts of Eden Prairie: Commissioner Linda Koblick and Commissioner Randy Johnson. The resolution is exactly the same as the resolution we used to bring closure to the Council’s discussion of this subject in late 2002 – with one exception. In 2002 the Council was asking the State Legislature to resolve the issue. This time the Council is asking the County Board of Commissioners to resolve the issue.
I read an article in the Star Tribune today about Mayor Randy Kelley’s veto of the St. Paul City Council’s “smoke free” ordinance. The St. Paul Pioneer Press also ran a similar story on the Mayor’s veto. Governor Pawlenty has also expressed interest in addressing the issue, as I read in this article in the Bemidji Pioneer newspaper.
This looks so familiar. I recall just a few weeks ago when everyone was saying that the adoption of the ordinance in St. Paul and Minneapolis is “inevitable”, “just around the corner”, or “only a matter of time”. Pick your cliche. Everything that has happened in St. Paul on this issue happened to us here in Eden Prairie in 2002. Adopting these ordinances is not easy. It’s a fight and there is fighting passion on all sides of this issue.
I wish the combatants the best. It’s not over. There or here.
