Yes, the City of Eden Prairie has a CIA Task Force, but it’s not as intriguing as it sounds. Our CIA Task Force is really our Clean Indoor Air Task Force. The task force was appointed by the City Council earlier this year as part of last year’s ultimate resolution of the City’s consideration of a new ordinance that would have substantially restricted smoking in most of Eden Prairie’s businesses, especially those serving food.
The City’s consideration of what was called a “smoking ban” ordinance was politically heated. It drew attention from media across the Twin Cities and interest from interest groups around the country. Ultimately, the City Council declined to adopt the ordinance but pledged to study ways to encourage cleaner indoor air in Eden Prairie buildings through a citizen task force.
The task force was appointed in January 2003 and met monthly through out the year. They completed their initial mission and delivered their draft final recommendations to the City Council last night, November 18, 2003. The photo below is of task force spokesperson Deborah Plumb describing the final recommendations to the Council. City staff member Molly Koivumaki, Manager of Housing and Human Services, stood with Ms. Plumb. Ms. Koivumaki was the staff liaison to the task force.
The task force recommended the City establish a voluntary program that would recognize businesses that participate in the program with a “star decal” that could be placed in the window. The recognition is being designed primarily for businesses that serve food. There would be varying levels of positive recognition, depending on the level of non-smoking in the business. The highest level of recognition is for businesses that would go non-smoking 100% of the time.
The root values of the program came from direction from the City Council at the start of the task force’s deliberations. The Council wanted the program to be voluntary; to reward participation with positive recognition; to not recognize or bring attention to non-participants; to be consumer-choice driven; to be inexpensive to implement; and to be inexpensive to sustain.
The Council gave its support to the “Star Quality” program. The program will kick-off in early 2004.
