Victoria, TX City Voters Approve Smoking Ban in Public Buildings [05/18-2]

Excerpts from: June 16: The day smoking in public buildings ends

Victoria Advocate [05/18/06]



The results of Saturday's smoking ban election were canvassed Tuesday by the Victoria City Council and an official said the days are numbered for smokers to legally light up in buildings open to the public.

"It will go into effect in 30 days, which will make it effective on June 16," City Attorney David Smith said. Police Chief Richard Jones said after the meeting that on June 17, his officers will begin dealing with violators. "For the first 30 days, we will be issuing warnings, unless there's an unusual situation where we can't get voluntary compliance and an individual forces us to take more aggressive action," he said. Jones said he still hasn't decided just how officers will go about enforcing the new law after that. But he said police will deal with violators appropriately. "It doesn't do any good to have an ordinance if we don't enforce it," he said. "The emphasis will be on voluntary compliance. Nobody wants to write tickets or arrest people."

Smith said even though 70 percent of the voters in the city approved the ban, he wants the council to take additional action. He said he will be bringing back a smoking ban ordinance for the council to approve, affirming the election results.

Smith said that way if there is a legal challenge of the voting results, the council can argue that it also approved the ban. "It's sort of a belt-and-suspenders action," Smith said. Victoria businessman Chip Dence and East End Lumber Co., of which Dence said he is a partner and part owner, unsuccessfully filed legal challenges to the election in the court of appeals and Texas Supreme court. He sought to stop the election and to stop the city from using the smoking ban ballots.

His attorneys argued the city charter allows the council to approve an ordinance banning smoking and it allows voters to petition the council to put an ordinance banning smoking on the ballot. But the attorneys said there is no charter authority for the council to act on its own to put the ordinance before voters. The appeals court denied the requests from Dence and the decision was appealed to the Texas Supreme Court, which also denied both requests. In other business, the council canvassed and approved the results of Saturday's city council election. There was only one contested race, with the Rev. Brick Wall, consultant Paul Polasek and retiree Dick Fritz competing for single-member District 3.

That district covers north Victoria and none of the candidates managed to get a majority of the vote. The council called a June 10 runoff for Polasek and Wall, the two top vote getters in that race.

Incumbent Bill Russell said he will continue serving as the District 3 representative until someone is elected to replace him.

The council also canvassed the results of the $8.4 million bond issue election approved by voters. The money from those bonds will be used to build a new sports complex for softball and baseball players.

In other business, the council: • Approved a resolution supporting development of Interstate 69 along the existing sections of U.S. 59 from Houston to Victoria and then on U.S. 77 to the Rio Grande Valley. • Awarded bids totaling $42,636 to Axis Demolition of Victoria to raze unsafe buildings on 22 lots. • Made changes to the programs and expenditures for the Victoria Sales Tax Development Corp. so that organization can help fund improvements to Glascow and Laurent streets and to help build LaSalle Crossing. • Agreed to apply for a $64,000 auto theft prevention grant from the Texas Department of Transportation. The city would have to provide a $32,920 match.

• Agreed to apply for a $33,031 grant from the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program. The money would be used by the city and county to pay for software maintenance agreements and gang tracking equipment.

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