ANDERSON — The city’s future as a smoke-free municipality is back to square one after the City Council voted down an ordinance on Thursday that would have prohibited smoking in the city’s work and public places.

Most council members voted no on the basis that the ordinance wasn’t comprehensive enough, allowing exemptions for taverns, clubs and Hoosier Park Racing and Casino, among others. They were applauded for their decision by an audience full of people wearing smoke-free Anderson shirts who called for a stronger ordinance.

Only Councilman Art Pepelea Jr. voted for the ordinance, which he helped author as part of the council’s Health Committee.

“I’m shocked and astonished that we have people in the community who would rather have nothing than have something,” Pepelea said.

However, Councilman Rodney Chamberlain, who also is on the Health Committee and was originally for the ordinance, changed his mind after deciding without a comprehensive smoking ordinance, the city would still be a smoking community.

“After hearing what I’m hearing today, it’s going to be very hard for me to support (the ordinance),” Chamberlain said. “We’re either going to have a nonsmoking community or we’re going to have a smoking community.”

Four members of the Health Committee did not support the ordinance, as stated in a letter from Dr. Bill VanNess, CEO of Community Hospital; Tom VanOsdol, president of operations for Saint John’s Health System; Karesa Knight-Wilkerson, executive director of Healthy, Tobacco-Free Madison County; and Mark Dudley, board president of Healthy, Tobacco-Free Madison County.

“The current ordinance has many exemptions and does not protect employees,” the letter read. “It does not meet the 2006 Surgeon General’s guidelines on secondhand smoke, and it would give the citizens of Anderson a false sense of protection due to the exemptions.”

The ordinance’s goal was to protect children, as Pepelea had made clear from its beginning, but a line of speakers that filed out the door of the Council Chambers called for an ordinance that would protect all workers.

“(The current ordinance) has many exceptions that would not protect the workers from the dangers of secondhand smoke,” VanOsdol said.

Knight-Wilkerson presented a petition to the council with 3,500 signatures in favor of a more comprehensive smoking ban.

Pepelea called for the council to pass the ordinance to set an example for the rest of the state, but others said an ordinance with so many exemptions would not make the city a leader, as other cities have passed stricter smoking bans.

If it had been passed, the ordinance could have been amended as needed to get rid of exemptions or make other changes, but Knight-Wilkerson said it was unlikely the issue would ever get revisited, leaving Anderson with a smoking ban full of holes.

“When a bad ordinance is passed, it is not revisited because it takes so much time, so much energy and so much passion,” she said.

Others were not in favor of the ordinance because they thought it was not the city’s job to legislate businesses’ choices of whether to be smoke-free.

“It’s an intrusion or infringement of the rights of business,” Councilman Ollie Dixon said before he voted against the ordinance.

Whether the council revisits the smoking ban remains to be seen. Pepelea said he would not be a part of any smoking ordinances after Thursday’s defeat. More comprehensive ordinances would not go over well with some area businesses, Pepelea said.

“I want to be there when they go tell Hoosier Park they can’t allow smoking there anymore,” Pepelea said.

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In other City Council business:

— The council tabled an ordinance that would have amended the city code regarding the animal shelter after council members’ questions were not answered as to the fees associated with animal surrender and adoption and if the Animal Care and Control Board should be limited to Anderson residents only.

— Approved on all three readings an ordinance fixing the salaries for Anderson’s firefighters.

— Approved a resolution certifying the plan and operation of the Economic Development Revolving Loan Fund Board.

— Approved resolutions authorizing the transfer of funds among Street Department accounts and from the Loss Fund to the Airport Fund and the Capital Improvement Fund to the Police Pension Fund.



BREAKOUT

A smoking ban ordinance was defeated when council members found that it was not comprehensive enough, offering too many exemptions. The defeated ordinance exempted:

— Private residences, except when used as licensed child care, adult day-care or health care facilities

— Vehicles used by employees while in the service of an employer when the employee is the only one in the vehicle

— Private vehicles when not being used for an employer

— Hotel or motel rooms designated as smoking rooms

— Retail tobacco stores

— Private and semi-private rooms in nursing homes and long-term health care facilities where all occupants have requested to be in a room with smoking permitted

— Taverns

— Businesses or clubs exempt from federal income taxation, such as fraternal clubs (i.e. Elks Lodge)

— Designated smoking areas within businesses not open to the public or anyone under 18

— Businesses that contain a garage or automotive sales or service area that is equipped for handling exhaust

— Facilities covered by a permit issued under Indiana Code 4-31 or license issued under IC 4-35, such as Hoosier Park Racing and Casino.