The blow by blow account of the city council meeting on the tobacco ordinance bears little relationship to the tepid account in the Saint Paul paper. Interested citizens deserve more of the story.
The hearing was supposed to be one hour, 30 minutes for each side because there were 2 ordinances on the table. The normal hearing is 15 min for each side. When Bostrom withdrew his ordinance without warning, Kathy L. said the hearing would now be the standard 30 Min. I can not speak for the alcohol/tobacco folks, but our side was prepared to offer 30 minutes of testimony. We quickly pared it down with everyone getting to speak who planned to speak but giving much shorter testimony. Presenting were a health economist who talked about the research on what happens when smoking bans are put in place. Then there were a bar tender and a server who both had asthma and had to change jobs or limit their work because of 2nd hand smoke. Maria Jette, the classical singer, presented and ended with a dramatically sung, "make St. Paul smokefree." The CEO of Regions Hospital, a physician at Family Tree and another citizen with asthma that is worsened by 2nd hand smoke then spoke. Our last speaker had about 20 seconds and Kathy let her complete her statement so we went over by a minute or two. Then the stuff started! The second speaker for the opposition appeared to be a disturbed woman who was hard of hearing. She read from an old newspaper article. And she just kept reading. Kathy tried to stop her, but she kept reading. Members of the tobacco/alcohol side saw their time being eaten up and began loudly calling for the woman to sit down. Kathy finally told the audience she thought the woman could not hear. Kathy tried several more time to get her to stop but the reading continued. I think it was Bob Kessler who approached her and tried to get her to stop. Eventually the woman moved a short distance from the podium and Kessler (?) used this opportunity to back her away from the podium. I do not believe this time counted against the opposition. The next several speakers testified that these restrictions would hurt business or was an unnecessary intrusion in private behavior. When they ran out of time one speaker remained and Kathy said she did not want to have her good friend, Pat Flury, not having a chance to speak so gave him a couple of minutes to speak. The speaker proceeded to disrespect the council, saying that this process had been the worst he had ever seen. He thought Dave Thune used to be a good guy but had been kidnaped by aliens, the "gang of four" were not listening to him. After about 5 minutes he sat down and Dave began to read a letter into the record which had been sent to the council by Minneapolis Councilmember Samuels. The tobacco/alcohol side began heckling him. Several people began loudly talking. Nick Mancinni wandered to the podium saying he wanted to speak. Kessler tried to get him to sit down. Mancinni refused. Throughout the reading of the letter efforts were made to get Nick to return to his seat. Further, the noise coming from the tobacco/alcohol camp continued. Finally someone from that side of the room convinced Nick to take his seat. This disruption made it impossible for most people in the room to actually hear the letter being read. Then Jay attempted to make a short statement about the legal consequence of bars not taking action to protect their employees from a known health hazard. The heckling became louder. Personal and insulting statements were loudly hurrled at Jay and the council. The folks on that side of the room began loudly standing up and milling around. The meeting had largely disintegrated. What council members were saying could no longer be heard by the remaining audience, the police in the room made no effort to deal with the situation. I saw no effort by anyone to return the meeting to proper decorum nor respectful discourse. The whole thing was upsetting, marked a new low in public discourse and was frankly a bit frighteneing. The opposition appeared well defined by their own behavior. Jeanne Weigum, Merriam Park -- Jeanne Weigum 651-646-3005 fax 651-646-0142 _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
