We deferred it

The all out Smoking Ban in Kenosha, the committee for Public Safety and Welfare deferred the action for 90 days.

This action was taken because this will level the playing field for both sides of the issue.

The standard thinking in the room tonight was that the Smoke Free folks have been working behind the scenes for several weeks and most in the public just found out this past Saturday in the Kenosha News that this issue was going to be debated.

Worse yet, according to the Kenosha News, which everyone read on Saturday morning was that 9 of 17 aldermen( a majority) already supported the smoking ban, assuring that the smoking ban would pass without full and public debate.

As a alderwoman for the city of Kenosha, I believe that it is my utmost duty to let every single person in my district and throughout the city of Kenosha have a fair shake.

This action was deferred tonight to give both sides of this debate an opportunity to make their case to the public and then the public to make the case to their alderman.

Ramrodding this though as many in the crowd thought was happening was not fair to either side of the debate. Too many people are too passionate about this issue to shut down the debate even before many in Kenosha completely understood what was happening.

By the way, what a crowd, on both sides of the issue. We could not fit everyone into the room tonight. They actually opened up all of the council seats in room 200 just so everyone had a chance to get in to hear what what happening. There was no where near enough seats for everyone. A majority of the people stood for almost 4 hours.

By the way, one of the nine aldermen that the paper had announced as being a co-sponsor on this ordinance, informed us all tonight that he had not given approval for being a sponsor.

So here we are, back at square one with both sides on a level playing field.

In honor of the Olympics, let the games begin.