I support Margaret Hickey as a Trustee. Although she was an opponent of mine in the campaign, I thought she ran a clean and honest campaign, and I am pleased to have her as a Trustee. However, I disagree with her statements about the need for an up or down vote on the smoking ban. Here is the excerpt from the article on the recent smoking ban listening session:
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By Brendan O'Brien
Staff Writer Posted: Nov. 17, 2006 Trustee Margaret Hickey called for a board vote on the ordinance that would ban smoking in public places in Shorewood. "This may be an issue that we bring to the full board and have an up or down vote on it," she said. "We have the education; we had the two listening sessions. There comes a point in time that we are going to have to consider it."
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If we really do not know if there is any consensus in the Village, this is
not the time for an up or down vote. While I sympathize with the fact that members of the board may be getting impatient, that is no reason for calling a vote. Calling a vote in these circumstances will lead to division and anger, which is not what we need in the Village at this point. To accurately represent its constituents, the board should wait until they know what their constituents want. Strange as it may seen, representing the constituency can, in some cases, mean doing nothing.
Comments1. "When considering passing a smoking ban ordinance, you force private businesses to discriminate against certain customers. To be fair, you have to ban the retail sale of all tobacco products in Shorewood. Why sell the product at all if this is really a health issue?"
- Anonymous, 11/20/06
2. "Am I missing something? If it's not fair to 'force private businesses to discriminate', how then is it MORE fair to force them to not sell tobacco in the first place??"
- Jim Genthe, 11/24/06
