FL: BOARD AGREES TO READDRESS SMOKING BAN

Source: Ft. Myers (FL) News-Press
Date: Wednesday, January 9, 2002
Author: MARY WOZNIAK
URL: here

The Community Services Advisory Board will come up with a new
recommendation next month on banning smoking in Naples recreation areas.

The recommendation will then go to the Naples City Council for action.

The board voted Tuesday to reconsider the original recommendation, said Don Wirth, community services director. They will take the issue up at their
Feb. 12 meeting.

The group will review the issue again because of a mistake in the way votes
on the issue were originally counted. It turned out that the 3-3 tie the
board members thought they had on the smoking ban in December was really a 3-2 vote that recommended the ban, said Clark Russell, board chairman.

Russell, who is also vice president of Kepp's Men's Shop on Fifth Avenue
South, said he takes responsibility for the miscount. "We mistakenly
included the vote of the alternate member, who is not to vote when we have
a fully seated board," he said.

He said the board was not clear Tuesday on whether their recommendation
included the Naples Pier and the City Dock. They were unsure of the exact
language because they had no minutes of the December meeting, due to the hospitalization of a city staff member who was supposed to prepare the
minutes.