Fairfield City Council Deny Smoking Ban

The Fairfield City Council voted 4-2 tonight to deny a request from eight private clubs and organizations to be exempted from the city's smoking ban. The council's vote drew applause from anti-smoking proponents, who again turned out in large numbers to urge council members to not allow any exemptions of what is considered Jefferson County's most stringent smoking Marlboro ordinance.

Council members Ronald Strothers, Jerry Yarbrough, Ves Marable and council President Eldridge Turner voted to keep the ban in place. Councilmen F.D. Scott and Primus Mack voted to allow the exemptions.

Under Fairfield's ordinance, which passed in 2006, smoking is banned in restaurants, public places and clubs and businesses.


However, the city only recently began actively enforcing the ordinance among private clubs and organizations after receiving a complaint from the Jefferson County Health Department.

Jazmine Maddox of the Jefferson County Health Action Partnership applauded the council's decision.

"We hope other cities will follow Fairfield's suit and keep the health of their citizens first," she said.

Anti-smoking proponents argued the ban will protect both residents and employees of the businesses and clubs from second-hand smoke.

Michael Jackson, a representative for the Coalition for Tobacco Free Alabama, said allowing exemptions would be a "backwards" step for Fairfield because several cities and states have passed tough anti-smoking laws in recent years.

Sid Brewer of American Legion Post 347 in Fairfield agreed there were health dangers associated with smoking, but said the post would lose money if the smoking ban continued to be enforced. Smokers and some non-smokers would take their business to surrounding cities, he said.

"We see the issue as smokers having a choice of where they spend their money," Brewer said. "It just doesn't make any sense running smokers out of Fairfield, so they can go to Birmingham and Bessemer to smoke."

Brewer said a better alternative would have been to allow the clubs and organizations to have a section for smokers and one for non-smokers.

Other club and organization representatives said their membership has been hurt since the enforcement of the ban began.

Scott, who introduced the measure, said the city takes tax money from the sale of cigarettes and should leave the decision on whether someone visits a smoking establishment up to the individual.

"I don't think you need to police grown folks," he said.