SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO-AM) Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether has both personal and public reasons for refusing to sign off on the watered-down outdoor smoking ordinance recently approved by City Council.
"I don't think it went far enough to protect the health of our people or the visitors here," says Mayor Huether, describing his public health concerns. He also has personal, passionate reasons.
"Let me pull no punches. I hate smoking because it killed my dad", says Huether. His father died at the age of 62.
City Council, 6-2, essentially strengthened an existing ban against smoking on public playgrounds and at youth events outdoors. The original proposal supported by Huether and local health leaders, would have banned smoking outside all city owned property, including the Sanford Premier Center and on municipal golf courses.
Huether says the issue isn't over. He wil be actively pushing City Council for a stronger ban.
"There were some city councilors who had expressed publically their willingness to go back to the drawing board and maybe find some common ground and I will be cheering them on along the way,"
The weaker ordinance passed by council goes into effect January 6, 2017. Critics of the stronger ban claimed, among other things, that it was a "nanny state" proposal.