[img]1792|right|Jim Clarke||no_popup[/img]When a citywide smoking ban in multi-unit housing is likely approved in a few weeks, City Councilman Jim Clarke, hewing to his preferred philosophy, will suggest treading a middle path.
“I don’t want the ordinance to be just a top-down imposition of the law,” said the second-year member who will be up for re-election next spring.
Mr. Clarke, himself the resident of a condo complex, will seek to insert language that makes homeowner associations the chief overseer and implementer of the ban.
“This will be best handled at the homeowner and landlord level,” he said.
“I want to put more teeth into it than what we have been talking about. But I want the ordinance to be a democratic process. And I want to get the city out of the enforcement role as the smoking police.
“It is as I said at the Council meeting – if I leave a towel out on my balcony, I get cited for it, and the homeowners will attach a fine to my assessment.”
Mr. Clarke said that once the ordinance is passed, homeowner associations should be told that it is up to them to decide what strength of ban they want, to span the entire complex or to set aside designated smoking areas.
“Whatever they decide, they would be required to report their plan to the city and then need to update their policy, say, every two years,” he said. “I don’t want an overarching ordinance but an ordinance that mandates this be done by the homeowners.”
