Gatton Spins Election at Council Meeting Tonight

I spoke at the County Council hearing tonight along with two bar owners. I reminded the councilmen that Keep St. Louis Free enthusiastically endorsed their Voodoo Lounge exemption (not a mom and pop bar, I said) and that other County establishments deserved the same chance at exemption. I also said the exemption list would likely shrink as bars had to offer proof they met exemption requirements. I suggested they look at the list 6 months from now.

Jane Suozzi, Charles Gatton, Pat Lindsey and another Prop N guy spoke saying that the bar exemptions need to go. Gatton even suggested that Prop N would have passed even more strongly without the exemptions. But the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services survey shows that County residents don't favor a complete ban on smoking in bars. I remember Tony Palazzolo cursed when he heard Barb Fraser had exempted bars from her ban. "Now it seems reasonable and it's going to pass!", he said.