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JCAR rejects proposed smoking ban rules

Posted January 09, 2008 10:00 pm

Adriana Colindres

Smoking in Illinois restaurants and bars has been against the law since Jan. 1, but a legislative panel's action on Wednesday means that certain details about implementing and enforcing the new ban remain unsettled.

Some of those details were included in proposed administrative rules that the Illinois Department of Public Health filed with the panel, known as the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules. The committee voted 9-1 to reject the rules.

What happens next is uncertain.

Melaney Arnold, a Public Health spokeswoman, said the agency would evaluate how it wants to proceed. The smoking ban law stays in effect, she added.

Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat who serves on the bipartisan panel, raised the possibility that the Department of Public Health might simply ignore JCAR.

That's what happened last year, when JCAR blocked an "emergency administrative rule" to expand income-eligibility guidelines for state government's Family Care health-care program. Gov. Rod Blagojevich went ahead with his plan to expand the program, and a spokeswoman said he views JCAR's role as "merely advisory."

At Wednesday's meeting, members of the panel said the proposed rules neglected an important aspect of the smoking ban: the due-process rights of anyone who is accused of violating the ban.

Lang said the rules don't spell out a process for appealing a violation of the smoking ban. An individual who stands accused of a violation has just two choices, paying the fine or fighting the matter in circuit court, he added.

"Lack of due process threatens the public interest and welfare," Lang said.

He and other lawmakers urged Department of Public Health officials to spend another 30 days crafting the proposed rules, but agency officials said they didn't want to do that.

"We are very anxious to get this rule adopted," Marilyn Thomas, the agency's chief legal counsel, told JCAR members. "We really believe that this law is of great interest to everyone in the state of Illinois."

Arnold said the proposed rules would have addressed some matters related to the Smoke-Free Illinois Act, such as describing in detail the no-smoking signs that should be posted in restaurants and other spaces.

"We're very disappointed with the decision and the outcome today," she said.

Among the other lingering questions about the new law is how to interpret a section that bans smoking within 15 feet of entrances.

Adriana Colindres can be reached at (217) 782-6292.

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