The mayor says before that he really became energized because of a door-to-door canvass of the city he conducted a few years ago during which he says he surveyed 2,000 residences and found 90 percent of the people he talked to in favor of such action - a number much higher than he expected.
"I thought this was the perfect opportunity to say 'look, we've educated ourselves long enough and now it's time to act to do something about it'," Wangemann said in a wide-ranging interview for Sunday morning's Northeast Georgia This Week (7:30 on SPORTS RADIO 1240 THE TICKET and 8:05 on WDUN NEWS TALK 550, both owned by the parent company of Accessnorthga.com, Jacobs Media.)
Wangemann says the city's adoption of that first smoking restriction ordinance more than ten years ago went a long way toward making it easier to push the latest proposal through. But, he says he often wondered if he would succeed, adding he was "very nervous" at times about the prospects. Wangemann recalled that almost from the time he really began seriously considering the measure, he had two of the three votes he would need to get the measure through the city council - his and that of councilwoman Ruth Bruner.
"We had to basically win over one more council member. We had to do a little bit of arm twisting." Wangemann said he felt Bob Hamrick, a a member of the council for 36 years and a former mayor, was the swing vote - and he says, he and Bruner finally won him over.
Hamrick said Saturday afternoon, in response to the mayor's comments, that he was for the ordinance all along.
"I was for the measure from the start. I merely wanted to make it at least countywide. When it appeared (a statewide bill might be enacted), I advocated for us to wait and see if (that) measure passed. I stated if it did not pass...I would immediately vote to pass it in Gainesville. I think we were wise to wait."
Wangemann did acknowledge during the interview that he considered Hamrick an "ally" in the effort and that his colleague did want to study the matter further, while hoping for a state law.
The statewide bill also passed this year and went into effect the same day Gainesville's did, July 1, but Gainesville's is stricter because it bans smoking from most public places in most all circumstances, whereas the state's contains more exceptions, especially when it comes to restaurants, bars, etc.
The mayor says its simply a health issue for him: protecting non-smokers from second-hand smoke.
"I don't think anyone has the right to harm another person against that person's will and I believe that this is a major step in the right direction."
http://accesswdun.com/article/2005/7/130791