The McHenry County Board on Tuesday defeated a proposed anti-smoking ordinance that would have made it illegal for minors to possess cigarettes outside their homes and imposed fines on businesses that sold to them.
The board`s 16-7 vote came in spite of testimony from parents, police and a teenager who felt the law would have reduced under-age smoking.
While the board was sympathetic to the goal of reducing teenage smoking, the majority felt the ordinance was flawed and that the county should not legislate personal behavior.
”The problem with smoking is like alcohol. It`s an attitude problem,”
said board member Richard Meyers. ”Don`t we realize that kids can make choices like adults?”
Supporters felt the ordinance would have helped reduce teen smoking and prevented some teenagers from taking up the habit.
”Without laws, more banks would be robbed . . . and there would certainly be more drinking and driving,” board member William Russell said.
”I do not want teens to get hooked. We care about them.”
The ordinance, based loosely on a Woodridge law, would have made it illegal for youth under age 18 to buy or possess tobacco products of any kind outside the home. It would have imposed civil fines of up to $500 on violators and on businesses that sold tobacco to minors.
It also would have required a $100 license fee for all county establishments that wanted to sell tobacco products.
About a third of the estimated $62,000 in proceeds from those license fees would have been used to enforce the ordinance. The rest would have gone into Health Department coffers, which some board members viewed as a flaw in the proposal.
Board member Mike Brown, who has been an outspoken opponent of the ordinance, said that such a move would have created a ”cash cow” for the Health Department.
Another provision that bothered some board members would have allowed the county to use teenagers to test businesses` compliance with the law.
J. Maichle Bacon, the administrator of the McHenry County Department of Health who helped draft the ordinance, was disappointed by the board`s decision.
”We`re dealing with a body politic that has its own agenda and (is not interested in) protecting the long-term health of our youth,” he said.
Before the defeat of the tobacco ordinance, another Health Department program came under attack when a group of women told the board they objected to plans to open a federally funded family planning clinic that would offer services to all county women, including minors.
”It sends the totally false message to young people,” said Diane O`Donnell of Woodstock.
