KHI NEWS SERVICE
LENEXA, July 5
City council members voted Tuesday night to make Lenexa the latest city in the state to ban smoking in most indoor places.
Eighteen Kansas cities have passed smoking bans of various degrees since 2002. The Lenexa ordinance prohibits smoking in most indoor public places and within 10 feet of a public building”s entrance.
The council voted 7-1 to pass the ordinance, said Ryan Carpenter, an assistant city attorney for Lenexa. Council members had asked city staff last year to research a smoke-free ordinance, but put further discussions on hold when Dennis Steffes, a Lawrence bar owner, filed suit against the city questioning the constitutionality of its ordinance
which is similar to Lenexa”s.
A district court upheld the Lawrence ordinance. Steffes then appealed that decision to the state Supreme Court, which ruled in June that the ordinance was constitutional.
Lenexa also held off on its ban to see if Senate Bill 37, introduced in the Kansas Senate this year, would pass. That bill would have enacted a statewide smoking ban but died before it could be debated on the Senate floor. It may be the subject of a legislative interim committee this fall.
“It made sense to wait,” Carpenter said.
Lenexa”s ordinance, like those passed last year in Overland Park and Leawood, will go into effect Jan. 2.