VILLAGE OF NORTH AURORA
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING
JANUARY 15, 2007
CALL TO ORDER
Village President Hansen called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
ROLL CALL
In attendance: Village President John Hansen, Trustees Max Herwig, Mark Gaffmo, Dale
Berman. Not in attendance: Trustees Paul Shoemaker, Linda Mitchell and Mike Herlihy.
Staff in attendance: Village Administrator Sue McLaughlin, Finance Director Bill Hannah,
Building Commissioner DeWayne Williams, Village Engineer Jim Bibby, Public Works
Superintendent Mike Glock, Fire Bureau Chief Mark Bozik, Police Chief Tom Fetzer and Wes
Kornowski.
AUDIENCE COMMENTS
Steve Sabo, 207 April Lane, North Aurora — Mr. Sabo asked the Board if the Village has a procedure for handling abstained votes. Sabo distributed an article from the Kane County Chronicle detailing a Sugar Grove trustee’s decision to abstain from voting on an issue, which then resulted in his abstention being applied to the majority vote. Atty. Drendel said this is settled case law and there is nothing the Village can change. In most cases the abstained vote counts as a no vote, but it all depends on the wording of the statute that describes how many votes are required to pass a measure. Sometimes it states there needs to be a concurrence of the majority. In that situation, an abstention means yes. Most of the time the statute mentions an affirmative vote of the majority and in that case an abstention means no.
Atty. Drendel said he is working on a streamline summary of voting for all of the trustees. Trustee Herwig said he asked Atty. Drendel for clarification for the trustees to inform them when the mayor has to and does not have to vote. Included will be what present or abstain will mean and when it will apply as a yes or no vote.
Atty. Drendel noted that if a trustee has a common law conflict, the only way to deal with it appropriately is to remove yourself from the meeting.
Lisa Tripp, 32 Circle Drive West, Montgomery — Ms. Tripp addressed the Board regarding the issue of smoking in public places. Tripp is the former president of the Illinois Licensed Beverage Association. Tripp said that the smoking ban in public places has negatively impacted the hospitality industry. Tripp said she understands the health issues, but believes this should be a business decision. Business owners should be able to decide what is good for their business. Tripp said this ban would affect the mom and pop businesses. When one town has the ban and another does not, the clientele will simply move to that other town.
Randy Kopp, 125 Lakeview Drive, Aurora — Mr. Kopp is the current president of the illinois Licensed Beverage Association — Mr. Kopp said that cigarettes are a legal commodity and
Village of North Aurora Committee of the Whole Meeting
January 15, 2007
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should be treated as such. Kopp stressed that allowing smoking in a business should be the decision of the business owner. Kopp said it is important to quantify the negative impact this legislation will have on the hospitality industry, stating the following: a study done in California where the ban is in place shows 53% of the restaurants and taverns showed a decrease in business while only 6.7% experienced an increase. Fifty percent of the businesses experienced a decrease in customer traffic while 26% had a decline in sales. Fifty-nine percent reported a loss of tips for staff while 30% laid off employees or reduced the number of working hours to compensate for the loss of business. Kopp said that the US espouses a free enterprise economic system. If a significant sector of the public truly desires hospitality venues that have a complete ban on smoking, then the business community will provide.
Rick Novotny, 224 Somerset Dr, Sugar Grove — Mr. Novotny is the owner of Ernie McCanns in North Aurora. Novotny agreed with the other speakers and said that the ban would definitely close his business. Novotny said he goes to great lengths to make sure the smoking areas are kept separate from the non-smoking areas. Novotny said that America is a place of choice and if people are truly offended by a smoking environment, their choice is to go or not go. Novotny had collected 300 signatures over the weekend petitioning the ban.
A.
