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KC Council Passes Smoking Ban

By Steve Bell

KANSAS CITY, MO – There will be only one smoking ban proposal on the April Kansas City ballot after all. The Kansas City, Missouri City Council today passed a revised version of the competing council version of the ordinance. They then formally took it off the election agenda, leaving only the one drafted by an initiative petition committee.
Councilwoman Cindy Circo said it was the easiest way to clear up the confusion.
"We set something on the books, get that in motion. If the voters want something else, they're free to do it and they can vote for that in April," Circo said.
The ordinance passed today bans smoking in restaurants and stadium concourses. The ordinance allows smoking in bars, with a complex set of definitions that would permit smoking in some combination restaurant-bars after 9 p.m. if persons under 21 are barred, and in bars-in-restaurants that are walled off and have separate ventilation systems.

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