Saturday, October 25, 2008

By C.D. Bradley cdbradley@paducahsun.com

McCracken Circuit Judge Jeff Hines said he will issue a ruling within two weeks after hearing arguments Friday for a second time in Dickie Todd’s lawsuit against Paducah over the city’s smoking ban.

Todd, owner of Side Pockets Billiards, sued last year, arguing that the city’s ban regulated the use of his property and therefore required approval of the city’s planning
commission. Hines dismissed the case, but the Kentucky Court of Appeals reversed the dismissal in July, ordering Hines to hear arguments in the case.

Todd, already convicted once of violating the ban for allowing customers to smoke in his business, faces a trial next month on a second violation. A third could cost him his citybusiness license. He maintains that the city should allow him to operate his business as he sees fit, and he has said business is off 30 percent since the ban started in April 2007.

Attorneys on both sides reiterated earlier arguments during Friday’s hearing. Jeremy Ian Smith, a Todd attorney, again asked for a temporary injunction blocking the ban, given the harm to Todd’s business and the possibility of losing his business license. David Kelly, the city’s attorney, argued that both sides asked for final rulings on
the case, making the injunction unnecessary.

The at torneys then moved to their core arguments. Kelly said both sides agreed that the city has the right to ban smoking, differing only on the method of adoption.
“Regulating where people can smoke for the benefit of public health is not a matter of zoning,” Kelly said. “Smoking has nothing to do with the orderly development of property.”

Kevin Long, another Todd attorney, said the city’s zoning laws include many regulations on property uses, including where adult entertainment, gambling and signs are allowed.

“The only way to restrict the use of property is through the zoning law,” Long said.

As published in the Paducah Sun, October 25,2008