Thomas Patterson Emerald
Tammy Cole (left), manager of one of the nonprofit groups that operates Bingomania, and Cory Fischer, general manager of Bingomania, say
they’re angered by strict readings of Eugene’s smoking ban. ‘We’ve spent so much time and money on being accomodating,’ Fischer said.
Bingomania files lawsuit
against city’s smoking ban
■The company said the ban is
not only discriminatory, it also
violates the 14th Amendment
By Marty Toohey
Oregon Daily Emerald
Bingomania of Eugene is suing
the city for an exemption to the re
cently enacted smoking ban, but
city lawyers say constitutional law
almost certainly favors the city.
Bingomania’s lawsuit, which was
filed March 6, is based largely on the
assertion that the city is violating
the 14th Amendment’s section re
quiring a government to have a ra
tional reason for passing a law.
“The ban serves no legitimate
government purpose,” Bingomania
general manager Cory Fischer said.
Jeff Matthews, a lawyer with Har
rang, Long, Gary and Rudnick, which
is the firm contracted by the city to
handle its legal services, said in most
cases “courts have set low hurdles”
to prove that a law “is rationally re
lated to a government interest. ”
He said that the ban protects citi
zens, and specifically business
employees, from involuntary sec
ond-hand smoke, and is “there
fore rationally related to a govern
ment interest.
“A government is always con
cerned with the health of its citi
zens,” he said.
The city has 30 days to reply to
Bingomania’s complaints, and the
earliest they could go to court is
eight months, Matthews said.
In addition to its other charge,
Bingomania said the smoking ban
discriminates specifically against
the company.
Under the ban, which took full ef
fect Jan. 1, a room must have at least
25 percent of its walls open to out
side air before smoking is allowed
in it, city Senior Policy Analyst Jan
Bohman said.
Bingomania built a $60,000 des
ignated smoking room with ventila
tion four years ago, and Fischer said
the ban should also allow for smok
ing in such rooms.
“It’s segregation, and it’s not fair,”
she said.
She also said that the ban has
“crippled” business. In the first
month of the ban, Bingomania
earned $19,000, as compared to
$78,000 for Dec. 2001, she said.
“It’s devastating,” Fischer said.
“We’ve lost a ton of money. ”
Much of the lost business, both
for Bingomania and for bars around
Eugene, has gone to Springfield,
Fischer said.
“All you have to do is drive five
minutes, which is great for Spring
field but not good for Eugene busi
nesses,” she said.
Fischer said Bingomania man
agement has tried “everything”
from appealing to the city council to
trying for a land use variance before
taking the city to court, “but the way
the ordinance is worded, they don’t
even know what they want.”
Both sides said it’s too early to
know how the suit will go, and that it
might depend on the judge’s leanings.
A judge will try the suit instead of
a jury because Bingomania is not su
ing for monetary damages.
E-mail reporter Marty Toohey
at martytoohey@dailyemerald.com.
Color-coded terrorism alert system
to take effect in federal buildings
By Seth Borenstein
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON (KRT) — Home
land Security Director Tom Ridge
on Tuesday unveiled a new five-col-.
or terrorist attack alert system, but it
will be up to local officials to decide
what people should do during peri
ods of higher alerts.
The terrorist alarm system, which
can focus on targeted states, cities or
even industries, replaces an unpop
ular and undifferentiated system
that has been used almost incessant
ly since Sept. 11. Experts say those
alerts were too vague and never told
people what to do.
Attorney General John Ashcroft
will issue the new alerts, as he did
most of the old ones. Some disaster
experts, who disliked the old sys
tem, approve of the new one.
“We’ve taken a step out of chaos
and toward organization,” said Ran
dall Duncan, the emergency man
agement director for Sedgwick
County, Kan.
For now, America is on yellow
“elevated” alert, the middle level
of the five, signifying “a signifi
cant risk of terrorist attacks,”
Ridge said. He said that level
would persist “for the foreseeable
future.”
The highest level of alert in the
new system is red, which is consid
ered “severe”; it is followed in de
scending order of risk by orange for
“high,” yellow for “elevated,” blue
for “guarded” and green for “low.”
Response to a red alert would be
similar to Sept. 11. It would entail
closing public and government
buildings, shutting down public
transportation and possible estab
lishing curfews, officials said.
Ridge, in a briefing in the Roo
sevelt Room at the White House,
said he hoped threats would recede
to green someday, “but I think it’s
years away.”
The new terror alert system,
Ridge said, leaves a big question;
“What do we do to prepare?”
That’s up to the cities and towns,
he continued. “There is no prescrip
tion we can write out and give to our
communities,” Ridge said. But he
said cities and states that want fed
eral aid for homeland-security
measures would have to submit pre
paredness plans to Washington to
get the money.
Dennis Mileti, co-director of the
Natural Hazards Center at the Uni
versity of Colorado in Boulder,
called the new alarm system “a fan
tastic first step.” Local preparation,
he said, is “the other 90 percent.”
President Bush issued the new
alarm system as Homeland Secu
rity Order No. 3. It takes effect im
mediately in federal settings, but
must go through a 45-dav public
comment period and then a 90-day
review before being adopted as the
nation’s system.
How these alerts will be commu
nicated to people remains to be
seen, Ridge said.
© 2002, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
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