After reviewing an across-the-board smoking ban proposed by the Ames City Council, the Government of the Student Body passed a resolution to express its opposition to the ban.

The resolution, which will be sent to each member of the city council, described the smoking ban as “an unwelcome and unnecessary intrusion by the city council into the private affairs of restaurant owners and their patrons.”

Senators voted 23-10 in favor of the resolution, and there was one abstention.

Alex Rodeck, off campus, said the decision to allow or ban smoking should be at the discretion of individual restaurant and bar owners.

“Sixty-five percent of the restaurants in this town already have banned smoking voluntarily,” he said. “We don’t need the city doing this for us.”

He said the students’ voices need to be considered in the council’s decision.

“We’re 27,000 people strong,” Rodeck said. “I think we should oppose any action that is simply totalitarian.”

However, William Tinder, RCA, said the city council has the authority to protect the public from the proven health hazards of first and secondhand smoke.

“The city is acting, in essence, to protect public health,” he said.

GSB Finance Director Steve Medanic reminded the senate that smoking in public is “a privilege, not a right” and that the city council members do not vote on their individual ideas.

“Ideally, in an elected body, if an individual has an opinion on an issue, they will rise above it and represent their constituents,” he said.

Scott Strader, one of two GSB representatives to the Student Health Center Committee, said the committee would not express an official opinion on the matter unless it was endorsed by the student government.

However, he did encourage the senators to vote in favor of the proposed ban.

“What we decided in our committee meeting was that, concerning the health and medical facts of smoking-related issues, the Student Health Committee is going to stand in agreement with the proposed smoking ban,” Strader said. “But, only if GSB supports it.”

However, gallery member Steve Skutnik said the ban is not a health issue.

“What the city council is essentially doing is putting this ban on private business owners by way of force, which is no difference than walking in with a gun and telling them that they will not smoke on their property,” he said.

Bruce Adami, graduate, said the senate had debated the ban for so long that they “hit an impasse.”

“I asked as many people as I could what their opinions are,” he said. “We all know the facts. We’re all adults like that.”

The city council likely will discuss the ban at its meeting Nov. 14.