Anti-smoking group may pay for poll, or help arrange for it

Powell residents may be surveyed to determine their thoughts on a proposed smoking ban.

City Administrator Zane Logan said Friday the city is considering using data gathered by a polling agency to learn what people want the city to do. However, the poll may be paid for, or at least provided by, Prevention Management of Park County (PMPC), which supports a ban on smoking on public places in the city.

Logan said despite that, city leaders have been assured the poll will be “accurate and fair and scientific.”

After a proposed smoking ban was discussed at the July 15 council meeting, the council decided to issue a letter to business owners asking for their thoughts on a ban. But that plan was rejected later, and a poll was considered.

“After that meeting, we talked, the mayor and I and our attorney, Sandee (Kitchen) ... that it might be the perception was, maybe it seemed liked the city was pushing an agenda one way or another,” Logan said.

Prevention team leader Sharon Altermatt said in an email to the Powell Tribune that she asked the city to reject the letter plan and try a poll instead.

However, over the weekend, she backed away from that a bit.

She noted that the Tribune has done two polls on proposed smoking bans. One showed support for it, while a second posted online in July showed a narrow win for those opposed to a smoking ban.

Logan said Mayor Don Hillman wants to ensure any poll that is conducted is done in a fair and accurate manner. Hillman doesn’t want too many questions on it, either, he said.

“The mayor wants to make it fairly straightforward,” Logan said. “Two or three questions.”

The council may review the questions before the poll is conducted, he said. Kitchen has been charged with ensuring the poll’s reliability, Logan said, and he is waiting to hear from her about it. One reason to involve Prevention Management is that it will pay for the poll, or find a university or some other agency to conduct it.

“We want to try to do it accurately and without a lot of cost to the city,” Logan said. “That way, the mayor and the council know the public’s sentiment. As we know, there’s two sides of this issue.”

Altermatt said the debate over a smoking ban has turned personal.

She said she has been attacked on Facebook, and some were “very abusive,” so she ended her membership in a page called Powell Forum.

The Powell City Council will discuss the issue again Monday. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at City Hall.