Rep. Passidomo proposes giving cities, counties authority to outlaw smoking at public sites

Publication Date: 2011-10-24

• Author:Ben Wolford, Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster
• Publication:Naples (FL) Daily News

NAPLES — On a rainy day at Naples Pier, Vivian Oosterwyk fished and smoked a cigarette in the cool drizzle: simple joys of retirement.

But if legislation offered by Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, passes next year in Tallahassee, smoking on the pier and on other municipal properties could be outlawed.

Passidomo's changes to the Florida Clean Indoor Air Act would allow cities and counties to further ban smoking, amending a provision that gives the state top authority on smoking laws. The state's so-called pre-emptive power is believed to apply to all smoking laws, making it easy to toss out a local ordinance if contested in court.