They also asked that a draft ordinance contain provisions to allow smoking in restaurants, provided smoking areas are separate from non-smoking areas, including ventilation systems.

But most of all, several commissioners displayed disgust at an apparent campaign being used to sway commissioner opinion.

Commissioners spent more than an hour going over an ordinance drafted by County Attorney Tim Faver in response to a request in May from the B-Team, a multiple agency tobacco education awareness movement in Beltrami County.

About a half dozen B-Team members took the 90-minute drive from Bemidji to Our Saviors Lutheran Church between Fourtown and Grygla to lobby for the ordinance.

"I take exception to bringing a telemarketing campaign to lobby people to call their commissioners," said Commissioner Ron Otterstad. "It is just wrong. I'm offended."

Otterstad said someone at the state level was apparently funding a telemarketing effort to have people call their county commissioner in support of an ordinance calling for smoke-free restaurants. If it passes an ordinance, Beltrami would join Olmstead County as the only two in the state.

"I apologize if you are offended by the telemarketing," said Warren Larson of MeritCare Clinic-Bemidji, a B-Team member. "Yet it motivated people to support this. It is very hard to get people to call their commissioner unless they feel it is very important."

"Then you publish your home number and take calls at 9 at night, and tie up your clerical staff at work," Otterstad said.

"Stop the telemarketing, or I may do something bad and vote against this," he added.

Commissioner Jack Frost called the call-in campaign "very well orchestrated," and Commissioner Quentin Fairbanks said that "I would like the phone calls to stop."

Commissioner Jim Heltzer was absent.

Otterstad recommended changes to the ordinance which Faver will incorporate for the board's meeting in a month. Also during that time, Fairbanks asked for B-Team members to meet with restaurant owners in rural Beltrami County to explain the reasoning behind the ordinance and perhaps seek voluntary compliance.

County Board Chairwoman Vicki Haugen suggested community forums in Blackduck and Kelliher to seek public input.

The current draft exempts bars from the ordinance - places with liquor licenses and that have food sales less than 50 percent of net sales. It also exempts bars connected to restaurants if the two are separated by walls and a negative flow ventilation system.

"What is the goal here? To reduce second-hand smoke?" asked Otterstad. "Then restaurants should be able to comply with an exception like bars, with separate facilities. Let the business make a business decision if it wants to allow smoking.

"Like it or not, it (smoking) is a legal act," he added. "The business owner should be able to add that to their business."

Faver will add the separate smoking room provision for restaurants to be exempted from the ordinance.

Fairbanks also worried about the 50 percent threshold, saying many small restaurant/bars in his district could be adversely affected.

"This should be the state regulating this, we should let the state do it," Fairbanks said. "They put it on our shoulders others don't do it."

Calling the ordinance as written "over-reaching," Otterstad added that "if one county has it, it doesn't mean the other 86 are going to jail."

Frost asked if the ordinance infringed upon smokers' rights, but Debbie Dilley of the American Lung Association said the ordinance is not really a ban.

"It's not telling someone they can't smoke, just that indoor air should be clean," Dilley said. "Just do it outside."

Frost also asked about the enforcement of the ordinance, which Faver said a violation is a petty misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum $200 fine but no jail time. It's the same penalty as the 1970s Clean Indoor Air Act.

"In nearly 30 years as a prosecutor, I've never handled a violation of the Clean Indoor Air Act," Faver said.

Sheriff Keith Winger said he anticipated no enforcement problems. "We've never been called in for it (Clean Indoor Air Act violators). It would be so seldom."

Haugen tried to push the ordinance along, suggesting the rural forums and perhaps a task force to further hammer out an acceptable ordinance.

"I'm very happy about it," she said. "It has caused a lot of discussion in the county about second-hand smoke."

bswenson@bemidjipioneer.com