Warren mayor's no-smoking zone gets tabled by City Council for now

Smoking outside city buildings in Warren has some folks steaming. The Warren City Council voted Tuesday to table a request from Mayor Jim Fouts asking it to pass a measure banning smoking within 100 feet of all city buildings. The issue went before the City Council after Fouts used his executive authority to implement the ban without council approval.

But Judge John Chmurna had the signs removed from the 37th District Court, saying Fouts didn't have the authority to issue the ban without the council voting on it. "At the 37th District Court, we're all about the law, and if there's no law preventing you from doing that, I don't like signs on this building preventing you from doing that," Chmurna said. "Jim Fouts is the mayor of the city of Warren; he's not the ruler of a kingdom."

Fouts said he had a city attorney research the issue and, based on that, said he believes he can issue the ban on his authority alone. "I guess there's no real downside (to making it a law) except I didn't want to be involved with the government red tape, where you have to write up people and impose fines," Fouts said. "I thought we could do it on the basis of common courtesy."