Salt Lake smokers are not happy.
More than a dozen puffers have telephoned Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson's office to voice diatribes about Anderson's proposal to ban smoking from city sidewalks and public parks.
Those smokers not making telephone calls aren't happy, either.
"I'm smoking, I don't care. They can give me a ticket," said Carla Conner as she puffed a cigarette downtown Tuesday morning.
After producing a profanity-laced tirade concerning Anderson's proposal, Conner calmed down a little. At 49, Conner, a lifetime Salt Lake resident, has been smoking since she was 13 and doesn't plan to quit.
"My husband wanted me to quit smoking, and I didn't do it," she said. "You think I'm going to quit for the mayor?"
Anderson hasn't heard any of the smoking complaints, because he's in India attending a global warming summit. Before leaving for India, Anderson said he was considering banning smoking from the city sidewalks and city parks. Himself an ex-smoker, Anderson quit after both his parents and a close friend died of emphysema.
Now as Anderson prepares time, place and manner restrictions for Main Street Plaza of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which might cover smoking, he is considering restricting cigarette use throughout the city.
Still, the plan is in the early stages, Anderson's spokesman Josh Ewing said.
First, Anderson and city attorneys will have to craft a proposed ordinance banning smoking on sidewalks and in parks. Then the ordinance will go before the City Council for public comment. Next the council will have to vote whether to adopt the ordinance into law.
Ewing said most of the complaints came from misinformed smokers who thought the smoking ban was already in place.
"We had a dozen phone calls from people who had heard that this plan was going into effect or that this plan was already happening," he said.
But with the negative calls there have been some positives. The city has been approached by the National Heart Association and another anti-smoking group that would like to help Anderson's crusade, Ewing said.
In Davis County, Clinton city is also pondering some strict smoking laws.
City Manager Dennis Cluff said the City Council is considering a ban on smoking in some areas of public parks. Those areas would include bleachers or pavilions or other places where people congregate.
"The initial thought was to ban it throughout the parks," Cluff said. "Then that was modified to banning it to designated areas where there are assemblies of people."
Unlike Salt Lake City, Cluff said, Clinton has received only positive feedback about the proposed bans � even from smokers. Still, Cluff has some reservations and said such a ban would be difficult, if not impossible, to enforce. The council will further discuss the ban at a retreat Nov. 6, Cluff said.