Smoking Ban in Temple Restaurants
Stage 3
Molly K. Bergstrom
Steve Sheamer
Formulating and adopting a strategic plan is one of the key steps in getting proposed
legislation on government’s agenda. Without a solid and well though out plan of action the
chances of success are very slim. In attempting to get a ban on smoking in all restaurants in
Temple, it is important that we understand which institutions and officials are going to be
important to the successful implementation of our proposal. We determined that the individual
members of the City Council and the Mayor of Temple are ultimately responsible for the fate of
our proposed legislation.
Before any communication with public officials can begin, we must identify those
officials who have a direct influence in the outcome of our proposed legislation. There are four
City Council members in the city of Temple who would be important to the realization of our
goals, Keifer Marshall (District 1), George English (District 2), Tommy Stone (District 3), and
Sally Myers (District 4). As members of the City Council, their job is to listen to the people of
their districts. The City Secretary informed us that the council members have an open office
policy, welcoming any constituents that wish to express their opinions. Because the members of
the City Council are at the disposal of their constituents, it would be easy for us to gain access to
them. Meeting with each member and discussing our proposed legislation would be the first step
in having our voice heard.
After we have spoken with the members of the City Council, the next step is to get a form
request to go before the council and the mayor. The City Council meets the first and third
Thursday of every month, and the City Secretary will contact us and let us know whether or not
we are on the agenda. If we do not get on the agenda after filling out a form request, forming a
petition and sending it to the individual City Council members would be a very effective means
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of expressing to the Council how important this issue is to the people of the city. If we can show
how much support we have on our side from the people of Temple, then we feel confident that
the City Council would put us on the official agenda and take the time to listen to our opinions.
This is a perfect time for our group to act because the next City Council elections are on May 2,
1998.
When we actually come before the City Council, we will be well organized and prepared
for any questions they may have. It will be a good strategy to use specific examples of how
smoking in public restaurants has affected people negatively in the city of Temple. We will
convey that we do respect the people who have a different opinion from our own, but that we are
simply trying to do something that would benefit the health of non-smokers. Before the meeting,
we will do some research to try and find out what each council member stands for. If we know
about the issues they care about, we can incorporate those into our proposal. It would be wise if
we could try to get some form of commitment from the City Council before we leave. We also
plan to focus on cultivating the support from the staff members of the City Council. Staff
members generally have an influence on those they work for and would be a valuable asset.
There are many groups that we could contact in order to get their support while trying to
get smoking banned in Temple restaurants, but we feel that it would be more effective to have a
group of supporters in our own city. We feel that the best way to organize for this project would
be to form an Ad hoc group. This way, we can keep the organizational structure of the group
very simple because the group will only be addressing one issue. We can get our work done
through volunteers who care about the issue, and we will be able to make the major decisions
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informally. With our Ad hoc group, we will let officials know whom to contact in case they
have questions or concerns.
The name of our group will be “Temple Citizens for a Smoke-free Dining Environment.”
This name is easy to recognize and clearly states the issue we stand for. We plan to find group
members among those who have quit smoking, employees of health agencies, and locals who are
members of national organizations such as American Cancer Society and American Lung
Association. Putting advertisements in the Temple Daily Telegram will also attract people who
would be willing to help us with our cause. We will treat our members equally and let them
know that the results of our campaign were a result of the time they devoted to help our cause.
We will find something useful for each member to do, so they will know that we need them and
that what they are doing is important.
Raising funds will be necessary since we are planning to advertise in the newspaper.
Most of our fundraising events will be centered on the private contributions of our members.
Bake Sales, garage sales, raffles, car washes and other community-oriented events will be the
foundations of our fundraising efforts. Since our campaign is a local campaign, staffed by
members of the local community, we will not need a tremendous amount of money to
successfully carry out our goals.
Another extremely important aspect of getting our legislation passed is mobilizing the
vote. Since all of our voters will be located within the Temple city limits it will not be necessary
for us to travel all over the State or Country in search of supporters. We will use a telephone poll
to find out where most of our supporters will be located within the city. After we find out where
most of the citizens who support our position are located, we will lobby that area with face to
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face visits and letters detailing our position and purpose. We will also attempt to gain the
support of those voters who are unsure on where they stand on the issue. We will do this by door
to door visits and contact through community wide fundraisers.
To avoid thinning out our resources too much we will focus mainly on the areas where
we can gain a lot of voter support without spending a lot of time. Churches, schools, and civic
organizations will all provide us with this opportunity. We can also visit hospitals and clinics
and enlist the support of those who are suffering from smoking related illnesses and those who
have to treat people with smoking related illnesses. It would be very beneficial if we had
someone who was actually suffering from a disease as a result of cigarette smoke to support us in
our cause and give anecdotal evidence of the dangers of cigarette smoke.
Another strategy we will use to mobilize the vote is canvassing, where we will attempt to,
make contact with registered voters who support our cause, potential supporters who are not yet
registered to vote, and convince neutral or lukewarm voters to become supporters. After we
obtain a list of the registered voters in the Temple precinct from the local board of elections, we
will begin the process of canvassing. We will make an attempt to match our representatives with
their respective neighborhoods. For instance, if we have a supporter from downtown Temple
then we will use them to contact citizens in downtown Temple. People will be more open to
someone that they can familiarize themselves with and who can talk to them in a manner that
they are familiar with.
You can have all the support in the world, but it will get you nowhere without actual
votes. We will make sure our voters get to the pole by using “runners” to contact them by
telephone on voting day and remind them to vote. We will also have “checkers” at the actual
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voting places to keep track of our supporters who have voted and which of them need to be
contacted and reminded to vote. This will help narrow the list of names that our “runners” have
to call and it help us in maximizing our resources.
One strategy that we are avoiding is attempting to enlist the help of huge national
organizations. We want to maintain control of our campaign and by bringing in a huge
organization we would lose too much of our influence. We also want to avoid any negativity in
our campaign, whether it is against smokers or a candidate who opposes our legislation. By
staying positive we will avoid making too many enemies and we will also be able to sway more
of the undecided voters. We also want this campaign to stay relatively inexpensive. We don’t
want to get into a situation where we have to spend huge amounts of private money. It wouldn’t
be fair to our supporters or to those who have given money to help our cause.
Our strategic plan is based around the assumption that we will be able to vote directly on
the issue of whether to ban smoking in public restaurants (Much like the residents of California
voted on whether to legalize marijuana). However, if this legislation is one that must be voted
on only by the City Council, then we will have to change our plan and lobby for the candidate
who supports our position. In either case we will maintain the strategies discussed above will
only slight modifications.