A revived push to strengthen smoking restrictions in Madison is finding little support among an exhausted city council tired of dealing with smoking issues, according to Ald. Brenda Konkel, District 2.

Konkel had a change of heart regarding her support for a smoking compromise the council passed Nov. 19 and decided last Tuesday to call on the council to reconsider the ordinance, calling her vote in favor of the compromise “a mistake.”

However, despite a seemingly universal lack of enthusiasm for the compromise legislation, it appears the terms are here to stay.

“No one likes this compromise,” Konkel said. “I was hoping we could come up with something better, but looks like it won’t be possible. The votes aren’t there.”

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said he agrees with Konkel that passage of any modification is unlikely.

“I think my colleagues will leave well enough alone. I don’t think any reconsideration will pass,” he said.

The Madison City Council voted 13-7 late Nov.19 to pass the ordinance that will ban smoking in restaurants. The ordinance goes into effect Jan. 2, 2006.

The compromise states that all restaurants that allow smoking in separately ventilated rooms must eliminate smoking in those rooms by Jan. 2, 2002; full-service bars with less than 33 percent alcohol sales must eliminate smoking by Jan. 2, 2005; full-service bars with between 33 and 50 percent alcohol sales must ban smoking by Jan. 2, 2006; and restaurants, anywhere with 50 percent or less alcohol sales, must eliminate smoking by Jan. 2, 2003.

If there is a 10 percent or more decline in sales, the establishment will be exempt from the ordinance for 12 months in order to allow customers to become familiar with the ban.

Ald. Todd Jarrell, District 8, shares Konkel’s sentiments and said he is unhappy with the compromise terms.

“We’d like to kill it and start from scratch,” he said. “It’s badly written, still hurts business, [and] it has weird loopholes.”

Jarrell and Konkel both favor bringing the issue to referendum for next spring’s election — an unlikely scenario, according to Konkel, who is unwilling to propose the measure herself.

“I would support putting it on referendum if someone else proposed it,” she said.

Ald. Jean MacCubbin, District 11, one of the sponsors of the original August ordinance, which put the terms into effect Jan. 1, 2003, reluctantly supported the compromise but was disappointed the restrictions were set back under the proposal.

“I don’t like the sunset dates. 2006 is pretty far from now,” she said.

Nevertheless, MacCubbin said she will vote for the modified ordinance.

“I’ll reluctantly vote for something like [this ordinance], but I’m certainly not satisfied,” said MacCubbin,

Despite the lengthy delay of implementation under the proposal, State Street Brats owner Ross Johnson is still uneasy about what he calls an increasing city infringement on freedom of choice.

“People make choices in this world. Some are healthier than others. I’d like to reserve the right for my customers to make a choice,” Johnson said on the eve of the compromise passage. “We’re very upset with the newly designed smoking ordinance,”