Back in 1995 Pete Vallone, Speaker of the NYC Council, went through one of his periodic spasms about smoking. Supposedly, someone in his wife's family had died of lung cancer and he wanted to avenge their death on the rest of us. So he proposed a smoking bill. It was perhaps the dumbest anti-smoking legislation devised. Only the NYC Council could have come up with legislation that allowed smoking in small, congested, non-ventilated spaces but prohibited it in large, airy ones. The bill prohibited smoking in restaurants except in separately ventilated rooms. The bill exempted, however, any restaurant with under 36 seats. For all of Vallone's righteous indignation about health risks, he wasn't going to piss off the small diners and coffee shops in his Queens district.
So the vote on the bill was set and Rudy Giuliani had to decide how he felt about this. A meeting was called with the relevant parties at Gracie Mansion to discuss this. As head of Inter-Governmental Affairs I was naturally attending. Peter Powers, First Deputy Mayor, would have been as well, but a prior unbreakable commitment prevented him from going. He called me into his office to discuss the coming meeting. We both knew Rudy was leaning towards signing it. His health advisor, Maria Mitchell and his Health Commissioner, Dr. Margaret Hamburg, were both virulent anti-smokers. Both were pushing him hard to sign it. Peter and I were of the view that there was no hue and cry from the residents of New York City for this legislation. Smokers and non-smokers coexisted just fine. It was rather the lunatic fringe of anti-smokers who wanted this legislation. Peter and I were both smokers and I was once a VP at a lobbying firm that had as one of its major clients Philip Morris. So everyone knew well ahead of time where we both stood on this. But Peter, like many smokers, felt guilty about his habit and wasn't going to strenuously lobby Rudy not to sign it. He left it to me to go to the meeting and be the lone voice for sanity. Peter told me to do my best and try and win the day. I told him I would.
Prior to the meeting I called Marty McLaughlin, my old boss and Philip Morris lobbyist. Philip Morris was one of the few Fortune 500 companies still headquartered in New York City. Most had fled south over the past few decades. Philip Morris had a beautiful headquarters on Park Avenue. In an earlier smoking law, Marty had inserted language that exempted that building specifically from all of the law's provisions. You could smoke anywhere you wanted in their headquarters. It was the only building in the City so exempted. Even City Hall was covered, although we all secretly smoked in Peter Powers' office. Marty explained to me that the rhetoric was heating up. Philip Morris had told him that they would move out of New York if this legislation passed. That was serious stuff.
It's important to remember that at this time Rudy Giuliani had not yet discovered cigars. I am totally convinced that had this conversation happened after he developed his taste for expensive cigars it would have been completely different. Not because of any selfish motive; cigar bars were always exempt. But rather he would have had a smokers perspective. It was a choice, and government should not interfere in people's lives more than is absolutely necessary. The whole phony employee second-hand smoke issue wouldn't come into play until Bloomberg created it as an excuse to ban all smoking in 2002. But timing is everything and that was not to be in 1995.
So we gathered in the dining room at Gracie for a late afternoon meeting. There were about 6 or seven people but it really boiled down to Maria and Peggy on one side and me on the other. No one else present was going to speak openly against the legislation. Either because they sensed were Rudy's head was or because they were afraid of Maria Mitchell. Although very attractive and capable of being extremely charming, she was a vindictive person and played the game rough. I don't say that as a criticism, it's just the fact. Most who never came up against her admired her for those traits.
So we sat around the table and the NYC legislative affairs office outlined the legislation - pros and cons. It was Martha Hearst presenting who was also personally anti-smoking so it was not exactly an even-handed presentation. Martha made it very clear she would have taken the legislation further. But she was always the professional. Just to be clear when I say someone is 'anti-smoking' I don't' mean that they don't smoke. Yes, that too, but I mean they detest the habit and are perfectly happy to see the practice abolished. I know plenty of people who don't smoke who would not be labeled anti-smoking.
So after Martha finished Rudy asked Peggy for her views. Peggy was always mild mannered and confident. She was not a strident person although she had definite convictions. What made her formidable was the fact that she was competent, assured, intelligent and not strident. I believe Rudy liked and trusted her opinion. Peggy said she supported the legislation, had hoped it would have been tougher but as a compromise she supported it and urged him to sign it. Maria, waiting for me to jump in, launched into a anti-smoking tirade. She quoted numbers and health costs. She seemed panicky. I think she thought I had the ability to turn Rudy's head around and wanted to prevent that. I knew going in that I did not. I knew he would sign it. I was, however, unprepared for what he would say about it.
I finally cut Maria off. "Mayor, this is flawed legislation. How crazy is it that under this bill the largest most well ventilated restaurant can't permit smoking. But a coffee shop, with tables crammed next to each other can. How is that a logical argument for protecting anyone's health? Thirty-six people occupying a space the size of the Pool Room (the Four Seasons Restaurant - a large, airy space) cannot smoke. But thirty-six people crammed into a room this size can. This is about Peter Vallone having a personal animus towards smoking, it's not about health and you shouldn't view it through that prism. And what about the cost to business? They're going to invest this money and who knows it Peter is not going to come back for another bite of the apple and scuttle whatever investment they made. We're supposed to be pro-business. I don't know if this will decrease restaurant business but the restaurant association says that it will."
Maria glared at me. It appeared Rudy didn't know about the capacity exemption before I said it. I had made a good point. She knew it. "Fine," she said, "lets get rid of the exemption, include all restaurants." Martha chimed in to say, "Peter (Vallone) will never go for that. He can't piss off the diners and coffee shops in his district. That's why the exemption is there. Mayor, i think this is as far as he's going to get for awhile. I also should tell you that the votes are there for an override. He would absolutely make this a leadership issue."
"Exactly," I shouted, "this is not about health, its politics. And while it's fine for Maria and Peggy to approach this from a medical perspective, however flawed their facts, this bill is not about health, it's politics."
Maria asked Peggy to talk about second-hand smoke. Peggy recited numbers and what she said were the medical effects of second-hand smoke. I shook my head violently. "Mayor, for the record, you should know that the World Health Organization (WHO) refutes everything Peggy just said. They have said they cannot establish a link between second-hand smoke and disease" (at the time I said this, that was the case as it related to WHO). "That's not true! Maria shouted. "Like hell it's not, I read it in the Times," I said.
Rudy then turned to someone from the Law Department who gave the legislation their blessing from a legal standpoint. Finally Rudy said, "I think I've heard enough." I knew he was about to say he'd sign it, I could just tell. I had to say something before he was on the record as supporting it.
What I said next was probably a mistake when dealing with Rudy Giuliani, but I knew we were losing so I didn't see that I had a choice. "Mayor," I interrupted, " I have it on good authority that should this legislation become law Philip Morris will close down their headquarters and move. They will leave New York and with them alot of jobs." He paused and got mad. "Oh yea?" He said. "First, I don't believe they will leave New York, they're bluffing. Secondly, if they do leave," he leaned forward and pointed his finger at me, " you tell them I will personally help them load up the boxes, you hear me?" He started laughing and broke out into a grin. He started to wave his hand. "Bye, bye. Farewell. We can find a buyer for their headquarters in two minutes. You tell them that!"
"Mayor, I don't think they're bluffing, but I will tell them," I said. He then asked Martha when the vote would happen. Maria had a big grin on her face, she had won. I am not a gracious loser on policy matters. Things in life matter. What we do in government is not just some academic exercise, we're affecting people's lives and should do it as infrequently as possible, I believe.
As it happened the Council voted in the smoking restrictions. Businesses spent a lot of money to comply only to find that investment wasted a few years later when smoking was banned everywhere. Philip Morris left New York shortly after the legislation passed and took nearly 1,000 jobs with them. Rudy began smoking cigars and enjoyed doing so in the exempted cigar bars. Interestingly, that is where he would meet the third Mrs. Giuliani, Judith Nathan. Maria Mitchell left the administration in a mini-scandal. Peggy Hamburg left to take a job in the Clinton Administration. Martha Hearst would leave Legislative Affairs to become a Deputy Commissioner of Sanitation. Bloomberg would appoint her Commissioner of the City's Department of Citywide Administrative Services. I would leave to go to EDC and then HDC. Peter Vallone bequeathed his Council seat to his son when term limits kicked in.
