By BRAD STUTZMAN
Cox Newspapers

Effective Oct. 1, the use of tobacco products will be banned on almost all Williamson County government property, except at parks and on roads.
County commissioners adopted the ban – which expands an indoor smoking ban – by a 4-1 vote Aug. 24, with County Judge Dan Gattis dissenting.
“Personally, I think we are just getting further into personal rights than we want to go,” Gattis said.
But others said the ban – which is now incorporated into the county’s updated Employee Policy Manual – is consistent with county government’s ongoing voluntary smoking cessation programs for employees.
“Quite frankly, not that many people have taken advantage of that,” Pct.1 Commissioner Lisa Birkman of Brushy Creek noted.
Officials said if county government is on the one hand encouraging employees to stop smoking, it should not on the other hand be providing them outdoor areas to light up. Smoking inside county government offices and other county buildings has been forbidden a number of years, officials said.
Birkman said the indoor smoking ban has led some employees – and private citizens doing business with the county – to congregate outside buildings and smoke.
Although smoking is currently not allowed within 15 feet of county buildings, Birkman said some residents don’t like walking through the smoke other residents generate in order to enter the buildings.
Williamson County Emergency Services Director John Sneed said the Employee Benefits Committee he serves on supports the ban, noting it is similar to what most hospitals now have in place.
Assistant County Attorney Dale Rye said it will be up to each elected official and department head to enforce the rules for his or her own employees.
“You can’t tell an elected official to fire an employee who violates the rules,” Rye told commissioners.
Rye suggested it might be harder to enforce the smoking ban among the general public.
“Because the county doesn’t have ordinance-making power, you can’t arrest somebody for smoking on county property,” Rye said.
He went on to say county officials could, however, ask that smoker to stop smoking or leave – and if the smoker doesn’t leave they could be arrested for trespassing.
In addition to exempting smoking in county parks and along county-maintained roads, the commissioners are also leaving Sheriff James Wilson to set his own polices at the sheriff’s office and jail.
Smoking is not allowed inside the facilities and inmates are not allowed to smoke at all, Wilson said.
However, he said there is an employee smoke-break area outside the jail and that will probably not change.
Although Pct. 4 Commissioner Ron Morrison of Round Rock voted for the ban, he said he also agrees with Gattis.
“A lot of times I think we are hiding behind health and safety, to make a law because we can make one,” Morrison said. “We don’t have the manpower to enforce it.”
Birkman said the tobacco ban won’t become effective until the start of the county’s new fiscal year on Oct. 1.
She said the county will be putting signs up at buildings and posting notices online, alerting people to the changes.