By Jennifer Wilson - The partial smoking ban in Downtown Jackson was crushed out, for now, at Monday’s Jackson City Council meeting. The council may be taking a step back on its proposed smoking ban after holding a first reading of the proposed ordinance, drafted by Councilman Andy Rodriguez and City Manager Mike Daly. Public feelings about the smoking ordinance have thus far been mixed.  Jimmy Yep, a downtown property owner said “it may scare off people who want to come downtown.”  Yep said that many of his tenants smoke on their balconies.  Downtown business owner Stan Lukowicz thought the council’s time would be better spent on more important issues.  “I don’t see how having a smoking ordinance in downtown will help business,” Lukowicz said.  Others thought there were too many loopholes in the document and that the ordinance would be hard to enforce.  Walt Hoeser, a Jackson Planning Commissioner, thought the ordinance was too lax and should be “stronger.”  Conversely, Planning Commissioner Dave Butow was concerned about bias on the council.  “A legislative body cannot allow its own bias to color its decisions,” Butow said. The council acknowledged all public comment and agreed to revisit the ordinance and get further public input.  Councilman Rodriguez suggested not taking up any more of city staff’s time, and asked for another volunteer to work on the document.  Councilman Wayne Garabaldi volunteered to work on the ordinance with Rodriguez.  Additionally, Vice Mayor Connie Gonsalves noted that the original complaint came from downtown merchants and that the main concern was the bar patrons who smoked outside of any of the three bars on Main Street. “Maybe we need to work with (the bar) owners on how to provide more places outside to smoke,” Gonsalves said.  In addition to conducting the first reading, Daly indicated that a copy would be disseminated to downtown merchants and property owners for their input.