SHARE

All those ashtrays surrounding Fort Worth City Hall could be a thing of the past if the City Council approved a proposal to stop hiring smokers.

Mayor Betsy Price answered questions after Tuesday morning’s council meeting about an informal report that suggested the council look at a tobacco-free hiring policy and smoke-free city facilities.

Price wasn’t on the city committee that selected the idea from among many employee suggestions, and said the council would hear a briefing on the subject on May 7.

PO_FWW_EXTENDED_300x250

“Certainly anything that affects our community’s health and makes our community more livable is worth taking a look at,” she said. “We’ve made no decisions about how it would be implemented.”

Asked about her own healthy lifestyle (Price leads weekly bike rides), the mayor said she doesn’t “impose her standards on anybody.”

“It’s how I live my life but I don’t impose those standards on anybody, but certainly we owe it to the taxpayers to be a healthier community,” she said. “It sets a great example for our children so it’s certainly something that will be looked at.”

The proposal is  one of six suggestions from a program asking city employees for “cost-saving ideas,” according to an informal report submitted to the the city council this week.

The six employees, one of whom suggested the tobacco-free policy, received cash rewards for the winning suggestions.

2 COMMENTS

LEAVE A REPLY