The Madison City Council will debate a proposal next month to exempt cigar bars from the city’s controversial smoking ban after members of the City Council Organization Committee referred the proposal Tuesday.


The proposed ordinance would allow patrons to smoke tobacco products — excluding cigarettes — in cigar bars designated by the city.

“My interest is to keep a struggling business in my district open,”

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said.

“City Council has contributed to the demise of [local cigar bar] Maduro with city legislation.”

Verveer, who authored the proposal, said Maduro is the only surviving cigar bar in Madison after the smoking ban passed last year.


Though Maduro is keeping afloat, the establishment’s owner Brian Haltinner said sales have been decreasing ever since the ordinance was passed.


Some of the measures to save Maduro’s revenue have included downsizing staff and decreasing the number of live music nights from six to three.

“Our image is around cigars,”

Haltinner added.

“It makes more sense to have a cigar bar exemption.”

Follow up:

Haltinner also emphasized that fundamentally, smoking pipes and cigars is a different activity by nature than smoking cigarettes, as it takes more than five minutes to thoroughly enjoy a pipe or cigar.


But Dr. Tom Schlanker of the Madison Health Department said passing the ordinance would raise serious public health issues.

“I think it’s pretty clear that cigar bar smoking is much more like cigarette smoking,”

he stated. “Both cause cancer.”


Though the risk of getting lung cancer is lessened in those who smoke cigars, Schlanker said the risks of getting mouth and throat cancer are just as high for heavy cigar smokers as heavy cigarette smokers.


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