FARGO (AP) - The City Commission has voted to draft an ordinance that would ban smoking in bars but it may be up to voters to decide the issue.

The City Commission voted 5-0 on Monday to direct City Attorney Erik Johnson to start drafting the ordinance.

Commissioner Linda Coates said the idea is to hold a first reading of the ordinance but delay the second reading until it's confirmed that Cass County will hold a special election in November on a proposed sales tax to support economic development.

The smoking ban ordinance would be on the countywide ballot.

"I think it is a big enough issue that the people of Fargo should have the opportunity to express their opinion," Mayor Dennis Walaker said.

Much of the debate Monday focused on maintaining equity for bars in Fargo, West Fargo, and the Minnesota cities of Moorhead and Dilworth.

Bars in Moorhead and Dilworth will go smoke-free Oct. 1 as a result of a statewide smoking ban approved in May by the Minnesota Legislature.

West Fargo commissioners on Monday rejected the first reading of a smoking ban ordinance, but voted in favor of putting the issue to voters.

Fargo's ban will incorporate elements of the Minnesota ban and West Fargo's proposed ordinance.

Coates reminded her fellow Fargo commissioners that on Jan. 2, they responded to a questionnaire from a regional task force by saying they would unanimously support a more restrictive no-smoking ordinance if the city's neighbors did the same. Fargo "should uphold what we said we would do," she said.

But commissioners said they've been warned by bar owners that any stricter smoking ban passed by the commission would be referred to voters, so putting it directly to a public vote makes sense.

More than 15 people testified for or against the ban.

Supporters shared stories of loved ones lost to cancer and painted the issued as a matter of public health rather than business rights.

Former Miss North Dakota Kimberly Krueger of Fargo, a legislative ambassador for the American Cancer Society, told the commission how her grandmother continued to smoke even after she was diagnosed with emphysema. The last time Krueger saw her in a nursing home, "she was just a skeleton of the person I knew," she said.

But Doug Anselmin, general manager of Fargo's Holiday Inn, said the ban would put Fargo at a competitive disadvantage with the rest of North Dakota. He asked the panel to refer the matter to the state level "and not make Fargo an island within the state."

Several bar owners said a total ban would hurt business, and they urged the commission to put the issue to voters.