CLAYTON -- The St. Louis County Council will vote again Aug. 18 on a new smoking ban ordinance, because of concerns about the way the first bill was handled Tuesday night.

The new bill will be reintroduced Tuesday by Councilwoman Barbara Fraser, D-University City. And like her bill that was tentatively approved 4-3 Tuesday night, it will ask voters in November whether they want to ban smoking in indoor public places, with exemptions for casino floors and bars. 

The reintroduction "would guard against legal challenges," Fraser said Thursday. 

It also sets up a timetable that will make the council miss the Aug. 25 deadline for putting items on the November ballot. Assuming the council gives the bill first-round approval Aug. 18, the next time it could give it final passage is at its next meeting Aug. 25.

Its session that day starts at 6 p.m., an hour after the deadline passes.

The county would thus have to obtain a court order to place it before voters, if County Executive Charlie A. Dooley does not veto it. Dooley has said he prefers a statewide ban but declared Tuesday that he would decide what to do after he sees the final bill. 

The new bill will have some minor changes, Fraser said, but did not specifiy them. The procedural problem with Tuesday night's vote concerns the council's decision to vote on a bill it had already rejected.

Fraser's bill was a shell, only calling for an election. Council members then added details -- but excluding the casino and bar exemptions. It was rejected. 

Fraser immediately proposed amending the shell bill to include the exemptions. That bill was tentatively approved.

The council's action -- tentatively approving a bill it had already rejected -- could have opened the bill to legal challenge.