7:02 AM
Tory Brecht, Quad-City Times | Posted: Saturday, November 29, 2008 12:00 am
DAVENPORT -- Iowa bar and club owners may soon have to police the parking lots and sidewalks outside their establishments, in addition to keeping order inside.
When it reconvenes in early January, the Iowa Legislature is expected to take up debate on a bill subjecting liquor license holders to penalties for "knowingly permitting or engaging in criminal activity in areas adjacent to the licensed premises."
Current law puts responsibility on license-holders only for criminal activity inside the establishments.
Several Davenport bar owners said they are annoyed -- but not surprised -- at more regulation talk coming from Des Moines. Bar owners still are coping with changes wrought by the smoking ban passed this summer.
"I think they"re overreacting," said Ron Frantz, owner of Lumpy"s on Harrison Street in Davenport. "That"s like saying someone needs to police the cars driving by their house. It doesn"t make enough sense to even be logical."
Although Davenport is in the Metropolitan Coalition of the state"s nine largest cities, which is lobbying for the bill, not all elected officials support it.
"From a public safety standpoint, I"m in favor of creating a safe environment for people," said Davenport 2nd Ward Alderman and state Sen.-elect Shawn Hamerlinck. "But we don"t want to create too big of a financial burden on small businesses. For me, the bigger issue would be for the state to give more local control to pull the liquor licenses of individual establishments that cause
problems."
Hamerlinck and several other aldermen have repeatedly groused about the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Commission"s frequent decisions to reverse the city"s pulling of liquor licenses. During an October forum with commissioners held in Davenport, they urged the state office to support municipalities that pull licenses of problem establishments.
"Des Moines doesn"t want to give up any kind of institutional control over licenses when they are absorbing the profit from them," Hamerlinck said. "Instead of taking on this real issue, I think they"re playing around with parking lots. I think they"re missing the real problem."
Third Ward Alderman Bill Boom, who owns the bar Mary"s on 2nd, is concerned that the bill -- as written so far -- is purposefully vague. He also agrees with Hamerlinck that expanding local control makes more sense than imposing a burden on every bar in the state.
"As far as the concept, I"d be in favor of providing local authorities with more control over liquor licenses," he said. "The problem we have is we are powerless many times from taking action when we have legitimate complaints about establishments. We take licenses away, and the state turns around and gives them right back."
Frank Berner, who owns Frackie"s Pub and Grub on Clark Street and Sippis on 2nd Street, isn"t sure more regulation from anyone -- state or city -- is the answer.
"I think things work pretty well the way they are," he said. "If they need to pull a liquor license, they can pull one. Trying to police everything would be pretty hard without adding additional labor."
Lynn Walding, administrator of the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division, said the agency will meet on Dec. 17 to discuss the merits of the proposed legislation and consider making a recommendation to state legislators.
No penalties have been proposed yet.