“A multi-departmental City team including representatives from Police, Fire, the Revenue Department and the City Attorney’s Office has been meeting for more than a year to draft comprehensive revisions to Savannah’s Alcoholic Beverage Ordinance.”
As I write this, that’s the first sentence on the city’s Web page detailing proposed changes to the alcohol ordinance.
And that’s where the problems begin.
I know various community members were consulted about the proposed revisions, but the details caught many restaurant and bar owners by surprise on Friday afternoon when the draft became public.
Since the new ordinance would affect the daily operations and bottom line of every bar and restaurant with an alcohol license, wouldn’t it have made sense to get owners and managers in the loop far earlier in the process?
The draft is dated July 15, 2014, but the general public and the media didn’t get a chance to examine it until the Friday afternoon before a long holiday weekend. The first public meetings are scheduled for Sept. 2 — the Tuesday immediately after the holiday.
The timing seems designed to pre-empt serious debate about the draft, parts of which are a clear improvement over existing policies and parts of which are risible.
Of course, it’s worth noting that two of the major improvements involve scrapping the “hybrid” designation and scrapping the current bar card requirements.
Many voices in the community, including this column, said that those requirements were losers several years ago before they were even implemented.
Why were so many of us able to predict that those policies were doomed from the start?
We actually know how bars and restaurants function, and we actually know owners and employees who are affected by bad public policy.
So it’s good to see those provisions disappear, but the draft ordinance contains some elements that are even worse.
For example, if this draft were adopted by City Council, every Savannah restaurant that has an alcohol license would have to start asking every young adult for identification before 10 p.m., whether or not that patron is ordering alcohol. Those under 21 who are without a parent or a legal guardian would be shown the door.
That’s an unworkable policy for restaurants, and it’s an extreme infringement of the rights of legal adults aged 18 to 20. The provision has little chance of becoming law, and, if it does, it will collapse quickly under its own absurdity.
But how could so many city officials and departments sign off on something so obviously wrong-headed?
The text of this draft ordinance and the process for its creation and release raise some fundamental questions about the competence of current city leadership.
City Talk appears every Sunday and Tuesday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 E. 32nd St., Savannah, GA 31401.
