Title
UF Community Alcohol Committee (NB)
Explanation
On August 13, 2001 the City Commission referred this item to the Public Safety Committee to 1) discuss the issue of regulating consumption of large volumes of alcohol and find out if there is an extreme situation and if so, provide some pro-active input to our legislative delegation, and 2) invite the UF Community Alcohol Committee to attend the meeting and offer their input.
The Meetings:
The Public Safety Committee met to discuss this referral on January 17, 2002, February 21, 2002 and March 21, 2002. Attendees included UF staff and members of the UF Community Alcohol Committee, FSU staff and City Commissioner, UF student organizations, Corner Drug Store, Tampa Police Department, Gainesville Police Department, Alachua County Sheriff's Office, bar and restaurant owners/managers, and numerous citizens and students.
The Issues:
Lohse Beeland, Chair of the UF Committee on Alcohol presented their purpose and request. The Committee was formed in response to the 1999 Gainesville Alcohol Abuse Prevention (GAAP) Committee and has been meeting since March 2000 to address alcohol abuse by students as a health and safety issue. Even with their successful efforts in these past two years, their assessments and surveys have shown a need to look at irresponsible drink specials, i.e., cheap drinks that encourage fast and high volume consumption. The UF Committee on Alcohol presented statistics and a proposal to the PSC for assistance in 1) support of regulation of irresponsible drink specials and a review of events such as graduation drinking programs; 2) support of Party Patrol that has a limited grant, for full funding and/or significant support; 3) participation in education via tools such as GRU newsletter and other city promotions; and 4) more diligence in the enforcement of the age 21 drinking laws.
The Review:
During the discussions PSC members heard from numerous interested students, citizens, law enforcement, social service agencies and other municipalities. Although this issue came through UF, it was apparent that the concerns of underage drinking and irresponsible drinking affect not only college students, but middle and high school students as well. Statistics and testimony presented that other crimes occur as a result of binge drinking, such as sexual batteries and assaults, that the use of fake identification is widespread and that many underage who manage to gain entry into a bar do so either by an altered identification or simply by using someone else's identification that has a legal age on it.
The Gainesville Police Department reported back to the committee on the use and cost of identification scanners (attached). Locally, the Alcohol, Beverage and Tobacco (ABT) department conducts enforcement stings working closely with the police. Scanners, although another tool, would not be the end all answer to the problem of students using a legal age ID card that doesn't belong to them. In reality, once the underage drinker is allowed entry, it is almost impossible to ensure they aren't served or able to consume alcohol purchased for them.
Local alcohol establishment owners/managers were invited to participate in the meetings. During the discussions, several of these owners/managers offered to speak during student orientation sessions about their responsibility in carding and not serving to underage students. Others advised of their participation in the State's Responsible Vendor Program.
Tallahassee Commissioner Meisburg addressed the PSC with a proposed ordinance that he is supporting in Tallahassee, calling for these establishments to live by higher standards. Under his proposal, those establishments which live by higher standards and which are responsible vendors, would be allowed to stay open until 2:00 a.m.; those that don't will be required to close at midnight.
The Committee heard from attorney's staff that the City has no local authority to regulate advertising drink specials as the "sale" of alcohol is regulated by the state and local governments cannot regulate in areas regulated by the state. As indicated above, alcohol establishments have the ability to voluntarily participate in the State's Responsible Vendor Program. The Responsible Vendor Act (FSS Chapter 561) provides qualification requirements for those vendors who choose to participate, including training for employees on the laws covering the service of alcoholic beverages and the operation of those establishments. It provides an alcohol server management course for managers that must include subjects on alcoholic beverages and may includes subjects on controlled substances, such as laws governing this service, and development of standard operating procedures for dealing with underaged customers. It requires each non-managerial employee who is employed to serve alcoholic beverages to complete these training courses within 30 days after staring employment and each managerial employee to complete the training within 15 days of employment. It additionally requires the posting of signs on the vendor's premises informing customers of the vendor's policy against serving alcoholic beverages to underaged persons and informing that the purchase of alcoholic beverages by an underaged person will result in ejection from the premises and prosecution.
The Proposals:
The City could seek to have alcohol establishments participate in a responsible vendor program which would limit advertising of drink specials some consider irresponsible. Participation would be voluntary and as such the City would need an incentive to get participation. One incentive, which the committee does not recommend, is to allow those alcohol establishments that participate in the program to stay open after the sale of alcohol must end. Management of the program to assure adherence would be difficult and the city, having just recently limited the hours, make this avenue not persuasive. Another incentive proposed was giving bar owners a percentage off their occupational license tax, if they participate in the Responsible Vendor Program.
The City of Ft. Myers has an ordinance that prohibits anyone under the age of 21 from entering an alcohol establishment. The Committee was told that the City of Tampa has a similar proposed ordinance going before their Commission. Noting that the majority of Gainesville students are under 21, participants in the committee meetings were not of the opinion this would be a "politically popular" alternative, and further, that this move wouldn't keep the under 21 group from drinking at home parties, where there are no responsible servers.
Another strategy presented was outlet density, i.e., consideration of regulating, by ordinance, the number of bars in one area.
The Gainesville Police Department notifies the dean of students at both UF and SFCC whenever a student is arrested and UF advises that there are penalties for such arrests. Participants suggested that penalties involving publicized suspension or longer probations may be a bigger deterrent than any criminal sanctions, and UF members offered to take this up with their committees.
The Gainesville Police Department's policy does not allow officers to work in an off-duty capacity in any business that serves alcohol. The Chief advised that FSS holds the Chief and Sheriff personally responsible for any liability as a result of the officers' actions and further, if the businesses have any criminal issues, it would not be appropriate for the officers to be employed by them. GPD is looking into other possibilities and has approached the downtown owners to seek their interest in hiring off-duty officers who would roam outside their business, but would not go into the bars or act as bouncers.
The committee would like to encourage all downtown businesses, not just bar owners to work as a group and look at the strategies that would promote responsible drinking.
Recommendation
The City Commission receive this report from the Public Safety Committee and approve the recommendation to instruct the City Attorney assist with the wording of legislation to be presented to the legislative delegation that will 1) prohibit irresponsible advertising of drink specials that promote binge drinking on a statewide basis, or 2) allow municipalities to regulate those advertisements in all establishments that serve alcoholic beverages.