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Addison overhauls drink deal proposal
By SCOTT DYER
Advocate staff writer
Mar 22, 2006

A proposed ordinance to ban late-night alcoholic drink specials in East Baton Rouge Parish is undergoing a major makeover as the result of a compromise worked out last week.

Councilman Ulysses “Bones” Addison said Tuesday that the new version of his proposed ordinance will help to crack down on drink promotions, but will be less onerous on establishments that serve alcohol and on those who will enforce the ordinance.

The proposed ordinance is slated to go before the Metro Council today at 4 p.m. on the third floor of the Governmental Building.

Addison said he agreed to roll back the deadline for drink specials from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. after meeting with representatives of the bar industry, law enforcement officials, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the LSU Campus-Community Coalition for Change.

The new 10 p.m. deadline would also mirror a proposed state law that has been pre-filed for the upcoming legislative session, Addison said.

House Bill 872, by state Rep. Taylor Townsend, D-Natchitoches, would ban “all you can drink” specials, promotions that sell multiple drinks for a single price, or specials that feature drinks at less than 50 percent of their customary price after 10 p.m.

As part of his compromise, Addison said, he’s calling for a ban on drink specials less than 60 percent of the customary price after 10 p.m. in East Baton Rouge Parish.

Addison said that under his proposal, local bars would be required to post a menu of their customary drink prices so that city-parish Alcoholic Beverage Control agents can enforce the 60-percent price limit after 10 p.m.

Stephen Babcock, an attorney who represents Mockler Beverage and several local bars, confirmed that he attended a meeting with Addison last week and agreed to several compromises, including the 10 p.m. deadline for drink specials.

Babcock said some of his clients were concerned about the original 8 p.m. deadline because their bars don’t even open till 8 p.m.
“It basically would have meant that they couldn’t have had any drink specials at all,” Babcock said.

Meanwhile, at least one councilman is suggesting the council defer the proposed ordinance after state lawmakers have a chance to consider Townsend’s bill.

In a memo last week to his fellow Metro Council members, Mickey Skyring warned that if Addison’s proposal is adopted, “we stand a good chance of once again finding ourselves in conflict with state law.”

Tuesday morning, Skyring said he had yet to see any of the proposed amendments Addison plans to introduce at today’s Metro Council meeting.

Addison said Tuesday he has no intention of deferring the ordinance so legislators can tackle the issue.

“The day that we start deferring our legislative will to the Louisiana Legislature, we need to start being legislators,” Addison said.

There’s no guarantee that Townsend’s bill or a similar version will pass, Addison said.

In addition to his other amendments, Addison said, he’s also proposing a change that would exempt restaurants from the ordinance.

During a public hearing on the proposed ordinance in December, Tom Weatherly, the Louisiana Restaurant Association vice president of communications and research, said many restaurants give patrons free after-dinner drinks to compensate for problems with food or service. Such complimentary drinks would be taboo under the ordinance as originally proposed, Weatherly had said.

Several restaurant owners expressed concern the original ordinance proposal might stop them from holding wedding receptions and other events where costs are often billed on flat per-guest fee basis.

At that same hearing in December, the proposal drew opposition from bar owners, restaurants, casinos and other establishments that serve alcohol, as well as LSU students who patronize the local bar scene.

At a council hearing on the proposal in December, Coalition Executive Director Nancy Mathews said 92 percent of the 425 bars and restaurants in the parish that are licensed to serve alcohol won’t be affected by the proposed ban because they don’t offer drink specials after 8 p.m. Mathews told the council in December that most of the bars that offer late-night drink specials are bars in the LSU area, catering to college students.