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Ordinance on alcohol specials on hold
By SCOTT DYER
Advocate staff writer
Mar 8, 2006

An ordinance to ban late-night alcoholic beverage giveaways and specials after 8 p.m. in East Baton Rouge Parish is going to be put on hold for another two weeks.

The proposal was slated for today’s Metro Council meeting after a 90-day delay, but Metro Councilman Ulysses “Bones” Addison, who is sponsoring the measure, said Tuesday he plans to delay the ordinance for another two weeks to try to reach a compromise.

The proposal to ban drink specials after 8 p.m. was pushed by the LSU Campus-Community Coalition for Change, but 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 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.

On Tuesday, Addison said the LSU coalition group is working with the Parish Attorney’s Office to address some of the concerns voiced by restaurants and other alcohol-serving establishments at the December hearing.

Addison said he’s going to ask for a two-week delay because he had yet to see any of the proposed changes in writing.

“I can’t sponsor something that I haven’t seen,” Addison said.

Among other things, the Parish Attorney’s Office is looking at possible changes that would minimize the impact of the ordinance on restaurants and other places that aren’t the intended targets of the legislation, Addison said.

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 proposed ordinance, Weatherly said.

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

Other major concerns surfaced at the last public hearing about how the ordinance might impact hotels and casinos.

Addison said he’d like to meet with all parties on the ordinance during the next two weeks.

“I want to get input from the ABC Board, law enforcement and anyone who thinks they might be impacted by this ordinance,” Addison said.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving Executive Director Kimberlie Kelly, who is pushing the ordinance with the help of the LSU coalition group, confirmed that a compromise is in the works.

“A lot of really good points were made at the last hearing in December, and the Coalition wants to respond to them,” Kelly said Monday afternoon.

On behalf of Mockler Beverage and several local bars, attorney Stephen Babcock claims the proposed law is unconstitutional because it involves price-fixing.

Babcock said he plans to meet today with a representative from the LSU coalition, which is pushing the ordinance as a way to curb student binge drinking and drunken driving.

During the December hearing, several LSU students told the council that the proposed ordinance would do little to stop student drinking, and might even encourage more drunken driving by prompting students to travel outside the parish to take advantage of drink specials.

At that meeting, Councilwoman Martha Jane Tassin made the motion to defer the issue for 90 days so it can be reworked, noting she’d like to see the proposed ordinance’s deadline for drink specials moved from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.