IA: Council approves shorter penalty for alcohol checks

Press Citizen

By Andy Davis and Holly Hines

October 4, 2016

The Iowa City Council on Tuesday updated the city’s rules for businesses with under-21 exceptions that fail alcohol compliance checks, shortening the penalty period and window for strikes against businesses.

The council, after little discussion, unanimously approved the final reading of a change to city code that narrows the review period when the city can count compliance-check failures against a business from five to two years. The change means businesses with liquor licenses that fail Iowa City Police Department alcohol compliance checks twice in a two-year period will have their local, under-21 exception revoked.

At the same time, businesses failing checks twice in two years will lose their exceptions for 30 days and another 90 days for each subsequent violation. The previous rule called for businesses that failed checks twice in five years to lose their exceptions for the remainder of that five-year window.

City Manager Geoff Fruin said at previous meetings that, under the previous penalty, a business failing two compliance checks in a short time period would face a punishment of nearly five years, while a business failing two compliance checks four years apart would face just a one-year penalty.

He said Tuesday that few concerns about the change came up during a recent conversation with the Partnership for Alcohol Safety group.

In an interview last week, Fruin said Mayor Jim Throgmorton, Iowa City Police Department Capt. Bill Campbell and officer David Schwindt provided input during the meeting.

However, he told the council questions came up about whether the police department would conduct enough compliance checks in a two-year period to allow for sufficient enforcement.

“It’s really hard to answer that question at this point. Certainly we think that it’s sufficient, but we can look back a year or two from now, and if we’re not checking these establishments multiple times within that two-year period, it may make sense to push it to a three-year, or longer, time period,” Fruin said.

To conduct compliance checks, police recruit people younger than 21 and direct them to try to buy alcohol, responding to any questions truthfully and presenting their real drivers’ licenses or identification if asked.

Under-21 exceptions, available to businesses making less than half their revenue from liquor sales, allow underage customers into those businesses after 10 p.m. The state also monitors compliance failures, oversees the issuance of liquor licenses and can charge penalty fees or revoke liquor licenses. The city administers its penalties in addition to state penalties.

According to a city memo, four businesses lost their exception certificates after failing two alcohol checks in a five-year period and are serving multiyear penalties: Colonial Lanes, 2253 Old Highway 218 S.; Blackstone, 503 Westbury Drive; Sam’s Pizza, 441 S. Gilbert St.; and The Airliner, 22 S. Clinton St. Colonial Lanes can no longer allow individuals under 21 to be in the bowling alley after 10 p.m.

The city’s two Panchero’s Mexican Grill restaurants, located on South Clinton Street and South Riverside Drive, forfeited liquor licenses so they can continue allowing underage customers through their doors after 10 p.m. The Bread Garden Market, 225 S. Linn St., and Bo-James, 118 E. Washington St., were poised to lose exceptions under the previous ordinance, the memo says.

Fruin said last week that passage of the new ordinance means the city will review violations from the last two years for penalized businesses.

“If you just have one violation within that two-year period, then that would be your warning, essentially, until that two-year period lapses,” he said. “All of the businesses that are under the (previous) penalty structure would be able to apply for their exemption certificate. Their violations do not fall within that two-year window.”