The Big Liquor Law Flip-Flop

[Liquor Laws, Again] While driving to work this morning, I heard Salt Lake Tribune political reporter Robert Gehrke  on KSL radio's Doug Wright Show. Wright had invited Gehrke to defend his reporting on this story, dated Feb. 3. Why? Because the night before, on KSL's Nightside Project, Senate President Michael Waddoups did a 180-degree reversal on his earlier position supporting a bill to establish a statewide database of information culled from bar patrons' drivers licenses. 

Waddoups told Nightside Project co-host Ethan Millard the notion of scanning bar codes on drivers' licenses and storing personal data on people for law enforcement purposes is something "we're not even talking about yet," and that "no one's even buying into it at this point."

Lie.

It was a complete flip from his comments two days earlier to the Trib's Gehrke. In that interview, Waddoups discussed the possibility of even extending the data base to restaurants--so they could cross-check information with bars and private clubs to help regulate overserving liquor.

When asked about the varying accounts of his position in the Salt Lake media, Waddoups responded: "Let me give you a bit of advice. Don't believe everything you hear in the press."

Today the public learned that both Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, and Waddoups have dropped their as-yet unwritten proposals on establishing a drinkers' database.

With KSL's Wright, Gehrke stood by his work on the liquor law stories, and said he quoted Waddoups accurately earlier in the week. 

Whew. 

What I like most about all of this chaos in the past few days is that the watchdog role of the press on this issue worked. It worked like a charm. Valentine and Waddoups conjured up a very bad idea for a law. Members of the local press found out about it early enough in the legislative session to write about it and write some more. The idea that government would have private information on where citizens choose to spend their legal, free time on some database gave people the creeps. It enraged them. Because if there's one common thread between the left and the right, it's that government has no right to snoop into people's personal lives while they're behaving legally.

This is exactly how the press is supposed to do its job. The legislators saw this thing for the potential quagmire it is. They flipped. (BTW, Waddoups has a record for doing so on liquor laws.) Thank god it happened early in the session, when citizens could actually express their rage with it all. Otherwise, we'd have the thing crammed down our throats.

One final note: Gehrke is one of the most thorough and professional reporters in this state, and it's quite clear that Waddoups hung him out to dry. (Holly Mullen)

LDS Leaders on Liquor Laws

[Liquor Law Zaniness] Republican legislative leaders met yesterday with Mormon Church officials to discuss possible liquor law changes in the upcoming 2009 session. It's a customary meeting, according to church spokesman Scott Trotter. And it's a meeting of equal opportunity, apparently--church leaders lunched last week with Democratic legislators. The church is registering a bit of an open mind on liberalizing some laws, including support for doing away with the silly private club membership, as Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. recommends.

By far, my favorite line from mainstream media coverage of the private church/state vetting session comes from Deseret News political writer Lisa Riley Roche, who added this last paragraph to her story:

The Senate president (Mike Waddoups) said the legislative leaders were told "not to expect them to give us an opinion on every issue that we're dealing with." (Holly Mullen)

Time to Toast!

[Booze Birthday] Today marks the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition in the USA. Seems to me that calls for a toast.

Cheers! Salut! Zivjeli! Skaal! Prost! Sanon! Ba'sal'a'ma'ti! A votre sante! Jamas! L'chaim! Tos! Cin cin! Kampai! Chukbae! Sanitas bona! Salud! Sanda bashi! Mabuhay! Na zdrowie! Auguryo! Choc-tee! Djam! Hoshe! Chia!

Sorry for you folks in Quatar; no booze for yooz. (Ted Scheffler)

Another Rollicking Night at the DABC

[Liquor Laws] Last night’s second DABC hearing on whether to junk private club membership at bars saw overwhelming support for an end to the 40-year-old law. Except, that is, from a few bar owners.

Although the hearing started with one citizen loudly insisting the liquor laws needed tightening rather than loosening--“and that if people don’t like it they can go elsewhere”--much of the evening was given over to a parade of tourist-related associations and bar owners and managers extolling the virtue of a world where out-of-towners wouldn’t have to scratch their heads in confusion or dismay over being asked for a cover charge and their private information when all they wanted was a beer.

Utah Tourism Industry Coalition’s Joel Racker said the elimination of private club membership would make Utah more hospitable. Utah Restaurant Association’s Hans Fuigi said it was painful for the state not to be able to provide visitors with the experience they deserve.

But for Three Alarm saloon owner Jack Carlton, private club membership is a blessing he doesn’t want to see taken away. He recounted a recent episode where his 100-pound female bouncer wrestled to the ground a drunk trying to get into the bar. A witness took a gun from his car and discharged it into the ground to stop the melee, according to Carlton. Resulting richochets hurt several bystanders, one seriously, he added. For Carlton the point was clear: checking for membership keeps the unwanted out. “If I don’t like him, I don’t have to sell membership,” he says. For another bar owner, membership meant a cozy social atmosphere, where bar and wait staff know their regulars. But another barman recalled his bar-hopping youth. He pointed out that club membership was not a deterrent to bar crawls, since each of his friends would have a membership to a different club.

Several speakers expressed concern about the social costs of liberalizing the liquor laws. Citizens for Families’ Valerie Mills spoke about the alcohol landscape and how Governor Jon Huntsman Jr.’s support of dismantling the private club law effectively sent a message to young people that alcohol had somehow “changed, that it was more benign.”

Former compliance officer Rick Golden, now a lawyer, closed the evening with a laugh. “Please don’t get rid of private club membership,” he told the commission. “We lawyers can’t take the cut in pay.” (Stephen Dark)

DABC To Ponder Private Club Membership

[Liquor Laws] If members of the Utah Hospitality Association thought Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.’s endorsement of their plan to see an end to private club memberships in Utah meant DABC commissioners would rubber stamp it, they were sadly disillusioned.

This morning, the five-member DABC took up the issue at its monthly board meeting. The liquor control czars heard how well the state’s liquor stores were doing – sales and profits are up more than 11 percent. Then commissioner Bobbie Coray motioned for “a thorough analysis” of the requirement that bars charge private club membership. She said she had long sought to eliminate laws “that had no compelling reason.”

Commissioner Kathryn Balmforth, however, rose in stout defense of the private club restriction on bars, anchoring her position in the rights of what she termed the "non-drinking majority of Utah." She argued there appeared to be an attempt to “create an impression of a public groundswell” in favor of doing away with forcing bars to label themselves clubs and charge a $5 cover fee. “Maybe there is,” she said, “I just missed it.”

While some might sneer at Utah’s liquor laws for being different, she continued, those who wanted a drink could get one. “There’s nothing small-minded about the majority not being forced to pay for the costs of the societal abuse of alcohol.” Part of the DABC’s mandate, Balmforth reminded the audience of mostly bar owners, was to be aware of those who didn’t want liquor.

After complaining that only one side of the issue was being explored, Balmforth cited one reason why private club status was of value: record keeping. If a drunk left a bar and hit someone with his or her car, there would be a record of where and what that offender drank.

While Coray pointed out that private club membership was an issue she had long been concerned with, Balmforth appeared to find some back-door politicking going on. “We were all appointed by the governor but this is a legislative question,” she said. “I don’t think we have to carry his water on this particular debate.”

The commission voted, with the exception of Balmforth, to address the issue, including holding several public hearings. One commissioner noted, “This is the beginning of a long process.”
A number of unhappy UHA members walked out after the vote, one muttering about moralizing.

But UHA spokeswoman Lisa March McGarry said significant progress had been made. She said the UHA had been told that, for the first time, the Legislature and the DABC were willing to receive information from bar owners, the UHA, and other interested parties.

McGarry's concern, however, was that if and when private clubs were eliminated, additional elements might be added to the bill. One she described as a worrying “long shot” would require converting the entire penalty code currently used by the DABC to a criminal one, which “would be outrageous.” The main thing, she added, was the majority of commissioners had listened to tavern owners’ concerns.

Afterward, Coray said she didn’t think there was opposition from her own board to eliminate private club status. Rather, she said, “The concern is that we do it right.” (Stephen Dark)

Sabre Rattling

[Liquor Laws] At last night's Utah Hospitality Association's emergency meeting, both the successes and the problems of the group dedicated to making drinking a more pleasant and more profitable experience for bar owners and public alike were evident.

Legal spitfire Lisa McGarry, who has represented Clearfield-based bar, Bogeys, in its struggles with Utah's liquor czars, the DABC, told the less than packed meeting room at the downtown Salt Lake City Peery Hotel about the UHA's much-publicized plans for an initiative petition to end clubs having to demand membership when you fancy hoisting a brew. Ideas of how to solicit votes were swapped, ranging from vote boxes in the booze aisles of supermarkets to putting leaflets in publications such as City Weekly.

Bar owners also heard how the UHA had almost expired for lack of interest from the bar industry. One UHA official said of the 300 bars in Utah, only 25 are fee-paying members of the UHA. A bar owner suggested his competitors were suspicious of his motives when he rang up to encourage them to attend last night's meeting.

"What we've done up to now hasn't been working," another official opined. But recent media interest in the UHA's cause, support for the private club member bill even from Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., suggests at least that if not a turning tide there just might be the beginning of a groundswell for change. (Stephen Dark)