The imminent departure of Ald. Kent Palmer, District 15, who will flee City Hall in early November, is leaving some city officials uncertain over the future of the prospective ban on drink special legislation sponsored by Palmer and fellow Ald. Tim Bruer, District 14.
A coalition of campus-area bars announced Sept. 10 they had created a plan to ban drink specials at their establishments on weekend nights, beginning immediately and continuing “indefinitely.”
While alders in some districts maintain that a complete ban on all drink specials is to be voted on sometime in the near future, others say they are content with the bar owners’ voluntary ban on weekend drink specials.
Bruer, who is co-chair of the Alcohol License and Review Committee, has given contradictory statements about his plans for a complete drink special ban. Following the partial-ban announcement earlier this month, Bruer said he was pleased but planned on continuing the campaign to ban drink specials across the board.
Bruer ended the session by suggesting the ban on weekend drink specials was “only the beginning.”
Now, however, he shows a seemingly different opinion on the issue.
“The initiative that the downtown bars have taken [towards drink specials] may result in the Madison Common Council not taking any action in regards to drink specials,” Breur said.
In fact, he claimed it was never the goal to put a ban on drink specials, but rather to limit them.
“People thought it was banning. They misunderstood. The goal is to limit the hours of the drink specials,” Bruer said.
He said it is now the goal of the City Council as well as the ALRC to create a number of alternatives to binge-drinking in the downtown area.
“We hope to be able to bring alternatives for drinking to the downtown area for both those of drinking age and those who are underage,” Bruer said.
Ald. Steve Holtzman, District 19, believes the council vote is still a necessary action that needs to be taken.
“The city is devoting far too many police resources to the downtown area. That’s because Madison police have to baby-sit the party-hearty crowd of UW students,” Holtzman said.
Holtzman said he considers the apparently high police demand in the downtown area to be the main reason for a ban on drink specials.
“The data that we have has shown that many calls in the downtown area have been in regards to alcohol,” Holtzman said.
He also said he believes the main problems occur on streets such as Lake, Henry and State.
Holtzman said he hopes that the vote is proposed very soon.
“We should have voted on it last summer. We were ready to vote last June,” said Holtzman.
The reason the vote on banning drink specials was postponed last summer, according to Holtzman, was because city officials including Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, and Ald. Todd Jarrell, District 8, wanted the students it would affect to be on campus when the vote took place.
If the vote on a complete ban of drink specials does take place, Ald. Tom Powell, District 5, said he worries it will pass.
Powell strongly opposes any ban on drink specials, but he thinks that even with drink ban sponsor Palmer gone in November, the council may still be able to get the 11 votes it needs for the law to pass.
“Right now, [the law] would pass, which is very scary,” Powell said.
