Local bar Ram Head’s liquor license will be suspended for 30 days starting July 1 after the City Council voted Tuesday to support Monday’s decision of the Alcohol License Review Committee.
The City Council also voted in support of the license suspension placed upon ?operation restrictions on University Avenue bars Madison Avenue and Johnny O’s.
Some of these conditions include suspending Madison Avenue’s liquor license for 30 days, reducing Madison Avenue’s maximum capacity by 20 percent, requiring more training for bar staff and having a more restrictive customer to bar staff ratio.?
Johnny O’s did not receive a suspension, but conditions applying to the bar include giving the police power to reduce its capacity by 20 percent as well as requiring the bar to purchase ID scanners and black fluorescent lights.
Similar restrictions will now be placed upon Ram Head, including: requiring the bar to purchase identification scanners and black fluorescent lights for fake ID detection; owner Richard Lyshek must train staff on liquor license laws; staff must confiscate fake ID’s; and staff must not drink alcohol while working at the establishment.
All but three members of the City Council voted in support of the suspensions and liquor license conditions.
However, that does not mean the members who dissented wished for no suspensions. Ald Julia Kerr, District 13, said she did not want any agreement struck between the bars and the city and would have preferred the owners not having liquor licenses.
Ald. Bryon Eagon, District 8, voted for the agreement, but questioned the rationale of the non-renewal procedures pursued by the police, arguing the higher focus should be more serious crimes like assault and burglaries.?
The Madison Police Department sought non-renewal on the basis of multiple instances in which underage students were caught on the bar’s premises.
According to Assistant City Attorney Jennifer Zilavy, during the previous ALRC hearing, MPD took action against the bar because of Lyshek’s uncooperative nature and history of alcohol violations.
“Mr. Lyshek continues to flagrantly violate the law,” Zilavy said. “Anything short of non-renewal, the city does not see the point in.”
According to the written ALRC decision, Ram Head violated the law in 17 out of 22 counts of liquor law violations, all pertaining to underage drinkers.
Lyshek argued the majority of people getting into his establishment used false identification, adding the bar also employs a camera system which takes a picture of the bar patron and their ID.
The ALRC, however, dismissed Lyshek’s argument because he failed to offer any evidence to indicate those underage students used a fake ID that looked authentic with the picture matching the person claiming to be of legal drinking age.
According to the ALRC written decision, non-renewal was not sought in the Ram Head case because the committee wanted consistency in its handling of other licenses. Since Madison Avenue received their 30 day suspension for violations including violent disturbances, ALRC felt suspension for Ram’s Head was the only prudent move, as their violations did not rise above such violations.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said the suspension of Ram Head is due to a history of liquor law violations.
“Ram Head has been found time and time again to be violating the law,” Verveer said. “Ram Head already had a ten day suspension in 2007.”
Before voting, Lyshek commented on current police tactics of alcohol enforcement.
“Far more important than any one bar are the city-wide ramifications of the current search-and-destroy assault against 20 year-old drinkers,” Lyshek said, adding that in the last four years he has seen an “adversarial and poisonous” relationship develop between students and the police.
Lyshek also argued that increased citing of underage drinkers in bars leads to more students attending unregulated and remote house parties where attendees must walk down dimly lit streets which can lead to more crime, such as rape.
Ald. Michael Schumacher, District 18, responded by saying he does not believe the police systematically go into every bar and look for every single underage drinker, but rather they target the establishments that have shown a “serious pattern of not believing in enforcing the law.”
