Any Kenner business to which police are called at least 10 times in a month could lose its liquor license under stricter regulations that the City Council will consider tonight. The proposal also outlines conditions and activities that could jeopardize a bar or restaurant's alcohol permit. It specifies that establishments could be subject to punishment for unsanitary conditions or...
Any Kenner business to which police are called at least 10 times in a month could lose its liquor license under stricter regulations that the City Council will consider tonight.
Joe StagniThe proposal also outlines conditions and activities that could jeopardize a bar or restaurant's alcohol permit. It specifies that establishments could be subject to punishment for unsanitary conditions or if an "unlawful act that endangers patrons or the public" is committed there.
The legislation grew out of Police Chief Steve Caraway's request that the council close bars between 2 and 6 a.m. The council denied that request 6-1 but promised to give more authority to the seven-person Alcoholic Beverage Permit Review Committee, a group of seven residents appointed by the council to make recommendations about punishment.
"Rather than penalize all the businesses, which is more of a shotgun approach to public policy, we're taking a rifle approach so we can shut down the businesses that are bad," said Councilman Joe Stagni. "The vast majority of the businesses are good."
Caraway asked for the bar closures because he said police must be taken from neighborhood patrol beats to respond to barroom incidents. "It's just a drain on police manpower," he said.
The new proposal outlaws nudity and sexual acts, including the simulation of sexual acts, at businesses with liquor licenses and forbids films or other visual displays showing sexual acts or nudity. It forbids "any person of known or admitted lewd, immoral, or lascivious character, sexual pervert, prostitute, inmate of a brothel or a house of prostitution or assignation, seller or user of narcotics, or a convicted panderer, either paid or unpaid, to congregate in or frequent the premises."
Also, it forbids guns on the establishment's premises and calls for an automatic hearing before the committee within 30 days if a gun is fired on the property.
"We're taking aggressive steps to penalize bad businesses who are jeopardizing our quality of life and continue to require calls for service from our police department," said Stagni, who chaired a committee that drafted the measure.
Under the proposal, the police chief would have to make semi-annual reports to the council.
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Mary Sparacello can be reached at msparacello@timespicayune.com or 504.467.1726.