Bar and private club owners voiced concerns about proposed liquor law changes at a public hearing of the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control Monday morning, Feb. 10.

Filling the room beyond its capacity, club owners, liquor wholesalers, restaurateurs and several lawyers articulated a variety of issues, from threats to small businesses to unfair control exerted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in drafting the changes.

"The law continues to be unfriendly to consumers, tourists and families," said attorney Brian Barnard. "It also perpetuates unrealistic rules, unworkable rules that cannot be enforced, that won't be enforced, that will simply be ignored or broken."

The liquor law changes signal the first notable overhauls proposed since major revisions in 1991. They were written by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and are described in Senate Bill 153, introduced by Senators John Valentine, R-Orem, and Ron Allen, D-Stansbury Park.

Nicholas Hales, chairman of the five-member commission, said the commission's main concerns are to control underage drinking, help the hospitality industry and limit adult over-consumption. The committee will meet again at 2 p.m. Wednesday for additional public comment.

The 270-page bill outlines numerous stipulations, including prohibiting minors under 21 from entering social drinking clubs, limiting the amount of alcohol per drink to 2.75 ounces of spirituous liquor and raising the costs of licensing fees and liquor.

"With the stress it would cause on the clubs, a lot of us would have to take drastic measures and would probably end up going under," said Jared Mayer from Salt Lake City bar Area 51. "There will be more house parties, and more drunk drivers on the road because of the house parties. It's a bad idea."

The bill would also require bars to stay open one hour beyond the last call for alcohol.

"It's a good idea to keep it open in the hopes that people will finish their drink and go home after they've had time to sober up," Barnard said. "The problem with that is that it requires staff to be there for an hour and to be idle. It requires them to be open without any income."

However, not all alcohol distributors said the bill is unfair.

"I applaud the legislation," said Tom Guinney, a partner of Gastronomy, a Salt Lake-based company that runs eight clubs and restaurants. "It addresses public safety issues that need to be addressed. It is favorable to economic development."

Representatives from several small, family-owned business said the proposed increase in licensing fees would ruin them.

"I run a small private club, and an increase in my licensing costs would be passed on to my customers," said Paul Watts of Good Times Saloon in Salt Lake. "I'd lose customers. I don't know why I should lose my standard of living when the state makes millions of dollars in profit every year."

Nicholas Hales, DABC committee chairman, said small businesses were represented during talks about the bill.

"We have thousands of licensees, and it's impossible to involve everyone in the process," Hales said. "This bill is not unfriendly to small businesses."

Some say the Church of Jesus Christ had too much control in drafting the bill, and that meetings were held behind closed doors that should have been opened.

"We're commenting on whether the LDS Church had an opportunity to be involved in the drafting or weighing in on the legislation prior to anyone else, whether they had veto power, whether there was excessive religious entanglement in drafting the legislation," said Dani Eyer, director of the Utah chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Hales said lobbyists from the Church were contacted about the bill, but were not allowed to make changes.

"There was discussion of general concepts, but there's not one line in that bill that was drafted by them. Not one," Hale said.

Church officials say they have a right to express their views.

"The Church makes no apology for its participation in the legislative process concerning the legal regulation of alcohol in the State of Utah," said Bruce Olsen, press secretary for the First Presidency of the church. "The church has a long history of making its views on the subject known to the DABC and the Legislature. We further believe that significantly lower social costs from the abuse of alcohol in Utah than in other states justify this continuing concern."
Copyright Brigham Young University 11 Feb 2003