After objections from the Bulloch County Alcohol and Drug Council and individuals, Statesboro City Council let two proposals to loosen Statesboro’s alcoholic beverages regulations die Tuesday.
One of the proposals would have moved the allowed the start time for stores to sell beer and wine on Sundays up from 12:30 p.m. to 11 a.m. The other would have allowed Statesboro-licensed establishments to sell beer and wine from drive-thru windows and by home delivery.
City Council members by two separate 4-0 votes on Dec. 1 had given first-reading approval to both ordinance amendments, sending them forward to second readings Tuesday. No citizens spoke during the Dec. 1 hearing, and no formal hearing is required with a second reading. But council members said they wanted to hear any community concerns, and they did, through calls, emails and the public input time near the beginning of Tuesday’s 5:30 p.m. meeting.
“We’ve worked really hard to try to reduce underage drinking in not only Statesboro but all over Bulloch County, and with that we are concerned about the home delivery of alcohol. …,” Charlotte Spell of the Bulloch County Alcohol and Drug Council told the city officials. “Home deliveries open an additional avenue for youth access.”
The Alcohol and Drug Council has concerns about delivery drivers who are not properly trained to check ID and to refuse sales to people who may already be intoxicated, she said. Independent drivers such as those for Uber Eats and DoorDash and young drivers who feel pressure to make deliveries to underage drinkers present particular causes for concern, she added.
“And if they do find out that the person is underage, then that delivery driver is responsible for losing that sale and having to return the product back to wherever the establishment is,” Spell said.
She recited a series of headlines and statistics indicating that binge drinking and overall alcohol consumption, as well as drinking-related problems specifically affecting women, have all increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recovery concerns
“This is also high-risk for our very large recovery population in this community,” Spell said.
The thought of going into a store and being seen buying alcohol by someone they know is a deterrent to relapse for people in long-term recovery that would be reduced or eliminated by home delivery, she said.
Spell indicated that the Alcohol and Drug Council also had concerns about allowing drive-thru sales.
The Georgia General Assembly and Gov. Brian Kemp, with a law passed last summer, allowed alcoholic beverage deliveries where they are not prohibited by local law. But Statesboro has a clause in its city ordinances that prohibits them. Deliveries had been discussed at the state level as an alternative to store purchases and bar and restaurant drinking during the pandemic.
Georgia law contained no prohibition on drive-thru purchases of alcoholic beverages, and this hasn’t changed. In fact, a number of Georgia cities and counties have long allowed drive-thru alcohol purchases. But Statesboro has a longstanding ban on them, and some City Council members at a previous meeting suggested allowing these along with deliveries.
‘Promoting alcohol’
Tuesday’s one other speaker on the topic during public comments time was LeAnn Ransbotham, a resident of Statesboro and the mother of two teenagers.
“First, allowing drive-thru sales is simply promoting alcohol sales,” she said. “It’s making it easier and more convenient to buy alcohol. … Why would our community want to do this? Promoting alcohol has certainly helped some cities – Las Vegas and Atlantic City come to mind – but I don’t see promoting alcohol for the city of Statesboro.”
Secondly, “convenient, drive-in beer stops,” would make Statesboro look less safe to “literally thousands of parents who visit our town every year deciding whether or not to send their children to school here (to Georgia Southern),” Ransbotham said.
Her third point was about deterrence. Spotting a fake ID would be more difficult at a drive-thru than with a person standing in front of the store clerk, she suggested, noting that a driver’s license contains info on height, weight, eye color, gender and age.
“And what if the person with the ID is not the person driving but a passenger, and what if it’s at night or the lighting is poor?” she asked.
The other proposal
Neither of these speakers said anything about the other proposed alcohol rule change on Tuesday’s agenda, but it met the same fate. The other proposal would have moved the start time for beer and wine sales at stores in Statesboro back from 12:30 p.m. to 11 a.m. on Sundays.
Statesboro restaurants can already serve alcoholic beverages beginning at 11 a.m. Sundays, since voters approved that in a November 2018 referendum. But another of the state law changes approved last summer lets local governments match the Sunday start times for stores and restaurants without further voter approval.
When Mayor Jonathan McCollar asked if there would be any discussion of the 11 a.m. Sunday change, none of the council members said anything. When he asked if there was a motion to approve, the silence continued, and he said the item would be listed as “non-action.”
He then read the summary of the drive-thru and delivery proposal and asked for discussion by council.
“I want to know if there was anybody else in the audience who was for or against it,” said District 3 Councilwoman Venus Mack. “I would like to hear what everyone has to say.”
But nobody else spoke from the audience. District 5 Councilwoman Shari Barr then asked for clarification: “So, if we don’t vote to pass it, then it dies?”
McCollar affirmed this and asked for a motion. There was none.
Phoned Wednesday, Barr said she had not heard from a lot of people opposed to the changes, but had received one phone call and three or four emails. Another citizen spoke to her in person just before the meeting, so she received about five contacts in all.
“I wasn’t enthusiastic about it to begin with, and I told the people who contacted me about it I could see both sides,” Barr said. “Apparently, from what I’m told, we’re in the minority across Georgia, particularly college towns, in that we don’t allow the drive-thru alcohol sales.”
Council members were thinking of deliveries and drive-thru sales as a part of COVID precautions and of being a progressive city, she said.
“But after hearing the concerns and appreciating that it is a concern in a college town or anywhere, even people who are old enough to drink can get in trouble with it, so it’s good to not make it such easy access,” Barr said.
District 2 Councilwoman Paulette Chavers said she didn’t make a motion on drive-thru and delivery because she thought more time was needed for council to consider the ramifications.
“Me personally, I didn’t see anything wrong with it, but when you have individuals in the community coming in and giving you their perspective, we’re here to listen and to care about the people in the city of Statesboro, so I think that it needed more attention,” Chavers said. “If it is a concern for them, I need to see why it’s a concern and see how it’s going to affect the city.”
Dead amendments
After the second readings failed for lack of a motion, the council would have to have to start over in its process for creating or amending ordinances to revive these, City Attorney Cain Smith confirmed Thursday.
“That means it would need to be redirected for drafting for presentation as first reading, approval to move on at first reading, and then consideration for passage at second reading at a subsequent Council meeting,” Smith replied in an email. “I think it's safe to say these proposed revisions are dead in the water barring a change in Council assessment down the road.”