Statesboro City Council is slated to resume Tuesday looking at possibilities for a revised Alcoholic Beverages Ordinance, after putting the topic on pause while events in Statesboro inspired a pending change in state law.

Both chambers of the Georgia General Assembly approved House Bill 152, sometimes referred to as Michael’s Law, by huge margins during the recently concluded session. The bill is still awaiting Gov. Nathan Deal’s signature.

In March, before the bill passed, Statesboro City Council members had referred to it as a reason to wait before returning to work on a new city ordinance. But at the April 7 meeting, Councilman John Riggs asked about the ordinance discussion, and Mayor Jan Moore said it would resume at the next meeting, Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.

“Where do we stand on revamping the Alcohol Ordinance?” Riggs said. “I know that last time we said we were waiting for the General Assembly to get through with their voting.”

Noting that the bill had passed but had not been signed, Moore said, “My assumption is it will be signed in the next couple of weeks.”

New ‘baseline’

House Bill 152’s provisions would “provide a baseline going forward,” Moore added.

On issues such as alcohol enforcement, local governments can be stricter than the state, but not more lenient. So if the state minimum age for working as a bouncer rises to 21, the city cannot make it 18.

Moore asked City Attorney Alvin Leaphart to present two versions of a possible new alcohol ordinance for the council’s consideration.

Asked since the meeting whether he is considering House Bill 152 in drafting the ordinance options, Leaphart said that any new city law will refer to the state laws on alcoholic beverages, adopting their provisions. Some passages of the current ordinance already do this.

“State law is implicit in any ordinance that we write,” he said.

If signed, House Bill 152 will make 21 the minimum age to work as a bouncer at any place that employs bouncers and has an alcohol license. It defines a bouncer as “an individual primarily performing duties related to verifying age for admittance, security, maintaining order, or safety, or a combination thereof.”

Separately, the bill would define any business that makes 75 percent or more of its revenue from the sale of alcohol for on-premises consumption as a bar. It would then prohibit anyone under age 21 from entering a bar unless accompanied by “his or her parent, guardian or spouse who is 21 years of age or older.”

The parents of the late Michael J. Gatto, 18, of Cumming sought the legislation, getting early cooperation from legislators from their home area in north-metro Atlanta. But Rep. Jan Tankersley, R-Brooklet, also sponsored the bill, and all other Statesboro area legislators supported it. The vote count, on April 2, on the final version in the House of Representatives was 151 in favor to 13 opposed. The final vote in the Senate was 51-1.

Gatto, newly arrived in Statesboro as a Georgia Southern University freshman, died Aug. 28 from injuries received at Rude Rudy’s, a now-defunct nightclub in University Plaza. Statesboro police charged Grant James Spencer, then 20, a bouncer who was at the club but reportedly off-duty, with aggravated battery and felony murder. Spencer, who was also a GSU student, remains in jail awaiting trial.

Statesboro’s rules

Most local places that sell drinks for on-premises consumption would fall short of being classified as bars under House Bill 152 – if they comply with the “50 percent rule” in Statesboro’s current ordinance. This requires them to derive at least half their revenue from food sales.

In fact, the current ordinance does not recognize any establishments as bars, even though several use the word in their names. All are officially restaurants.

However, the city uses unaudited reporting for food-to-drink ratios. A few places, licensed as “sports restaurants” are exempt from the rule, instead qualifying as restaurants just by having a food service permit.

City Council first looked at a complete draft for a new alcohol ordinance on May 7,  2014, almost four months  before Gatto’s death. Originally, the ordinance revision was a follow-up to the city’s padlocking of the Platinum Lounge and the Primetime Lounge in November 2013 after violence, including two fatal shootings in a little over a year, at those former clubs.

At a City Council meeting last June, Leaphart and City Public Safety Director Wendell Turner pointed to deficiencies in the ordinance, which they said had forced the city to call on the Bulloch County Superior Court for the orders to close Primetime and Platinum.

However, since Gatto’s death, the city has acted under its existing ordinance to resume administrative penalty hearings against restaurants and stores where alcoholic beverages are served or sold to underage drinkers. Penalties have been limited to warnings for first offenses and three-day license suspensions for second offenses within a 12-month window.

Before the aborted September hearing on multiple alleged violations that accompanied the surrender of Rude Rudy’s alcohol license, the city had gone about three years without bringing any violations to hearings.

In recent months, both the Statesboro Police Department and the Georgia Department of Revenue have cracked down on underage sales in Statesboro, also resulting in misdemeanor criminal charges against individuals.

Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.