Mayor Ayoub floats idea of open container policy for downtown Safety Harbor events

The Safety Harbor City Commission recently approved an ordinance on first reading that modifies the City Code allowing alcohol sales to start at 8:00 a.m. on Sundays.

Commissioner Cliff Merz expressed concern about disrupting the typical early Sunday morning calm, but Community Planning Director Marcie Stenmark explained that several local businesses expressed support of the ordinance, and the unanimous decision was made in accordance with a countywide change adopted in March moving the alcohol sale time up from 11:00 a.m.

While the ordinance passed with little fanfare, an interesting offshoot of the discussion came when Mayor Joe Ayoub inquired about enacting an open-container policy for certain downtown events.

“I’ve had several people ask me about changing the rules to allow people to carry open containers along Main Street during events,” Ayoub said. “Did anyone get any of that feedback?”

City Manager Matt Spoor replied that staff has looked into the topic in the past, and he said that they found it’s not a feasible option based on statewide regulations that have been established.

“I can give you a full report on why that can’t happen,” Spoor said, adding, “it will not help the bars and taverns. It would actually be worse than the way we have it right now.”

Spoor explained that the city would have to create what are called “wet zones” for use during events. These zones are specially designated areas where alcohol sales and consumption is allowed, but they come with restrictions as well as loopholes that could be exploited.

“If you create a wet zone, it does not change the requirements of the bars and taverns to monitor the beer in and beer out,” Spoor said. “It only allows people to people to bring beer into the event that otherwise would not be able to.”

“The bar owners think if we make a wet zone then you can go freely in and out, and that’s not true,” he added.

“You can take things into the wet zone, you can’t take things from the wet zone anywhere else. So, you could leave the bar with your beer. You could also bring a cooler full of beer to the gazebo, which you cannot do now.”

Spoor added the rule would hamper the ability of nonprofits to sell alcohol, and it would bring new liability issues into play, also.

“We’ve looked into this,” he said. “I think the bars and taverns thought that by doing a wet zone people could just go freely, to and fro, with their alcohol, buy it at one place and go to another, but that’s not the case.”

“People could bring anything into the event. We’ve talked to the sheriff about it, too, and they said if you do that, it’s the Wild West. Forget about any type of monitoring.”

Spoor told the commission he would put together a report and present it at a future date.

After the meeting, Mayor Ayoub elaborated on the reason behind his suggestion.

“Certain people have mentioned to me the fact that they can but beer at a local business but they can’t walk around downtown with it,” Ayoub told Safety Harbor Connect. “So I thought I would check into it.”

“I don’t understand the nuances behind it,” he added. “But we’ll study it and Mr. Spoor will bring us some more information and we’ll determine what, if anything, can be done about it at that time.”

What are your thoughts on this subject, Harborites? Let us know in the comments below.

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