In a recent column entitled “Branson Liquor Czar to hunt mice with elephant gun?” the Ole Seagull wrote, “It’s not a matter of whether or not Branson can or should enact new Liquor Control Ordinances (LCOs), it can and should; it’s a matter of scope and efficiency.” The challenge is to limit and channel the scope of any new LCOs to that necessary for the efficient resolution of the problems that need to be addressed.
The column shared the Ole Seagull’s recollection of the major publically stated problems involving the sale and serving of intoxicating liquor in the Branson area. They were, in the relative order he first became aware of them, limiting the number of package sales licenses issued by the city, the encroachment of the serving of alcohol into Branson’s traditional family friendly theatres and entertainment venues, the consumption of intoxicating liquor in areas open to the public that are away from the premises licensed to serve or sell them, and underage drinking.
Could there be other problems? Probably so, but how much more effective and efficient would it have been if, in presenting the new ordinance to the community and board of aldermen for approval, the Branson Liquor Task Force Committee (Committee) had presented a prioritized list of the problems the new LCOs were intended to solve accompanied by the specific portion of the new LCOs intended to resolve the specific problem.
As an example, let’s assume, based on the incident that provided the most recent motivation to amend Branson’s LCO’s, the number one problem had been determined to be the consumption of alcoholic beverages in areas open to the public away from the premises licensed to serve or sell them. The list would have had that problem listed with one or more proposed solutions one of which might have been a one paragraph fix added to Section 10-3 of the city’s current LCOs.
Each problem could have been handled in a similar manner. Instead, what does the public and the board of aldermen get? A 45 plus page document to wade through and decipher, with no table of contents or index. To an Ole Seagull the document itself has itself become the center of focus rather than defining and prioritizing the actual problems the community has with intoxicating liquor and coming up with solutions responsive to those problems.
Another of the publically stated problems is underage drinking. Sections 10-2 and 10-8 of the City’s current LCOs appear to address that problem and not only currently prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquor to minors but prohibit minors from falsely representing that they are over the age of 21. Could not a little tweaking of the existing LCOs have solved any underage issues remaining? To the extent laws will solve the underage drinking problem Branson already had the laws, it just wasn’t enforcing them. Why change something that hasn’t even been enforced.
The encroachment of the serving of alcohol into Branson’s traditional family friendly theatres and entertainment venues was more a political than legal issue. Although pointed out as a potential problem years ago, there was no effective opposition to the transition, the issue is not addressed either in the city’s current LCOs or the proposed LCOs and is for all practical purposes a non issue.
The issue of the number of package sales licenses issued by the city is, in the opinion of an Ole Seagull, also a political question rather than one of safety or morals. If something is unsafe or immoral it’s just as unsafe or immoral if that thing is permitted in establishments 100 feet apart or 2,500 feet apart. The current issue is addressed in the City’s current LCOs starting in Sections 10-31 and 10-38 and in Section 10-2 and Article IX of the proposed LCOs.
At the end of the day, as the Ole Seagull compares what is already in the city’s current LCOs to the publically expressed problems involving the consumption of intoxicating liquor and the document that was presented he wonders why whatever changes are necessary can’t be done within the City’s existing LCOs? That wonderment would be less if there was a list containing the intoxicating liquor problems within the community the Committee had defined prior to writing its 45 page “treatise.”
Reprinted with permission of the Tri-Lakes Tribune, a free newspaper published and distributed three times weekly, Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Please call 417-336-NEWS (6397) for classified and display advertising opportunities.
