The Boulder City Council is considering its options for limiting alcohol abuse.
“I had no idea the extent of the problem,” said Susan Osborne, a councilmember at a study session on alcohol abuse Tuesday night in the municipal building.
The council discussed the development of a “comprehensive strategy” to limit alcohol abuse. Two of the tools it considered using were the Boulder Liquor Authority and land use regulations. Among those attending the meeting were Boulder licensing clerk Mishawn Cook and Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner. The day before the meeting, five arrests were made as part of a Boulder Police Department round-up of those with warrants connected to under-aged drinking.
Cook explained to the council how the Boulder Liquor Authority operates. According to Cook, whenever a business wants to obtain, renew, or modify a liquor license, it is the BLA which can approve or deny the move. The BLA can also suspend or revoke a bar’s liquor license for liquor violations. Any appeals of BLA decisions go to Boulder County district court.
Cook also explained that Boulder liquor licenses have a 92 percent compliance rate for not serving alcohol to minors “which is exceptional.” The police checked licensees for compliance by sending an under-aged person with their valid state ID to attempt to be served.
“Most violations result from the person either not checking the ID or not doing the math right,” Cook said.
Many in the City Council appeared impatient with the pace of change in fighting alcohol abuse.
“You don’t really have to do any math, do you?” said Ken Wilson, a councilmember after hearing a description of a typical Colorado driver’s license.
Council members asked several questions about server training at bars and what many described as the “over-pouring” of alcoholic drinks.
“I’m shocked, quite frankly,” said deputy mayor Crystal Gray when she learned that state law doesn’t require servers to be fully trained until the time they start work.
However, much of the discussion focused on the alcohol that is served at house parties. When asked which age groups tend to get in trouble in which parts of Boulder, Beckner replied that under-aged drinking is “by far” the main complaint on the Hill. He described the age group that his department deals with on Pearl Street as in their early and mid-twenties.
“They’re going to have problems as they’re walking home to the Hill,” Beckner said of the second group.
Beckner added that most of the severe problems arise at house parties because there’s less control there.
“We don’t have to go down to many bars; we shut down many parties,” Beckner said.
Osborne said that she lives near the northern part of the Hill and has gone on ride-alongs with the police.
“I’ll never forget going home at 2:30 one night,” Osborne said. “I mean, it was like night and day…it was like Mardi Gras at (one) side of 9th Street.”
In reference to her ride-along, Osborne said that when a call came in, “the officer that I was riding with instantly knew the address of the house”.
“We are the sober ones, we are representing the sober side of our community,” said councilmember Macon Cowles.
The council concluded by agreeing to use all the tools at its disposal to fight alcohol abuse in Boulder.
Afterward, Beckner expressed satisfaction with the study session, but would not say which tool at the City Council’s disposal he most preferred.
“What it’s going to take is more analysis because you’ve got to look at all options,” Beckner said.
Boulder PD first announced that it would conduct a round up on an April 8 press release.
“We don’t want people who are wanted to know when we’re are looking for them,” said police spokeswoman Sarah Huntley on April 8 when refusing to say when the round up would take place. Huntley said that the police were looking for 105 warrants.
According to the Boulder PD blotter, five arrests were made on Monday for failure to appear or failure to comply warrants connected to under-aged drinking, including several CU students.
“We’re doing additional round ups,” Huntley said on Tuesday.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Sam Dieter at Samuel.dieter@colorado.edu.
