Bergeron out of council race as Naperville keeps liquor restrictions
Naperville bar owner Jim Bergeron will scrap his already suspended campaign for city council because of concerns with how his election could impact his business.
The city council voted Monday to maintain a regulation that prevents city officials from holding or, in Bergeron's case if elected, renewing their liquor licenses.
With that code remaining in place, Bergeron says he's staying out of the April 7 race that already features 19 other candidates seeking eight council seats. Bergeron suspended his campaign in late January after questions first surfaced about his liquor license as owner of the Wise Boxer Pour House in downtown.
“I can't legally take the position,” he said Monday.
Bergeron asked the council to review the liquor code regulation after realizing it essentially means anyone holding a liquor license could face a legal challenge if they win election or appointment to a public office in Naperville. It also means anyone who already holds a seat on a board, commission or council in Naperville cannot be issued a liquor license or renew an existing one.
If the council had eliminated the prohibition, Bergeron said he would have re-entered the race.
“I think it's obvious that running against them (sitting council members) is coloring their vote,” he said. “Petty politics has won out in this scenario.”
Council members voted 5-4 to keep the section of the code that prohibits public officials from holding liquor licenses. They might make a minor change after the election that could allow people who are appointed to city boards and commissions or elected to bodies such as a school board or park board to hold liquor licenses, but that wouldn't apply at the council level.
Some council members among the five who voted to maintain the code said they worry that a license holder would have to recuse himself on too many important votes. Others said it would be difficult for the mayor, as liquor commissioner, to punish a council member if his business had an alcohol-related violation.
“I think that could be a real issue if you have a sitting councilman who holds a liquor license who has a violation and the mayor needs to now enforce and penalize that person — how do you handle that?” said council member Steve Chirico, who is running for mayor.
Chirico was joined by council members Paul Hinterlong, David Wentz, Doug Krause and Mayor George Pradel in voting to maintain the code. Hinterlong and Wentz are running for re-election to the council and Krause is running for mayor, but Pradel is stepping down after 20 years at the city's helm.
Council members Robert Fieseler, Joseph McElroy, Tom Miers and Judith Brodhead voted in favor of eliminating the prohibition. Brodhead and McElroy are running for re-election, while Miers was appointed temporarily to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of state Rep. Grant Wehrli. Fieseler is not running for re-election.
“I think we ought to change the ordinance in order to allow people to serve,” Fieseler said.
Bergeron argued that the decision on whether to elect someone who has a liquor license should fall to the voters; such candidates shouldn't be forced by a code regulation that hasn't been updated since 1960 to choose between their business and public service.
As it stands, the relevant section of Naperville's city code remains unchanged, and it says this: a liquor license cannot be issued to “any elected public official, Naperville officer or employee or member of any Naperville board or commission; and no such official shall be interested in any way, either directly or indirectly, in the manufacture, sale or distribution of alcoholic liquor.”