Aurora to keep list of 'habitual drunkards,' limit booze sales

Aurora officials are keeping a do-not-serve list "aimed at curbing the problem of habitual drunkards," but local bar and liquor store owners aren't giving the plan unanimous supprt.

The city's fire and police departments have begun compiling what they are calling "The Ban/Do Not Serve List" in an effort to keep alcohol out of the hands of people who are repeatedly arrested or taken to hospitals.

The Daily Herald requested interviews with city officials and even submitted a series of questions, but spokesman Dan Ferrelli would only provide a written summary of the presentation given to the city's committee of the whole Tuesday night.

According to the statement, individuals would be placed on the list if they are convicted of six or more alcohol-related arrests or hospital transports (or a combination of the two) in a 180-day period. At that point, the list would be distributed to all liquor licensees in the city.

Anyone found serving or selling to those on the list will be in violation of the ordinance and subject to a fine,

Miguel Terrazas, owner of Rudy's Place at 900 Hill Ave., called the plan "ridiculous," saying it was just a way to publicly shame those with a drinking problem.

"What purpose will this serve other than shaming people. They don't have the right to distribute a list that I can then look at and say 'Ha ha. You're a drunk.'" Terrazas said. "If I turn someone down because they're on a list, they're going to get back in their car and drive to another town. It creates a dangerous situation when you attempt to shame and provoke someone, rather than help them."

Steve O'Donnell, owner of Randall Plaza Liquors and Randall Plaza Liquors II, however, said the city has been distributing a list of known drunkards for at least five years.

"I'm not sure what the big deal is because they've been doing this for years," he said. "They're just authenticating their process by putting it in an ordinance."

Alex Voigt, a city management analyst, said in the written statement that the list will only come into play "if and only if businesses consistently choose to continue to serve individuals to the point where they require medical assistance." He said it places the onus back on the business owners rather than on the city's police and fire departments, holding businesses accountable for their actions beyond the point of sale.

Beverly Bugbee, owner of The Web Tavern, 134 W. Downer Place, said she's already this policing at her own business.

"It's no big deal for me. I'm sure any list they put out will just be a list full of people I've already kicked out of my bar," Bugbee said. "Ultimately I feel sorry for these poor souls. They work just enough to afford cigarettes and drinks and then they live at Hesed House or wherever. These poor people just live to drink."

But the city's statement says these people are costing taxpayers money.

According to the statement, the city spends hundreds of thousands of dollars every year on ambulance fees taking drunks to hospitals for treatment. The fire department has taken one individual, the statement says, from the downtown to the hospital more than 90 times this year alone, and the fire department estimates that 10 people make up about 6.5 percent of their total ambulance call volume, between 650 and 1,000 calls per year.

The list will be reviewed yearly, and anyone without a liquor-related conviction or hospital transport in six months may be removed. People may petition to have their names removed if they have not had a combination of the two in a 180-day period as well. The ordinance also includes an appeals process.

City officials drafted their plan earlier this year after discovering a 2010 ordinance in Madison, Wisconsin that had a similar goal.

The Madison law covers only package liquor sales, not bars and restaurants. Each retailer is given a list of chronic alcoholics and there are penalties if any of them sell to those people. In 2010 the first list had 17 names; today there are 27.

Mark Woulf, Madison's director of food and alcohol policy, said while the policy has not eliminated chronic alcoholics from the streets of Wisconsin's capital it has had at least two positive effects.

He said Madison liquor retailers overwhelmingly like it because it gives them a tool to deny sales other than their own discretion.

But more important, he said, it has created a fresh relationship between police and fire, retailers and the outreach workers who specialize in substance abuse treatment.