With one abstaining the vote on the “trial” Drinking in Public resolution passed with Mayor Butch Berry voting for it to break the tie – Mayor Berry has been a strong advocate of these districts since the enabling ordinance was passed 6 years ago. He has gone to businesses and convinces them to go along with proposed districts.
Mayor Berry asked council member Bob Thomas to create a committee of bars and restaurants to see how they felt about a drinking in public district. There was no citizens’ committee asked for by the mayor.
I did an anonymous survey of the retailers in the proposed district and the result was 52% against 48% for, again this was six years ago. Some of the bars were not in favor of the idea but Mayor Berry visited them and convinced them to “give it a try.”
I’m convinced that if a permanent Drinking in Public District comes up before the council it will be presented as a resolution. Resolutions cannot be repealed by a ballot measure! The voters will be ignored again.
Many good arguments were heard by the council before the vote, but I think that those on the council who voted for the resolution didn’t think those who came to voice their opposition were representative of a majority of the voters. I find this strange since there have been two ballot issues that citizens took their time and money to place on the ballot!
There was a comment by another member of the council who said, “the permanent entertainment district downtown was defeated by only 54 votes.” Well 54 votes in a voting public of 900 possible voters is a significant number!
This is an election year, remember how members voted on this important issue!
Harry Meyer