A few rogue bars make tougher rules necessary

More than 150 people showed up to a Thursday hearing in Las Cruces to speak for and against proposed state regulation changes that would make it easier to revoke licenses of bars that serve minors and intoxicated adults.

Bar owners and other opponents told the state’s Regulation and Licensing Division that the problem is with people who drink too much, not with the bars that serve drinks, and the state should focus on the drinkers. They said the regulations would cripple family-owned businesses. Opponents included State Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, who owns a bar, and State Rep. Joni Gutierrez, whose brother owns a restaurant and bar.

Victims of drunken driving accidents and other proponents argued that bars share responsibility when they don’t follow regulations. Proponents included Doña Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez and a host of other law enforcement officers.

Bar owners who oppose the regulations spoke over and over at the hearing about how long they’ve operated without being cited for overserving adults and serving minors. Proponents said over and over that bars that follow the rules have nothing to worry about.

Those were the most important points made during the hearing. There are a handful of bars in the Las Cruces area that repeatedly cause problems by ignoring regulations. The rest follow the rules and stay out of trouble.

As a reporter who covered police for years, I know of about five rogue bars in the Las Cruces area. I’m not going to name them to avoid libel, but I can tell you that they give the rest a bad reputation.

They should clean up their acts or be shut down. The proposed regulation changes will make it easier to force them to change, which should raise the standard and improve the general reputation of bars in this area.

It’s true that people need to be held accountable for drinking too much. Erica Ramos spoke at the hearing about the death of her father, who was killed by a drunk driver in 2004. The killer is serving a six-year prison sentence.

But Ramos also noted that the killer consumed about 20 beers before driving. A bar served him that much beer, all for a $60-80 tab.

“Was my father’s life worth that much only?” she asked.

Martinez noted that there were more than 1,800 drunken driving citations issued in Doña Ana County last year.

“It is only a handful of establishments that we hear repeatedly from these intoxicated people that they visited,” she said.

It’s time to shut down those establishments, if they don’t change.

The proposal would allow the state to revoke licenses after four citations for serving minors or two for overserving adults in a 12-month period. Current regulations allow revocations after five citations in a year for either overserving adults or serving minors.

Legally, someone with a blood alcohol level of 0.14 should not be served any more alcohol. You can’t legally drive if your blood alcohol level is 0.08.

Many states have tougher regulations than those proposed here. 36 states allow liquor licenses to be revoked on the first offense.

Another interesting comment was made at the hearing by Rich Ferrary of the DWI Resource Center. He pointed out that state law calls for the suspension or revocation of a liquor license if the establishment sold alcohol to a minor or intoxicated person, knowing doing so violated the law, twice in a 12-month period.

Even the proposed, tougher regulations aren’t as stiff as state law. Ferrary asked why state regulations exist that contradict state law, and why they would trump state law.

Those are great questions.