City commission open container discussion ends in stalemate

BY JARRED SPANOS, Alachua Chronicle Correspondent

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Gainesville City Commission voted against changing their open container law, which currently prohibits alcohol in open containers in public areas between 2:30 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.; the staff recommendation would have prohibited open containers between 11:30 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. A City ordinance previously prohibited open containers in public until 2020, when the city commission repealed that ordinance to make it easier for businesses to serve customers outdoors during the COVID-19 business capacity restrictions. They put the ordinance back in place in 2021, but the current ordinance only restricts open containers after 2:30 a.m.

Andrew Persons, a Special Advisor to the City Manager, told the commission, “Our recommendation as staff is to roll the time back to 11:30 p.m., when the City parks close, in an attempt to stop gatherings in parking lots.” 

Commissioner Reina Saco said, “I think timing to our park closure still allows most of our businesses who have outdoor seating…[to] serve alcohol.”

Commissioner Ed Book mentioned that open containers had previously been decriminalized, and the ordinance is typically enforced with a civil citation, which Book said is like a traffic ticket. To get a better understanding, he wanted to hear from Gainesville Police Chief Lonnie Scott.

Scott said he has an issue with alcohol in cars, and he agreed with Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut that he would prefer no alcohol on the street, but he said he would work with whatever law the commission gives him. Scott told the commission that police have had challenges with gatherings in parking lots until the late hours of the night, and there are times when it is difficult to guide them out. For this reason, Scott would like to roll the ordinance back to where it was pre-pandemic, which was a complete prohibition on open containers.

Scott said, “For us, it just doesn’t seem to be a smart thing to mix people in cars, sitting in parking lots, and sitting on the side of a roadway with alcohol.” There are sometimes guns in people’s cars, according to Scott, and when people drink, they do not always use their best judgment. Saco pointed out that it is currently illegal to drink in City-owned parking lots and parking garages.

Saco wanted to ban drinking in all parking garages and parking lots, but when the City Attorney said, “That sounds like a zoning change you are talking about,” Saco said, “Never mind.”

Book responded by emphasizing the recently-declared public health crisis: gun violence. He said he would support going back to the pre-pandemic open container prohibition because “it’s a public safety issue.”

Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker also supported rolling the ordinance back to the way things were pre-pandemic. She said, “Dire issues related to gun violence are not getting better.” Since the commission changed the law during the pandemic to accommodate and stimulate business, Duncan-Walker asked for information about the economic impact and whether the repeal of the ordinance helped businesses. 

Persons responded, “Most of the feedback we received was in favor of keeping the [current] ordinance.” He said that after speaking with a couple of local businesses, staff found that most were not happy about a potential rollback. However, he said, reports from Gainesville Police Department (GPD) having problems with large gatherings could be a reason to make the change.

Book said, “There would be an opportunity for us in one, two, or three years to make downtown a destination point. The city is home to a couple of destination points, but they are all outside of our city limits, and the city can do better.” He said that the current open container ordinance “doesn’t help a vibrant downtown; it makes it less safe.”

Book talked about entertainment districts in cities like Austin, Texas; Burlington, Vermont; and Church Street Station, Orlando that all have confined areas where people can drink outdoors. He said these are safer areas for citizens.

Saco addressed the drunk driver concern, stating that many people feel it is unfair to be punished for such a small group’s behaviors. Saco said, “Folks drinking and driving didn’t start when we allowed the open container. People started drinking and driving since we had cars.”

Commissioner Bryan Eastman said, “The problem is [that] there are people getting together in these open-air areas, and GPD is essential playing that role of the person overseeing these things.”

During public comment, Debbie Martinez said, “Scaling back the hours is not the problem. The problem is the ordinance itself.” She advocated for repealing and replacing it back to the pre-pandemic ordinance that prohibited open containers in public areas. She said, “Florida is becoming the Wild West, with people in the streets walking around with guns.”

Armando Grundy-Gomes said, “This open container ordinance increased crime.” He also said the police have a hard time dealing with all of these problems.

Multiple motions fail

Saco made a motion to approve the staff recommendation to change the ordinance to prohibit open containers starting at 11:30 p.m. and also ask staff to review the potential for an entertainment zone and bring that information back to a General Policy Committee meeting. The motion failed, 3-4, with Saco, Eastman, and Mayor Harvey Ward supporting the motion. 

“I do not want to live in a city, in a state, where my neighbor can carry a concealed weapon anywhere they go, but I cannot carry a beer across the street from my home, out to the main street, and back, perhaps even on a phone call.” – Commissioner Casey Willits

Book made a motion to repeal the current ordinance and direct staff to create an ordinance that is consistent with the ordinance that was in effect in 2019. Willits opposed the motion because “I do not want to live in a city, in a state, where my neighbor can carry a concealed weapon anywhere they go, but I cannot carry a beer across the street from my home, out to the main street, and back, perhaps even on a phone call.” He said he didn’t want to live in a city where he couldn’t have a beer at an event that didn’t have a permit or couldn’t have a bottle of wine at a picnic in a park. He continued, “I’m definitely opposed to this motion on a basic freedom of being able to drink a beverage that we’ve been drinking for 10,000 years, that many people drink responsibly.” He said it’s unhealthy for communities to make alcohol a taboo subject and limit it to bars and homes.

That motion also failed 3-4, with Book, Chestnut, and Duncan-Walker in favor.

Ward reminded the commission that “this is not something where the world stops moving if we don’t pass something today.” Book suggested moving on to the next agenda item but said it would be good to gather additional data that would help them “make specific entertainment areas safe.” He thought it should come before the Public Safety Committee first, and he made a motion to ask staff to bring back information about designating safe entertainment areas from a zoning perspective. He said the zoning wouldn’t deal with alcohol specifically but more about where and how people can safely gather. Willits seconded the motion.

Saco said the Public Safety Committee has already scheduled the topics for the next three months of meetings, so it would be at least four months before they could discuss the issue; she said that scaling back the time to 11:30 p.m. would provide relief for police until the Public Safety Committee can take up the topic. She said, “Doing nothing is not the answer.” She re-offered her previous motion of scaling back to 11:30.

Ward said the topic could be discussed sooner if it went to the General Policy Committee (GPC) instead of the Public Safety Committee. Eastman agreed that GPC would be more appropriate and more timely because GPD is worried about upcoming events like Peaceful Sundays and football season. Willits asked if Book would change his motion to bring back the information to GPC, and Book rescinded his motion and made a new motion to study land use and zoning and bring that back to GPC and direct staff to draft an ordinance to roll back to the 2019 open container ordinance in the meantime. Chestnut seconded the motion. 

Ward split the motion. The vote to bring back information about entertainment districts passed unanimously, and the part about rolling back the ordinance failed 3-4, with Book, Duncan-Walker, and Chestnut in favor. The ordinance remained unchanged at the end of the agenda item.