More Fremont Street liquor controls ordered

The Las Vegas City Council passed yet another ordinance Wednesday in its struggle to control alcohol abuse on the Fremont Street Experience.

After extensive discussion, the council voted 4-3 against making it a crime to open a bag containing liquor on the mall.

Councilman Ricki Barlow argued vehemently that the punishment didn’t fit the crime to make it a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and six months in jail. “The option of someone opening a bag and can go to jail is unfathomable to me,” Barlow said.

Instead, the ordinance requires that stores selling liquor must put it in a sealed bag, attach a receipt and put up a sign warning customers not to open the bag on the pedestrian mall. Police will have the authority to confiscate liquor in an open bag.

The council also asked for monthly reviews of how their new alcohol restrictions are working.

Mayor Carolyn Goodman, who initially supported criminalizing, became the swing vote to adopt a softer ordinance that didn’t criminalize opening liquor bags, siding with Barlow, Lois Tarkanian and Bob Coffin.

Councilman Bob Beers voted against the motion, saying he wanted to see how the existing ordinances were working.

Councilmen Steve Ross and Stavros Anthony voted against it because they wanted to criminalize opening liquor bags.

Anthony, a former police officer, said the city was placing a burden on officers by giving them authority to confiscate liquor because of the time it takes to process confiscated property. He asked how, without criminalizing the open bag, this can be enforced.

“A cop sees an open bag with a can of beer inside and the cop confiscates it. The guy buys another and drinks it while the officer isn’t present,” Anthony said. “It makes the officer a baby sitter who doesn’t solve anything.”

Beers was frank when he said the council’s real goal “is to eliminate package liquor stores. The ordinances passed are all aimed at that. We’re aiming at package liquor stores but we don’t have the ability to make them go away.”

Barlow said the council created the problem by allowing the package liquor stores disguised as souvenir shops to proliferate on the Fremont Street Experience.

The package liquor stores are blamed by city officials for creating problems because the liquor is cheaper and creates alcohol problems.

A previous ordinance mandates that people cannot carry their liquor in glass or metal containers on the mall but must carry all liquor in plastic or paper cups or glasses.

It is already a misdemeanor to have an open container within 1,000 feet of where packaged liquor is sold, so basically all of the Fremont Street Experience is covered because there are six package liquor stores on the mall, all approved by the City Council.

The initial version of the Wednesday ordinance would have allowed prosecutors to file a second misdemeanor charge, on top of the first charge of drinking with 1,000 feet.

Even if the charges were dismissed, Barlow questioned whether the city wants to ruin a tourist’s weekend by arresting them for opening a bag.

Contact Jane Ann Morrison at jmorrison@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0275. Find her on Twitter: @janeannmorrison.