Saratoga Springs Commissioner of Accounts Dillon Moran announced a new, 14-member committee to combat late-night, booze-fueled violence in the city.
As well, Commissioner of Public Safety James Montagnino has drafted a resolution that would require the city to ask the New York State Liquor Authority to grant new liquor licenses or renewals in Saratoga Springs only with the condition that the bars would be required to stop serving alcohol at 2a.m. The resolution cannot force the SLA to do this; it only requires that the city attorney ask that this condition be made.
Montagnino also said in an interview with FoothillsBusinessDaily.com that he is looking to introduce a resolution in the new year that would establish a method for the entire city council to look at, and hold hearings on, the activities of an establishment and then determine if that establishment should maintain or lose its license to operate. This would fall under changes to Chapter 136 of the city’s code.
[See a related story posted today about the committee here.]
These are the latest moves to come before the city council in the wake of the late-night gunfight that drew an armed police response and ended with three people wounded in the early hours of Nov. 20. The city council has said they are ready to shut down bars at 2 a.m., but the legal means to do so is proving to be slippery.
The rule governing bar closing times remain in the hands of the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors which shows no will to change the closing time.
With the backing mainly of Mayor Ron Kim and Montagnino, the city council earlier this month attempted to change the city’s law to make it very expensive for bars and restaurants to stay open past 2 a.m.
Although other news reports said the vote was over closing times, that was misleading. The resolution actually made a bar responsible for damage and criminal activity is a person drank at the bar after 2 a.m. and then left the bar and committed a crime before 3 a.m.
Moran, Commissioner of Fianance Minita Sanghvi and Commissioner of Public Works Jason Golub voted against it.
In an interview, Moran said the law was too vague and likely unenforceable. The mayor said Moran might have been thinking of his minority ownership stake in Druther’s Brewery, which Moran denies was the case.
Last year, the popular bar and nightclub Gaffney’s on Caroline Street was shut down first by the city and then supported by the SLA. That process seemed to work to shut down a troublesome spot.
Moran said Montagnino had a role in that successful process. "
Gaffneys had created an environment where there was too much kinetic energy,” Moran said, adding that the laws say that businesses must run legally, lawfully and safely. A bar cannot over-serve. A bar cannot serve to people under 21, for instance.
"Lawfully means you're not walking up to that line and pushing against it all the time,” Moran said, and Gaffney’s had multiple incidents reported to SLA.
Montagnino was central in the shut-down, though in an recent interview, he gave a lot of credit to the Gaffney's leadership for coming up with rules that they would follow, such as switching to DJs instead of live music, closing at 2a.m. and wanding people for weapons.
Foothills Business Daily asked Montagnino why the city needed to do more to quell violence if the process seemed to work then.
“That’s reactive and we want to be proactive,” Montagnino replied. Police calls for service and emergency calls for service go up between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. Use of force incidents recorded by the police rise then, he said. “We’re looking to curtail the problem before it occurs.”