Lauderdale Delays Vote On Late-Night Saloons

Fort Lauderdale is seeking a compromise between bar owners and their neighbors.

City Commissioners agreed on Tuesday to wait 30 days to vote on proposal that would require a special permit for establishments that sell liquor after midnight.

In the meantime, bar, restaurant and hotel owners will sit down with residents and officials to work out an agreeable solution for the handful of bars in the city with rowdy, disruptive patrons.

Nearly 100 bar and restaurant owners at City Hall on Tuesday disagreed with the ordinance, but said they will try to work out an agreement.

"Go after those who are doing wrong, not those who are doing right,"
said Norm Kent, an attorney representing BAR PAC, a coalition of bar, restaurant and hotel owners.

Coalition members have complained that all bar owners are being punished for problems at a few establishments.

"One bad apple doesn't spoil the whole bunch," said Frank Campailla, who owns the Coral Reef Guest House and Oasis Apartments near the Galleria Mall.

Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Michael Brasfield said 171 officers were sent to one establishment between March 3 and April 17, though he declined to say which club it was. During that same time period, police made
39 arrests, issued 290 traffic citations and 37 parking citations and impounded three vehicles near that club.

Kent said he would have preferred to let the city work out some other solution that punished only establishments with problems. But city attorney Dennis Lyles said that would be a "more difficult" legal remedy.

Commissioner Gloria Katz, who proposed the ordinance, said she wanted it to go forward immediately.

Lyles said the new ordinance would require owners to pay an additional $150 to $200 for the cost of administering the ordinance. About 800 businesses are licensed to sell alcohol, though not all sell after midnight. The establishments pay $1,820 a year for required state licenses.

Under the proposal, the city could suspend a bar's permission to sell alcohol after midnight if it has been cited three or more times within three months for illegal parking, noise, vandalism, trash, other nuisances or illegal activity.

Bar, restaurant and hotel owners said the ordinance will send a negative message to tourists that Fort Lauderdale shuts down at midnight.

"If there's no reason for people to come to Fort Lauderdale, there's no reason for me to stay in business," Campailla said.

One bar has repeatedly been singled out by residents as a source of trouble. Katz said she proposed the ordinance after hearing numerous complaints from people living near the Roxy Nightclub at 4000 N. Federal Highway.

Despite the owner's promises to improve the situation, the complaints continue and nothing has changed, she said.

Noise, drug dealing and crime have gotten so bad that one woman living near the club said she did not call police one night after hearing a gunshot. She later found out that a neighbor had been murdered in a situation unrelated to Roxy patrons.

"I don't go to bed until 3 or 4 a.m.," said Mary Beth Polinski, who has considered sleeping in her living room because of the noise. "Our quality of life on the weekends is horrible."