Court OKs city's bar ordinance By Lise Fisher The Gainesville Sun, 06/23/10 An appellate court this week upheld a city of Gainesville ordinance, challenged by the owner of a midtown bar, which says bars can only have a set number of underage drinking violations before underage patrons are banned. An opinion, filed by the First District Court of Appeals Monday, gave only a brief explanation for the ruling, saying the court had affirmed the lower court ruling on all issues raised on appeal by the owner of the Grog House, Rob Zeller, and the city of Gainesville. "The city got a half win, and I got a half win," said Zeller. "That's what the courts are there for. Now we have what they think is best." Assistant City Attorney Elizabeth Waratuke said the appellate court upheld the city's ability to regulate the presence of underage persons in the bars. But the city still was considering its next step regarding the court's decision on a sentence an area judge struck from the ordinance. Zeller sued the city after the ordinance took effect in April 2009. The ordinance states bars can only have a set number of underage drinking violations in a three-month period. If they surpass that number, they can be banned for 90 days from allowing patrons under the age of 21 to enter after 9 p.m. Bars with an occupancy of 201 can have five infractions, while bars with occupancy over that number can have 10. Alachua County Circuit Judge Robert Roundtree upheld the ordinance in September 2009, court records show. Zeller appealed that decision, and Gainesville also cross appealed over the judge's decision to strike a sentence from the ordinance. Roundtree removed the last sentence from the ordinance, which stated that lack of knowledge or participation in an underage drinking incident was not a defense for a bar owner. The judge said that barring this defense, which says the establishment did everything it reasonably could to check patrons' ages and a person illegally provided false identification, conflicted with state law, the Florida 2 Administrative Code and the ordinance's purpose of preventing underage patrons in businesses that don't reasonably try to stop underage drinking. The appellate court affirmed Roundtree's decision on the sentence without addressing its validity, the opinion stated. On appeal, Zeller's attorneys had argued the city had imposed a new regulatory scheme on bars and wiped out defenses mandated by the state, court records show. The city agreed with Roundtree's decision to uphold the ordinance but not with his ruling to remove the one sentence. In court filings, the city maintained that legislative intent behind the defense applied to situations where an owner was sued for damages after serving alcohol to an underage person, not regulatory action taken under the ordinance. Charles W. Thompson, Jr. Executive Director, General Counsel International Municipal Lawyers Association (IMLA) 7910 Woodmont Ave., Suite 1440 Bethesda, Maryland 20814 direct: 202-742-1016 202.466.5424 x 7110 Cell: 240.876.6790 cthompson@imla.org <mailto:cthompson@imla.org> IMLA 2010 Seminar - Washington, DC - April 18-20 IMLA 2010 75th Anniversary Conference - New Orleans - October 10-13, 2010