Council Gives Clearwater Beach Bars 6 Months To Shape Up

CLEARWATER, FL — Clearwater Beach bars have six months to quell rowdy patrons before the Clearwater City Council reduces their hours to sell alcohol.

Clearwater Police Chief Dan Slaughter told the council that the late-night behavior of intoxicated Clearwater Beach patrons has gotten out of hand.

He said police calls for service between Aug. 17 through September increased substantially on Clearwater Beach, Island Estates and Sand Key, while calls for service have gone down 30 percent in the downtown area. Residents are complaining about the late-night noise, fights and disorderly conduct of drunk patrons. He proposed pushing the hours for alcohol sales from 3 a.m. to 1 a.m.

"The businesses can stay open," he said. "They just can't sell alcohol after 1 a.m."

Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard said, while the bars, hotels and restaurants on the beach are important to the city's economy, the disruptive behavior has to stop.

"We've worked hard to brand ourselves as family-friendly. The behavior recently has been self-centered," he said. "Some of the bars aren’t looking at the overall health of the beach."

Paul Andrews, a resident of Island Estates and general manager of Shephard's Beach Resort for more than 20 years, pleaded with the council to give the bars six months to shape up.

He said the Clearwater Beach Innkeepers Association has met with owners and managers of the beach's 13 bars and are working on a plan to self-police including offering alcohol awareness training.

"We're not ready to give details but the innkeepers are going to have meetings regularly, and we're ready to be better residents and business people," Andrews said. "I think you're going to be surprised. The feeling I’m getting from everybody is they want to make it work."

“If the decision is made to close at 1 a.m., the city would be punishing many operations that strive to be good corporate citizens as a result of the bad actions of a handful of operations who do not choose to abide by the standards of the community,” Bill LaGamba, owner of Surfside Taphouse and Hogan’s Hangout, wrote in a letter to the council.

City Manager Bill Horne confirmed that he and Slaughter met with a group of about 20 beach bar owners last week to talk about the problem and said they are committed to remedying the problems.

Council member and retired teacher Kathleen Beckman said she's in favor of giving the businesses another chance, noting that she wouldn't punish the entire class for the misbehavior of a few students.

"I tend not to want to punish all of the bars. The expectations are set by the people who own and manage their bars, and they need to not serve to people who are intoxicated. They can’t make a living at the expense of all these shenanigans going on," she said.

She suggested a heavier police presence after midnight and then give the council updates.

"I would like to see a reduction of calls of the most frequent offenders," she said. "Bartenders need to say, 'You've had enough. You're cut off. You're being obnoxious.' People living around shouldn’t have to hear profanities in the middle of the night."

"We've worked hard to brand ourselves as a family destination," said council member Hoyt Hamilton. "If we limit the hours for alcohol sales, one of two things are going to happen. There's going to be competition to get people into their establishments by offering dollar drafts and $4 tequila shots (resulting in more disruptive behavior). For some new bars, "it’s all about making money and the good stuff goes out the window. That’s what we’re trying to avoid."

And when more patrons get act up and fight, other patrons are going to be ready to video the bad behavior on their cell phones and post it on the internet, furthering damaging the efforts to market Clearwater as family-friendly, Hamilton said.

"We’re going to lay down the gauntlet, and we hope you’re going to pick it up and run with it," Hamilton told Andrews.

Hibbard agreed to give bar owners and managers a six-month probationary period "to step up and self-police."

"I hope the businesses come together and share best practices and hold one another accountable," he said. "I recommend giving the six months but they'd better change, or I'll be ready to pull it back to 1 a.m. We can yank the probation early if we see it isn't going in the right direction."

Andrews assured the council that there will be changes.

"We have heard you guys. We do want to make it right. We’re happy to work with the city and make sure the problems that are bothering the community can be eliminated as much as possible," he said.

The council vote 4-1 to give the bars six months to make changes. Council member Mark Bunker opposed the motion because he wanted to see a written plan of action first.

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