Idaho Falls City Council postpones alcohol ordinance vote to allow for public comment
Published at | Updated at
IDAHO FALLS — The Idaho Falls City Council was set to vote on changes to the city’s alcohol ordinances on Thursday but has postponed the vote to allow for community members to voice their thoughts.
Concerns over the changes to the city’s alcohol ordinance online became what Mayor Lisa Burtenshaw referred to as “a hot topic (on) social media.”
In Thursday’s meeting, Council President Jim Francis specifically wanted to address online claims that the City Council had attempted to rush the ordinance for profit, which he said were false.
“I want to make it very clear that a recent social media suggesting that we are fast-tracking this, or looking for money, are absolutely false,” Francis said.
He also denied allegations that the city’s changes would make certain alcohol-related offenses felonies.
“Every member of this council knows that we, as elected officials, cannot create felony offenses. That is the purview of the State of Idaho and the federal government,” the council president said.
Francis then voiced concerns about how misinformation creates distrust.
Much of the online stir regarding the proposed changes to the alcohol ordinance began with a Facebook post made by Councilman John Radford on Monday. Radford read his post during the City Council meeting and noted that he had mistakenly said violations of the ordinance could result in “felonies,” then later corrected the post to say “misdemeanors.”
Council members said changes to the city’s alcohol ordinance were intended to:
- Combine beer, wine and liquor ordinances into one consolidated ordinance.
- Provide safe environments for public gatherings.
- Amend outdated code and make the code, as a whole, more accessible to the public.
- Reduce the risk of overserving alcohol.
- Change to the penalties for breaking city alcohol-related ordinances.
The proposed ordinance and draft can be found here on pages 336 through 412.
Community members who took the opportunity to speak at the meeting voiced concern about how the changes may affect local businesses, specifically what the proposed changes to alcohol server training may cost local businesses. Additionally, community members voiced concern that the proposed ordinance could reduce the number of available alcohol licenses in the future and said they want to ensure that enforcement of city ordinances is consistent.
As a result of the online stir, the City Council opted to postpone the vote on changes to the city’s alcohol ordinances to allow more public comment and time to take those comments into account.
Idaho Falls City Council agendas and live streams can be found online here.
If you’re unable to attend a meeting to voice your concerns, the City Council made it clear that emails to the council are put into the record and taken into account as well. Emails for the mayor and City Council can be found here.