An alcoholic beverage license hearing gave the Sandy Springs City Council an opportunity to discuss what the city could do if it had crime problems with a business.
The council held two hearings during its Feb. 7 meeting, with both applicants’ licenses approved.
Police Chief Ken DeSimone confirmed that his department has had multiple calls at some locations and asked that the police department be given the authority to suspend a liquor license under emergency circumstances. The license holder would have the right of appeal to the city council, he said.
Councilmember Andy Bauman asked if the alcoholic beverage licensing process includes anything that allows them to justify a pause in approval, possibly in a specific geographic area because of concerns about crime or public safety. He said in his nine years on council he only remembers two or three times when they “hit the pause” on licenses, and those were for law enforcement and community safety reasons.
The city has set standards related to how close a business serving alcohol can be to a church or school, City Attorney Dan Lee said. The city attorney’s office has discussed with DeSimone and staff about coming to the City Council to discuss grading certain areas based on assessments by the police department with data including the number of calls for service.
“I really think the idea of bringing some criteria, provided you can correlate activities with crime rates. I’d be very open to that,” Bauman said.
Councilman Tibby DeJulio reminded them about a license applicant that came before the council at least six or seven years ago but was denied by the city because so many police calls for service were made there.
Lee said in that case the applicant sought a license through an ownership change. But the change in owners was not an arm’s length transaction, which enabled the city to deny the application.
The mayor said the city manager and city attorney will be asked to work with staff and determine what options that might be brought before City Council at a later time.
Applicants with license hearings during the meeting had passed all the requirements of the city’s ordinance and were not identified as having problems, Lee said.
