After weeks of public opposition from the local bar and entertainment sector, the Springfield City Council announced on Tuesday June 18 that they would go forward with plans to end all 3:00 AM liquor serving licenses in the City of Springfield, following closely behind a decision by the Republican-majority Sangamon County Board. Only two alderpeople voted against the City’s corresponding measure: Alderman Shawn Gregory of Ward 2 and Roy Williams Jr. of Ward 3.
The Mayor’s office had initially assured Downtown business owners that the City would make no moves on the licenses until after the County’s changes went into effect in July, but appears to have chosen to move ahead with passing the ordinance now at the request of the Springfield Police Department.
After initially advancing the decision without public input, the City did offer on Tuesday what it described as a compromise amendment to consolidate existing 1:00 AM and 3:00 AM bars into 2:00 AM clubs instead. Yet that compromise too was not publicly discussed until Tuesday, with the Mayor giving credit to the SPD for “championing” the alternative 2:00 AM closing time.
“The initial vote to consider [this ordinance] was conducted just two weeks ago on June 4,” said Springfield resident Sarah Jacobs. “Before that, no attempts had been made to alert either business owners or citizens of Springfield of this motion. If that is not cause for concern, and a reason to table this discussion for further consideration, then I don’t know what is.
“We’ve now seen multiple proposals directly affecting small businesses and their customers that have come about secretively, and without consultation of the businesses and communities that they will directly impact.”
Few of those who addressed the City were impressed with the compromise itself.
The reasoning offered by City officials remained a continuing point of contention: the SPD has remained insistent that the measure is to address what they described as a public safety concern caused by the 3:00 AM bars.
Ward 10 Alderman Ralph Hanauer somewhat differed from the SPD’s position: reiterating his stance of several years ago, the Alderman asserted that this was about reducing the over-concentration of police in the Downtown area.
“From 2:00 to 4:00 in the morning, Wards 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,” said Hanauer, “if we have one police officer covering any of those, then we’re lucky, because they’re all sitting outside the 3:00 bars.”
Hanauer’s comments were immediately met by loud condemnation and exasperation from the audience, requiring a gavel strike from the Mayor to quiet the chamber.
Multiple bar employees noted both Tuesday and the week before that the single largest cause of police calls to their establishments was the City’s homeless population, which remains unaddressed and unmentioned in all of the City’s talking points on the 3:00 AM license elimination.
David Stevens, a doorman at Celtic Mist, told the Council, “This year, since January, I’ve called the police seven times. Five out of those seven were because we had problems with an unhoused person.”
Stevens, who previously worked security in Champaign explained that when that city cut their late-night licenses, bar patrons instead turned to house parties.
“There was less supervision, less oversight, and less safety — it took people longer to notice when there was a problem. And instead of responding to bars, police were responding to apartment complexes and neighborhoods.”
Vincent Cottingham, who works security at Clique, explained, “In the ten months that I’ve worked at Clique, there’s only been one time that I had to call the police for anything other than the unhoused community,
“That one time that I had to call was for a gentleman who got shot four blocks away from our bar, and came to Clique because he knew he would find help.”
Alderwoman Lakeisha Purchase of Ward 5, whose ward encompasses the majority of the 3:00 AM bars, implored the people present to give the compromise a chance:
“I know that it’s not favorable to move to 2:00 AM, but I stated to you all that I didn’t want it to be all or nothing.
“There was an ordinance that came forward and was going to take 3:00 AM’s to 1:00 AM. Look at how something else was just brought forward. This is not something that is set in stone.”
