Creating a better business climate is easy: it simply means providing a level playing field; having fair and honest competition; keeping taxation as low as possible; and minimizing red tape and regulation. When those elements are in place, business thrives.

Unfortunately, business in Duluth is often challenged when this simple formula is compromised. On Monday night, the Duluth City Council will once again take up a resolution fraught with the potential of eroding the business climate at once. This will take place when the Charter Commission’s* recommendation to strike a 1912 Prohibition era liquor regulation from the city charter is approved by the City Council.

This is highlighted by the case of a new restaurant that wants to serve liquor. Unfortunately, the restaurant in question – a newly renovated business on Fourth Street near Chester Creek – is unable to attain a license to serve liquor because it is within a short distance of a park. In keeping with the prohibition laws of the 1910s to the early 1930s, the city charter forbids this to happen. Since this time, our city has progressed forward creating more modern controls: the City of Duluth Alcohol, Gaming, and Tobacco Commission and the City Council, for example. Moreover, there are also state laws and regulations that also control how the city controls liquor distribution, liquor sales, and so forth.

Because this is a charter change, its approval requires a unanimous vote of the city council. The change would effectively strip the prohibition era regulation from the charter and lessen a regulatory burden. Still, our city would maintain good control over liquor provided by the previously mentioned commission, elected officials, and state laws. Charter change, in this case, would improve the business climate – something our city desperately needs.

City Councilor Garry Krause stands in firm opposition. To be fair, councilor Krause is concerned that the establishment of another liquor serving restaurant in this particular neighborhood may be a cause for delinquency among college students. He does not want further alcohol related incidents. He believes the city council to be weak in the knees when it comes to liquor regulations and violation of those regulations in the City of Duluth. Keeping one more layer of Prohibition Era regulation, he reasons, will help protect the citizenry.

There are several problems with Krause’s argument. First, if we keep the 1912 Prohibition Era Charter regulation, the City of Duluth will have to research all park, parkland, or city property deeds to see if any liquor serving or selling establishment is near parkland. This could potentially take several thousand hours of city attorney time and effort, thereby taking time away from economic development projects and so forth. Keeping the 1912 regulation will also force a review of all city council meeting minutes to see how any city owned parcel of land was bought or accepted as city land to make sure the intention of the acquired property was to be parkland or any other kind of property. This could potentially snare unintended businesses such as those in Canal Park, those close to city hall, or even those in West Duluth that are close to Memorial Park.

Secondly, the 1912 era provision in our charter does not reflect modern realities. Eliminating the ability to of someone to attain liquor from a legal and licensed source wherein an invested proprietor can be penalized will not reduce alcohol abuse by college students. College students often times gain access to alcohol at house parties when an irresponsible adult provides it for a fee. Councilor Krause is correct that this kind of behavior ought to be stopped. His argument falls short when he thinks a proprietor, properly licensed and rightly regulated, would risk his license to provide alcohol to underage customers. The real solution, then, is to remove this antiquated provision and allow our licenses to be governed by one, straight-forward code.

We need your help. Councilor Krause indicates that he is acting in accord with constituent wishes. To help our city avoid another potentially damaging and expensive public fight, please contact Councilor Krause to voice your concern that we have straightforward, simple, and effective regulation of alcohol in our city. In doing so, you will help us begin to create a better business climate.

Email councilor Krause at gkrause@ci.duluth.mn.us and respectfully ask him to vote in favor of 07-007-O