With Halloween quickly approaching, \bad blood"" simmering between the Tavern League, the University, and the city may keep collaboration on Halloween events at a standstill.
Dane County Tavern League President Barb Mercer said that there is so much animosity between the taverns and the city over the drink special lawsuit ""you could cut it with a knife."" The League will ""absolutely not"" be cooperating with the city on closing early during Halloween because of the possibility of another anti-trust lawsuit if it were to do so.
""There is terrible animosity between the taverns and the city,"" said Marsh Shapiro, owner of the Nitty Gritty, 223 N. Frances, and Tavern League representative, referencing the considerable legal fees, because of fees the League and its taverns have shouldered.
""We have agreed and endorsed all of their suggestions for controlling the party with the exception of closing early,"" Shapiro said.
After years of pressuring the taverns and the League to end their practice of offering drink specials, the Alcohol Licensing Review Committee, with the city and UW-Madison behind them, it announced on Sept. 12, 2002, that it was going to put forth an ordinance that would prohibit the sales of discounted drinks.
To avoid a greater economic loss from the threatened week-long drink specials ban, the League succumbed to pressure and proposed a political compromise. As an experiment, 24 taverns prohibited drink discounts on Friday and Saturday evenings.
ALRC Chair Ken Kamp said the goal of a drink specials ban would be to curb binge drinking. Despite the agreement, ""The taverns have been against the ban from the start; they still are,"" said Richard Lyshek, owner of the Bullfeathers, 303 N. Henry.
The League's LaFollette, Godfrey & Kahn attorney Kevin O'Conner said, ""It had nothing to do with prices,"" but rather with worries of increased crime, binge drinking and disorderly conduct.
The experiment imploded when three patrons, represented by Minneapolis-based Lomman, Nelson, Cole & Strageberg attorney Steven Uhr filed a suit against the 24 taverns and the League for allegedly conspiring to break anti-trust laws by fixing prices.
Fighting the lawsuit cost bars close to $400,000 in legal fees. ""Where is the money coming from for these legal fees? From the 24 bars that were sued,"" Shapiro said.
Dane County Circuit Court Judge Angela Bartell dismissed the case and decided the ban was forced on the bars by pressure from the city and was not a result of collusion and conspiracy to fix prices by the taverns.
""We were pretty confident we would get a dismissal at some point,"" O'Conner said. However, the dismissal has been appealed and the litigation is ongoing. Mercer brought a petition before the university and city asking for contributions for the legal fees on Sept. 20.
""I asked for $100,000, $50,000 from each of them and they laughed at me, even though it's because of them the taverns are in this mess in the first place,"" Mercer said.
Both Shapiro and Lyshek asserted that the lawsuit is worse than the smoking ban because of all the money spent on legal fees. Both stated the smoking ban has not affected their businesses as much as the lawsuit because people are still frequenting bars. ""Everyone is still abiding by the law and going outside,"" Shapiro said.
Mercer stated the ban and lawsuit were equal because it is unknown how much money will be lost as the ban is still continuing. ""Both are extremely painful and could possibly mean the closing for some bars.\
