City officials recently proposed a list banning chronic street alcoholics from buying liquor in order to improve downtown safety and save money.
According to City Alcohol Policy Coordinator Katherine Plominski, it is meant to target people engaged in very public sort of intoxication,"" those panhandling for enough money to become intoxicated several times throughout the day.
The proposal is still in the planning stages, with no criteria yet defined for what would place someone on the list.
Plominski said she has received complaints from students who have been habitually harassed on their way to class by individuals already intoxicated in the early morning.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said the proposal is not meant to target students and any ordinance eventually passed by the Madison Common Council should be worded to not affect students with underage drinking or house party violations. It is meant to affect ""hard-core troublemakers,"" Verveer said.
""These are the people who get in fights,"" he said. ""It is an issue that affects the quality of life downtown.""
He said the proposal is still months away from being reviewed by the city's Alcohol License Review Committee, much less the full Common Council. Plominski said she hoped to get something passed before the weather improves, as more activity and incidents are seen during warm weather.
Barb Mercer, president of the Dane County Tavern League, said her group would likely not oppose the proposal, but would be ""watching it very carefully '¦ to see if [the list] gets abusive or not.""
Mercer said she has not had any problems with chronic street alcoholics, but acknowledged there were some such individuals downtown. Verveer said many downtown liquor stores already ban certain problematic individuals.
Plominski said another reason for the proposal is that police officers must spend significant time and resources dealing with chronic street alcoholics, with roughly 219 offenders being taken to detoxification centers an average 4.1 times in 11 months.
Todd Campbell, alcohol and other drug abuse services manager for Dane County, said it costs $261.52 per person for a single day in detoxification.
