Thread by @AndyHS

Special Meeting of Fresno City Council: “The Responsible Neighborhood Market Ordinance” Before it starts I will post some info from City’s website: 1. Researched applicable law, including Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) regulations, and Fresno Municipal Code (FMC) provisions;

Created a checklist for violations;
3. Conducted site visits at each of the 204 businesses meeting the qualifications for the investigation;
4. Searched Planning documents for Conditional Use Permits (CUPs) and Conditions of Approval for each business;
Reviewed Fresno Police

4. Department (FPO) calls for service for each business;
5. Prepared a spreadsheet with business information, owner information, violations present, and calls for service for each business; and
6. Identified worst offenders based on numbers of violations, severity of violations

, and calls for service. 6. From the Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC), the CAO team received a list of 292 locations. We sorted them by district and eliminated grocery stores and drug stores like CVS and Walgreens. We kept on the list some of the markets appearing to operate as

204 businesses. In District 1, the team went to 38 sites. In District 3, the team went to 60 sites. In Dis ict 5, the team went to 37 sites. In District 7, the team went to 69 sites. These site visits were members did not attempt to purchase any alcohol as part of the investi-

gation.
A complete chart of violations listed by district and by total is attached hereto as Exhibit A. Photographs of common violations are attached hereto as Exhibit B. There were 930 total violations noted at the 204 businesses. District 1 had 172 observed violations.

District 3 had 261 observed violations. District 5 had 176 observed violations. District 7 had 320 observed violations.
The five violations observed most frequently were tall cans or 40 ounce bottles for sale (195 violations), small liquor bottles of approximately 50 milliliters

(112 violations), missing "Open Container" signs as required by FMC 15-2706(k) (106 violations), missing "Legal Age" signs as required by FMC. 15-2706 (100 violations), and advertising covering more than 15% of windows as prohibited by FMC 15-2706 (99 violations). In addition, we

59 businesses selling individual beers or wine coolers intended to be sold in quantities of four or more. This is a clear violation of FMC section 15-2706(p) Most businesses had the required interior and exterior surveillance, and most were clear of trash and graffiti on the

Loitering was only observed at 27 businesses, but the site visits took place during the hours of 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., which may not be the most active loitering hours.

Meeting beginning May 1st 2019. All members present. Sponsored by @District5Chavez @MiguelArias_D3 @D7Esparza Arias says there are both youth and business owners. This will help prevent Fresno being “the drunkest City in America”. Highest Concentration of Liquor Licenses in Cali-

fornia. Was brought over decades. Thought was any job was a good job. Mortality to liver failure , DUI accidents is high. Youth started advocating for a change. Business owners also wanted a change. Small businesses sued in 2017 as City kept approving liquor license. One

license per 1000 people. “Youth speaks: $2 billion on Liquor ads. 17 liquor stores around high school. 11 had excessive ad on their buildings. Next youth talks about amount of liquor stores near Roosevelt. Youth say it is easy to get access to alcohol. More alcohol ads kneads to

Leads to more alcohol usage. (Shirt video shown by #responsibleneighbor by SouthEast Neighborhood Transformation Ask liquor store to be more family friendly. Youth had billboard asking other youth to not drink. Youth Leadership Council helped sponsor. Arias asks colleagues

to get rid of food deserts, connect youth with small businesses, cap licenses for new liquor stores. Ads only 5% of windows. 1000+ feet from schools. Collaborate with APSA. 96% of ABC liquor license holder failed. 15,000 calls for service. 6-8 months for environmental review

and early 2020 to Planning Commission and Council. APSA Representative “Andy” has worked for last 14 years about the over saturation of liquor stores as well as alcohol ads. We want our kids to want to come back to Fresno when they leave for college. Most owners are good but once

a competitor puts up too many signs it forces others to follow suit or loss business. @GarryBredefeld asks about extra regulations ? APSA: There won’t be additional layers of regulation or fees. Arias says no fees added. No new CUP for existing businesses. APSA Rep says they want

to work with Council. @District5Chavez says this will start/ initiate this process. There will be Joint Accountability Commission and partnership. City of Fresno caused this problem over decades and it won’t be solved overnight. Districts 1,3,7 are over saturated. Chavez thanks

Youth for pushing this. Small businesses run AM-PM and not the corporation. @D7Esparza said he had a feeling it was over saturated but once he came on to Councilme was shocked by how bad it was. His district was worse in State. Youth did hard footwork over the years on this.

Overtime the number of liquor license will be reduced. Public comments now: Christina Garcia says shebis sophomore at Roosevelt. Friday Night Live Council and other groups support this ordinance. Bob Arlow says he has been in business for 30+ years and has no violations for

Cigarettes and alcohol. It is time to clean up the city. Costco and other big stores contribute to the problem as well. Don’t hurt us with this ordinance. Layla says she is a health educator for Fresno County. Kids more likely to smoke in neighborhoods with liquor stores. Adults

trying to quit smoking have a harder time in neighborhoods with liquor stores. @kieltls Kiel says is excited that Youth Leadership Council is here. Jonny Quik added making it 10th liquor store in a census track that says only 6 allowed. Former council voted in favor anyway.

California Fresh Works helps provide fresh produce to liquor stores and should be looked at.” Agit Gill says He is part of the community. Too many stores hurts him too. City policy created that problem. He personally has never smoked or drank alcohol. Wants to work together.

Janet:” says she is passionate about building a healthy community. She saw negative impact of accessive advertising. Was happy to see ads reduced to 15% but still not enough. Must be sure the reduction to 5% is enforced by Code Enforcement.” Next: funding to enforce has to be

provided. His kids worked in his store growing up. They don’t drink or smoke despite that. The mindset is important. Please be sure to have funding to enforce advertising. “ Antonio: “ he is part of Fresno Yourh Commission says the Commission votes to support this Responsible

Neighborhood Market Act. Arias “thanks those who met with him from liquor stores going over the ordinance line by line.” Motion to approve. @GarryBredefeld thanks council for this Special Meeting to accommodate his schedule. Wants to be fair to businesses. Drunkest City was

designated by Men’s Health magazine. It was based on DUI arrests and not caused by these businesses. Parenting is the problem. Convenience stores don’t cause alcoholism. But there is too many stores that sell alcohol. This bill won’t hurt businesses. Payday , crime , drugs , Prop

47 etc and joblessness are problems. A problem with public intoxication. Minors buying alcohol and businesses selling to them. Enforcing laws is important. The study by City’s Attorney office showed lots of violations. What are fines for these violations? Attorney Sloan says

$250 and up to $1000 for third fine. “ DARM’s Jeniffer Clark says “ Code Enforcement is a reactive and when told of violations they are sent out. Owner has to correct or be fined. Anyone can file a complaint by FresGo ad. We don’t have a pro-active team. Only for rental housing

and weed abatement to prevent fires is only proactive teams Code Enforcement have. Adding more personnel could be added. “ City Manager says it has not been a high priority thus far. @GarryBredefeld we need to address this lack of enforcement. If we pass this we need to follow

thru. Chavez: if Bredefeld would lie to add more Enforcement he would be in favor. Bredefeld says real problem is lack of enforcing. @PaulCaprioglio says this will be addressed at Budget sessions ( June). Arias: Code Enforcement has been last of discussion. Inspection program

will be developed with APSA while environmental review is written. “ City Attorney Sloan says several 100 could be inspected in a year. Bredefeld respects the work done on this. Covert message to businesses is an issue.” @Esmeralda_Soria thanks youth for coming out today as well

as APSA. They stayed at table and didn’t give up. This is beginning of a longer process. Thanks Bredefeld for bringing up fact of Code Enforcement aspect. Proactive is needed. Perhaps adding liquor store violations to FreGo App. She would hate to create illusion that we are doing

something today and then don’t follow thru with Enforcement. @PaulCaprioglio thanks everyone for coming out today. Identifying the problem is easy but solving it is hard. The two groups coming together today is important. Passes 6-0!

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