Council Deliberates Amendment to Allow Alcohol Sales at City Events

The City Council of Kennesaw has decided to advertise public hearings for a proposed ordinance to amend city code to allow alcohol at city-sponsored events.

The council deliberated the issue during Wednesday night's work session, which lasted over two hours. The proposed amendment to Chapter 6 of Kennesaw City regulations, if passed, would make two changes to the city's law regarding sales of alcohol.

First, it would allow for the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages at any public event that City Manager Steve Kennedy approves of.

The council deliberated for about 15 minutes over whether Kennedy should also be responsible for determining which specific types of alcohol could be present at which events.

Mayor Mark Mathews said Kennedy should have that authority, noting that certain events may only call for certain types of alcoholic beverages.

"I think we should (have that authority)," said Mathews. "Maybe it's just a wine and cheese, and it truly just needs to be wine."

The proposed amendment, as it stands, does not account for the regulation of types of alcoholic beverages. The council and mayor soon concluded that the events in question would likely determine for themselves which types of alcohol would be present, and decided that it was not the responsibility of the City Manager to "split hairs," as the mayor put it.

The second provision of the amendment would allow for commercial sales of food and crafts during city-sponsored events.

The original issue of whether to advertise public hearings on the amendment was agreed upon by the council at the end of deliberation. The council agreed that the public should be allowed to speak on the issue before a reasonable decision could be made about it.

It will be picked up again as an agenda item on Monday, July 18.

"If (the amendment) is not ready, we don't do it," Mathews concluded.

The work session also included the presentation of the 2011 second quarter EAGLE awards.

EAGLE stands for Exceptional Customer Service, Above and Beyond Attitude, Generating Opportunity of Revenue, Leading by example and Effective Cost Control/Cost Savings. The award is given every quarter to the city's most outstanding employees.

Mayor Mathews presented four EAGLE awards to the following city employees: Roderick Bowman (Public Works), Marilyn Shoaf (Mayor and Council), Clint Warren (Sanitation) and Jonathan Johnson (Sanitation).