Snellville's Sunday alcohol debate faces closing time

By Shane Blatt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Jamie Dempsey’s dream of opening an Irish pub in Snellville comes down to a vote.

If residents decide that restaurants can serve alcohol on Sundays, Dempsey hopes within the year to open a bar and grill near U.S. 78 and Scenic Highway. If voters say no on July 20, Dempsey will take his business elsewhere.

Alcohol opponents, former city leaders and the First Baptist Church of Snellville have lined up against the measure.

Among them is Snellville resident Roy Couch, 78, who has never taken a sip of alcohol and doesn’t judge those who do. He just doesn’t believe alchohol should be available on Sunday.

“No one needs whiskey seven days a week,” said Couch, who recently passed out 400 fliers in his Woodberry subdivision urging voters to say no.

Dempsey, chairman of the Committee for a Better Snellville, is helping mobilize a get-out-the-vote campaign to end the city’s longstanding ban on Sunday alcohol sales at restaurants.

“I like Snellville,” the 36-year-old Loganville man said. “But I’m not going to do it in Snellville when a certain portion of my revenue is being prohibited from coming in.”

He faces adamant opposition from some, such as Larry Rutledge, a deacon at First Baptist Church of Snellville. In several city council meetings, Rutledge has denounced alcohol as dangerous and insisted that booze dishonors God.

“Sunday is the Lord’s Day,” Rutledge said. “He did so much for us ... The least we can do is keep his day as holy as possible.”

Faced with these themes of economic growth, alcohol accessibility and religious denial, residents are heading to the polls this month to settle a six-year-old debate.

The Sunday alcohol controversy has triggered a lawsuit against the city, a battle over state statutes and ill will across this Gwinnett County community of 20,000.

Advance voting runs through July 16 on the referendum. If voters ultimately approve Sunday sales, some restaurants can begin serving on July 25, City Manager Russell Treadway said.

Snellville is one of three cities in Gwinnett County that prohibit Sunday sales in restaurants, joined by Dacula and Loganville.

Of the state’s 585 cities and 159 counties, about 100 jurisdictions allow restaurants to pour on Sunday, said Fred Kitchens, executive director of Wine And Spirits Wholesalers of Georgia.

However, Snellville’s ban stands out because of the city’s size and proximity to Atlanta, said Michele Stumpe, an attorney specializing in alcohol compliance laws.

“It is very much a smaller-town issue,” said Stumpe, adding she typically sees a ban among rural towns with populations under 10,000.

Larry Williams, senior associate pastor at First Baptist Church if Snellville, said he has witnessed the dangers of alcohol firsthand. When he was growing up, his father owned a towing business.

“I can’t tell you the number of times people have been seriously hurt and killed through drunk driving,” Williams said. “Alcohol is a toxin. It causes people to not think clearly. It also puts stress on our law enforcement.”

However, Mellow Mushroom owner Barbara Cabak-Rosselle is optimistic voters will open the tap on Sunday sales. Over the years, Cabak-Rosselle said she has watched patrons walk in, then turn around and leave when they couldn’t drink.

“This is hurting us,” said Cabak-Rosselle, who decided to close her store for one day this Sunday, the Fourth of July, because of the ban. “If someone wants a beer with their pizza, they should be able to get it whatever day of the week.”

For Mayor Jerry Oberholtzer, the referendum is a familiar one.

In 2004, Snellville residents voted 1,171 to 1,100 to approve alcohol sales at restaurants. When the City Council voted to amend its liquor laws, several council members argued the referendum didn’t address Sunday specifically. The council later allowed sales on every day of the week except Sunday.

Since then, Oberholtzer has argued, restaurants have closed. Others with plans to operate in the city have backed out. Those left are forced to compete with businesses in alcohol-friendly Gwinnett County, he said.

“This is an economic issue,” Oberholtzer said. “This is about leveling the playing field for our businesses, plain and simple.”

The Sunday anti-alcohol policy has created a domino effect as well, the mayor said. High-end retail establishments such as The Avenue, which sits just outside city limits on Scenic Highway, won’t agree to annexation. Citywide, the ban’s net result is that few hotels or chic retail outlets want to locate in Snellville, leaving the city with an abundance of pawn shops and auto-parts stores, Oberholtzer said.

In September 2009, the mayor was confident the council would send the issue back to the voters in a referendum. But a numerical blunder by City Attorney Mike Williams meant the city was three days shy of a state-mandated time period between the call of the referendum and the actual vote. The math miscue cost Williams his job.

In November, the makeup of the council changed, tipping the balance of power on a divided governing body. On Dec. 14, council members decided to forgo another referendum, citing the opinion of several city attorneys and a provision of state law that gave them the green light to vote on the matter. The Sunday alcohol measure passed 4-2 and seven restaurants started serving beer and wine.

Meanwhile, eight residents filed a lawsuit against the city, arguing it should have put the matter to a referendum. Gwinnett County Magistrate Judge Mark A. Lewis agreed. First he issued a temporary restraining order against the city and in January he halted the flow of alcohol on Sunday.

The city appealed the ruling and asked for a new trial, citing conflicting provisions of state law. The matter is headed to the state Supreme Court.

Former City Councilman Robert Jenkins, who was involved in the lawsuit against the city, said the economic arguments don’t hold up. He has maintained that restaurants moved to the city before they could serve Monday through Saturday in 2004.

“The record shows that alcohol sales does not prevent profit or keep restaurants out of Snellville,” Jenkins said. “We have ... businesses belly-aching because they’re not able to make 300-percent profit on Sunday.”

Currently, 10 restaurants can serve beer and wine Monday through Saturday. One can serve just beer. Five can serve beer, wine and distilled spirits.

Jenkins has maintained that making alcohol more available increases the number of DUIs, leads to alcohol abuse and creates heartache for families.

“There’s not a single family in Snellville that’s not been negatively impacted by alcohol abuse,” Jenkins said.

For Dempsey, the issue of Sunday sales is about freedom of choice and boosting the city’s bottom line.

“I understand that people aren’t all going to agree with me, that’s fine,” Dempsey said. “The entire point is, make that choice with your dollars. Prohibition didn’t work the first time around.”

THEY SAID IT

"Sunday is a relaxing day. You need to have a drink."
-- Michelle Smith, 38

"I don't care one way or the other. As long as you don't get carried away, some people like a drink before dinner. But I'm in the middle."
-- Charles Brisendine, 60

"At least, we can feel safe going home from church on Sunday if we knew people weren't getting sauced. That's the Lord's Day and we ought to keep it holy."
-- Jerry Downs, 69

"The referendum passed back [in 2004]. To me, it's a cost we don't need to bear as a city since we already voted for it."
-- Cathryn Creasy, 80

A REFERENDUM IN LILBURN

On July 20, Lilburn is putting a proposed annexation to a vote. Mayor Diana Preston said the annexation would add 72 residential and 79 commercial properties. The annexation would extend the boundaries on U.S. 29 from Pleasant Hill Road to Ronald Reagan Parkway to the north and from Braden Drive to Kenvilla Drive on the south, on Pleasant Hill from U.S. 29 to Lowe’s and on Beaver Ruin Road from U.S. 29 to Burns Road. State law requires more than half of the votes cast to be in favor.