Dinniman Introduces Alcohol Accountability Act

Legislation gives funding, enforcement authority to municipalities

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 23, 2008

CONTACT: MARTIN INDARS                
PHONE: 610-692-2112     
mindars@pasenate.com                                                                   

WEST CHESTER - State Senator Andy Dinniman on Tuesday presented legislation designed to help Pennsylvania municipalities, particularly college towns, tackle alcohol-related issues and crime.

Senator Dinniman formally unveiled his Alcohol Accountability Act joined by four local officials: West Chester police Chief Scott Bohn, West Chester Mayor Dick Yoder, Magisterial District Judge Gwenn Knapp, and West Chester Borough Council member Susan Bayne.

“Pennsylvania municipalities pay a high price for irresponsible and underage drinking, and officials from college communities like West Chester know that better than anyone,” Dinniman said. “The price is in both our quality of life and tax dollars, and we pay it every time an intoxicated person knocks down a mailbox and wakes us up at 2 a.m. We pay it when we have to hire additional police officers to deal with late-night revelry.”

“My Alcohol Accountability Plan is a multi-pronged approach that focuses on better enforcement of liquor-license laws, more funding for municipalities hard hit by excessive alcohol use, and more accountability from our state universities and schools,” Dinniman said. “It’s time to take a stand for our families and communities, and my Alcohol Accountability Act does that.”

Senator Dinniman’s plan has five main components:

• Providing eligible municipalities an amount equal to 1.8 cents of the 18-cent Johnstown Flood Tax for liquor-law enforcement costs. Assuming West Chester liquor licensees sell $8 million in liquor annually, it would receive $144,000 a year from Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board profits.

• Giving municipalities with more than one liquor license per 3,000 residents the ability to cite liquor licensees for violations of Pa.'s liquor laws. Currently, only the state police's understaffed Liquor Control Enforcement Bureau has that authority.

• Requiring that the 14 state universities and four state-related universities provide a quarterly report to the governing body of their host community detailing how they have handled students convicted of breaking laws within the host community. Such reports would not include the students' names or other identifying information.

• Requiring that all Pennsylvania institutions of higher education inform parents of students what their notification policy is in the event of an underage student found guilty of violating school rules or criminal laws regarding drugs or alcohol. The universities would also be required to tell parents what their notification policy is in the event of an underage student who is deemed to be a danger to himself or herself or others.

• Requiring that the Joint State Legislative Commission study how other states and state universities are reacting to the recently expanded parental-notification rights under FERPA, the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act.

The Pennsylvania State Police’s Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement is currently the sole agency authorized to cite bars and other liquor licensees for serving intoxicated and underage customers. Dinniman said the problem is there are too few bureau offices and officers to enforce the state’s liquor laws.

“We need to involve local officers if we want to get serious about enforcing liquor laws within our drinking establishments, because the unfortunate fact is that the West Chester and many other communities are not being well-served by the State Police Liquor Enforcement Bureau,” Dinniman said.

For all of 2006, the Pennsylvania State Police’s Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement cited fewer than 23 liquor licensees in Chester, Philadelphia and Delaware counties for violating their laws by serving visibly intoxicated persons.
 
“The office assigned to cover West Chester is located 20 miles away, and its 19 officers are responsible for covering the entire five-county area,” Dinniman said. “West Chester doesn't’t want these liquor laws enforced just when officers from Philadelphia are able to get out here, it wants them enforced all the time. That’s why Chief Bohn wants his officers to be able to be trained to enforce these laws.”

“This is just one component of my Alcohol Accountability Act,” Dinniman said. “Taken in its entirety, my plan will bring peace back to our neighborhoods and return tax dollars to our wallets, and make that those who come to our community understand their responsibilities to those who live here.”

For more information, call Senator Dinniman’s office at 610-692-2112 or e-mail andy@pasenate.com.

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