The city finance committee voted 3-0 to give the bar another chance.
Donna Keeney-Giehm wasn’t about to see the liquor license for her business go up in smoke.
That’s why Kerri Trasher, who works at Goofy’s Tavern, stood before the Cheyenne City Council’s Finance Committee on Monday to say she was sorry that she smoked there knowing there was a citywide smoking ban in effect.
She explained she was off-duty and was celebrating her birthday.
“It was a force of habit,” she said, “nothing more. I deserve what I got.”
At this, the Council’s Finance Committee recommended on a 3-0 vote that the business’ retail liquor license be renewed. The decision moves to the full council Monday.
The council had yanked it off the slate of 68 licenses up for renewal last week in light of the smoking ordinance violations.
Council President Don Pierson said he singled out Goofy’s because of what he heard about the establishment since the smoking ban took effect in August.
He was sitting in a hot-tub in Dallas when he got a call from a former employee: Goofy’s was allowing people to smoke.
Then when a server, bartender and manager were fined five-and-a-half months ago, it appeared to him this establishment wasn’t taking the ban seriously.
“That was a throw-it-in-your-face, we’re going to do what we want,” Pierson said. “That’s how I took it.”
Since then, Keeney-Giehm said that Goofy’s has put in place a smoking patrol – the bar is big, and there’s no way for the bartender to monitor everything that’s happening.
“The upside (to the three citations) is that it sent a message that the smoking ban is real,” she said. “It gave bar owners a new outlook, and they’re taking it very seriously.”
Pierson said he was satisfied that Goofy’s is taking the ban seriously.
To Councilman Tom Segrave, Goofy’s owners and staff are still being punished by having to come in and explain themselves, long after the fines were paid.
“I really believe these people have paid the price,” he said.
Segrave also said the city is sending mixed messages. When someone smokes a cigarette in a public place, the owner gets a ticket. But when a server sells a beer to a customer younger than 21, only the server is fined.
He said he has a problem with selling liquor to underage customers, but not with adults smoking.
Mike Moser, the executive director of the Wyoming State Liquor Association, in an interview after the meeting, said no other community in Wyoming fines the owners on top of the servers.
Doing that would be like fining the owner of a trucking company when a driver gets a speeding ticket, he said.
Cheyenne’s ordinance, in fact, does pave the way for fining owners, City Attorney Mike Basom said when interviewed after the meeting.
City code 5.12.090 a1 states: “It’s unlawful for any person, including licensee and any agent, manager or employee of a licensee, to sell, give or deliver any alcoholic liquor or malt beverage to any person under the drinking age as defined by state law…”
A police officer could write a ticket to the owner of the establishment, and the matter could be sorted out in municipal court, he said.
People Ban: WY Cheyenne
Originally written By: Jodi Rogstad
