Protesters disrupt a press conference by Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber on Friday, October 22, 2021 at the corner of Ocean Drive and 10th Street in South Beach.
A split commission in Miami Beach failed to reach consensus on Wednesday on how to put in place new city-wide alcohol restrictions, which voters backed in a referendum in November, but it got the ball rolling.
Mayor Dan Gelber, who had convened the special session to discuss resetting alcohol sales across the city from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m., instructed city officials to draft ordinances that either exempt a large proportion of businesses from the proposed restrictions or would exclude certain geographic areas of the city instead.
Urban Planning Director Tom Mooney presented five exemptions to the commissioners to consider – including for closed hotels, bars and clubs, restaurants and shops in certain parts of the city. All options require a tough 2am cut-off in the outside areas of late-night shops.
The commission didn’t vote on Wednesday, but Gelber said he would convene another special meeting in the coming weeks to hold a pre-vote. Two votes are required for the law to be passed. Gelber, who chaired the meeting, heard differing opinions from his colleagues and kept a record of who was in favor of which proposal.
“There will have to be a certain amount of compromise between us,” Gelber said at the meeting.
The sometimes confused discussion drew parallels to the open-ended referendum in November, which asked whether voters would like to change the city’s last call to 2 a.m. city-wide with “specific locations and associated restrictions and exceptions to be determined by the city commission” would support. In the non-binding voting question, these exceptions were not outlined, but it was left to the city commission to interpret the will of the voters.
Tensions flared towards the end of the meeting when Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez – who labeled all options flawed because she said exceptions were inherently unfair – accused Gelber of supporting an exception for Washington Avenue businesses in order to helping his “friends”, Goodtime hotel owner David Grutman, whom Rosen Gonzalez said was a supporter of Gelber’s re-election campaign.
“I don’t think either option is fair,” said Rosen Gonzalez at the meeting. “I think it should apply to everyone, no matter what we do.”
Gelber later said in a TV interview that the allegation was absurd.
“We’re trying to find a civil answer to that, and I don’t know if it was helpful. Maybe she was just getting tired or moody or something, ”he said. “But at the end of the day I think we had a pretty serious discussion today and I think people feel like we have to do something serious and reset it.”
The first option, pushed by the commissioners, would be to exclude fully enclosed venues in major oceanfront hotels and fully enclosed restaurants, bars, dance halls, and entertainment venues in certain areas on Washington Avenue, 71st Street, or the Collins Park neighborhood.
The second, less restrictive, option is similar to the first but would exclude hotels, restaurants, bars, and other businesses across the city. Of the 140 or so companies across town with a license to sell alcohol by 5 a.m., the first option would only exempt 43 from it, while the second would exempt 132 from it.
Gelber also directed employees to work out a third option that would require exempt business owners to meet certain criteria in order to receive an extended working time privilege.
“I felt like there would be consensus to roll back at 2am, but [with] some accommodations in limited business parks, ”Gelber said after the meeting.
Martin Vassolo reports on the politics and government of Miami Beach for the Miami Herald. He started working for the Herald in January 2018 after attending the University of Florida where he served as Editor-in-Chief of The Independent Florida Alligator. Before that, he worked as a general contract reporter at the Herald metro counter and as an intern in political reporting.
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