© 2024 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Kansas City Council Hears More On Controversy Over Liquor Cards

The tussle over whether to do away with background checks and liquor cards for servers in Kansas City continues at City Hall.
Zenoir/Creative Commons
The tussle over whether to do away with background checks and liquor cards for servers in Kansas City continues at City Hall.
The tussle over whether to do away with background checks and liquor cards for servers in Kansas City continues at City Hall.
Credit Zenoir/Creative Commons
The tussle over whether to do away with background checks and liquor cards for servers in Kansas City continues at City Hall.

The tussle between community groups and bar owners in Kansas City over background checks for servers will continue for at least another week.

The city council's Neighborhood and Public Safety Committee has been struggling over various proposals that range from doing away with liquor cards to easing restrictions on who can sell alcohol to not changing a thing.

The hearing Wednesday leaned heavily toward not making a change. Eslun Tucker, a South Kansas City Alliance board member, was worried about sex offenders serving liquor. She equated bartending with a job caring for children. "We wouldn’t have a pedophile go and work in a daycare,” she said.

Jessica McClellan, who runs Hope & Help, an organization that supports sexual assault survivors, said there may be "great temptation" for those serving liquor to re-offend. “This can be a direct threat to the community, not only to women but to men and children as well.”

“It is our hope that sanity will prevail and that this movement will not go forward,” said Ben Wearing from the Center Planning and Development Council in south Kansas City.

Bar owners are fighting hard to repeal the liquor card law. "The card doesn't prevent anything from happening," said Bill Nigro, who owns the building in which Westport Saloon is located. “Maybe they ought to make all the cable people who keep coming into your home (get a card)? Or how about the plumbers or electricians? Nobody checks any of them,” he told KCUR.

Currently, the most serious felons are banned for life while other felons either have to wait three or five years to be eligible for a liquor card.

One compromise would drop the liquor card requirement for people who work in liquor stores since an employee couldn't tamper with someone's drink.  Another proposal would drop the liquor card requirement for people serving drinks at Kauffman Stadium, Arrowhead or Sprint Center.

The council disagrees about what to do. Mayor Pro Tem Scott Wagner, who is running for mayor, wants to drop the 70-year-old law. Public Safety Committee Chair Alissia Canady, also a mayoral candidate, seems to be leaning toward holding on to some if not all the restrictions.

The committee will probably take up the issue again next week.

Correction: Bill Nigro's relationship to Westport Saloon was clarified. 

Sam Zeffis KCUR's metro reporter. You can follow Sam on Twitter @samzeff

Copyright 2021 KCUR 89.3. To see more, visit KCUR 89.3.

Sam grew up in Overland Park and was educated at the University of Kansas. After working in Philadelphia where he covered organized crime, politics and political corruption he moved on to TV news management jobs in Minneapolis and St. Louis. Sam came home in 2013 and covered health care and education at KCPT. He came to work at KCUR in 2014. Sam has a national news and documentary Emmy for an investigation into the federal Bureau of Prisons and how it puts unescorted inmates on Grayhound and Trailways buses to move them to different prisons. Sam has one son and is pretty good in the kitchen.