Melissa Bailey Photo
The mayor asked the owner of Richter’s to pony up $5,400 a year to make the city’s clubbing district safer.
“I have a big problem paying that money,” Dieter vonRabenstein replied. He wasn’t alone.
That exchange took place at a heated meeting in City Hall. Push back from bar owners like vonRabenstein is now leaving in limbo the city’s plans to respond to the violence downtown.
A week after a man was fatally shot in a downtown parking lot after a fight in a club, Mayor John DeStefano held a meeting Friday with bar owners in Meeting Room 2 at City Hall.
At the meeting, DeStefano asked bar owners to participate in a new safety plan. The plan was to raise $300,000 from downtown bars to pay for a “robust,” 10-person bar detail. That money would pay to expand a squad of cops that patrols the Crown Street area during clubbing hours from Thursday to Saturday.
The new initiative would create a virtual “bar district” in addition to the 10 policing districts the city already has.
The mayor and Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts shared some details about the new plan with the Independent last week; they said they expected a formal announcement soon.
However, after Friday’s contentious meeting ended abruptly without a resolution, they are revising the plan.
VonRabenstein, who owns Richter’s Cafe on Chapel Street, was one of the most vocal opponents among about nine bar and club owners who attended Friday’s meeting of the Nightlife Task Force, a group of downtown business owners and civic leaders tackling public safety issues.
The bar and club owners were asked to sign a pledge to voluntarily pay for the new detail for a three-month pilot period in September, October and November. Smuts passed around a piece of paper outlining how much each would have to pay, based on its occupancy and whether the main purpose is a bar/restaurant or a nightclub. The list included 26 bars, clubs and restaurants. Yearly bills reached as high as $35,000 for Alchemy (occupancy 500) and $40,250 for Gotham Citi Cafe (occupancy 575).
On the low end, low-key Anchor Restaurant & Bar was billed at $2,520 per year. The Owl Shop’s cigar bar was billed $1,125.
Click here to read the list that was distributed last week. Smuts cautioned that the document is a draft, and is not comprehensive. The numbers were meant to estimate the “cap” for what each bar would pay, he said.
VonRabenstein was asked to pay $450 a month, or $5,400 per year, for Richter’s.
“I feel like I’m being asked to pay protection,” he recalled telling the mayor.
VonRabenstein said he already pays about $6,000 a year in taxes. He spoke in a lunchtime interview Tuesday, as customers bit into hamburgers and watched TV in the dark, wood-paneled bar.
“I already paid the police department to do their job,” he said. “I’m not paying any more for this.”
Former Chief James Lewis first floated the idea of the bar detail last year. He suggested imposing an “entertainment tax” on bars and clubs, and using that money to pay for more cops. Such a tax would need state approval. The mayor put the issue on his list of legislative priorities in Hartford in February, but no action was taken at the Capitol.
Last week, a man was killed in a Crown Street parking lot following a fight inside the Gotham Citi Cafe. DeStefano said that homicide gave the issue urgency.
VonRabenstein said in his 22 years at Richter’s, he’s never had to call the cops to break up a fight. He questioned why quieter bars should be asked to foot the bill for violent acts outside rowdier venues.
“Because someone got shot down there, I gotta pay?” he asked. He said business has been tough, and he doesn’t have an extra $450 per week to throw into police costs.
Robb Bartholomeo, owner of Gotham, was one of the more receptive clubowners to the mayor’s proposal. Reached by phone Tuesday, he said he has already worked out a deal with ProPark to split payment of a new, four-shift-a-week police officer to add security to the parking lot where the homicide took place. The lot sits behind the former Wachovia Bank building at Church and Crown.
Over the past few years, several people have been shot, and one cop was head-butted, as after-hours crowds left the club.
Bartholomeo said he already hires five shifts of extra-duty cops to police his club each week. Under the city’s proposal, Gotham would be asked to pay another $3,354 per month for more police protection.
He welcomed the proposal. “We support anything that puts more police on the street,” he said, “but it will not change what we currently hire for officers.”
Others raised concerns.
Frank Patrick, the general manager at the popular pizza restaurant and dance club BAR (occupancy 325), was asked to pay the city $1,896 a month, or $22,750 a year.
“I’d be happy to contribute some,” he said Tuesday, but he said the new system needs to be fair. BAR, at 254 Crown St., is the only venue above College Street that hires an extra-duty cop, he said. The new system should include all the bars, restaurants and parking lots that benefit from nighttime and after-hours crowds — including those that don’t currently hire extra-duty cops, he argued.
“They’re making money off this, so they should contribute,” he said.
Further outcry sprung up as bar owners tried to figure out how many cops they would be getting for their money, according to people at Friday’s meeting. Several participants said they balked when they heard that the $300,000 would buy only four more cops.
Confusion erupted over the math, and over how the new system would be implemented, according to several people in the room.
Amid the confusion, Mayor DeStefano abruptly ended the meeting and ordered his staff into the mayor’s office.
“The meeting did not result in a resolution,” DeStefano confirmed. He said he told the bar owners that the city would clarify its plan and get back to them.
He also said the city would move forward with the new safety plan whether or not the bar owners are on board.
“We’re either going to do this with you or without you,” DeStefano said he told the room.
Smuts Tuesday provided some clarification. He said over the past few years, the city has paid $200,000 per year (on average) for four city cops (on average) to patrol the downtown bar district. Under the new proposal, the bars would chip in another $300,000 to the kitty. The total $500,000 would pay for 10 officers and supervision, Smuts said.
Smuts said Tuesday that the city is working on revising its plan to make sure all appropriate businesses, including parking lots, are included in the voluntary payment plan.
The city wants “to make sure the police department can articulate very clearly all of the details about how it would be implemented,” he said.
The bigger clarification that needs to be made, Smuts said, is what the city will do if bar owners don’t get on board with volunteering to pay for the “robust” bar detail.
Legally, the city cannot enforce a tax on all bars and clubs in the downtown district. But it can make use of two new city ordinances that were passed by the Board of Aldermen in August and took effect last Thursday.
One new law requires clubs to notify the chief of police before holding underage “juice bar” nights. The chief may then require club owners to hire extra-duty officers if he sees fit. The other law allows the police chief to require clubs to pay for extra-duty cops for promoted events at clubs.
As it prepares for another meeting with the bar owners, Smuts said, the city will look at how it can use these two new laws to enforce more hiring of extra-duty cops if clubs don’t want to do it voluntarily.
Mayor DeStefano said the city needs a new security plan for the club district.
If the bars don’t get on board of their own volition, he said, “we’ll figure out a new way to do it.”