Iowa City alcohol safety groups seeks more input

Adding more members from certain constituencies such as bar owners and neighborhood groups is one of the immediate goals of the Partnership for Alcohol Safety.

About 20 members of the Partnership for Alcohol Safety, including three UI students, gathered for a planning retreat Thursday. The retreat was not open to the public, but group leaders Tom Rocklin, UI vice president for student services, and Matt Hayek, Iowa City mayor, briefed reporters afterward.

The retreat produced a mission statement and some potential action items for the group, Rocklin said. Along with bar owners and neighborhood representatives, the group would like to add members from the health care field, such as ER doctors.

Members also want to develop a proactive relationship with downtown bar owners, Hayek said. Leah Cohen is the only downtown bar owner who regularly attends the Partnership meetings currently, he said.

"It's necessary for the long-term success of this group that bar owners be involved," Hayek said. "Bar owners have opportunities to provide their perspective and influence the discussion."

Downtown is going through a period of flux, and there are opportunities to diversify the offerings downtown, he said. The Partnership for Alcohol Safety has access to city, UI and private business leaders to talk about ideas and see what can be accomplished, Hayek said.

The Partnership for Alcohol Safety is a group of UI, city and business leaders working to reduce dangerous drinking habits downtown. The mission statement arrived at Thursday is: "Identify and advocate strategies that reduce high-risk drinking and promote a vibrant downtown."

The group existed before a November referendum where voters upheld the city ordinance that keeps people younger than 21 out of bars after 10 p.m. The group took no position on that vote.

At the retreat, members talked about possible action items in four key areas: policy and legislation, diversify downtown, neighborhoods and house parties and the group's own structure and membership, Rocklin said.

There was some discussion of working to promote education and policy advocacy about hard alcohol, Rocklin said. The group might advocate about different policing of hard alcohol sales or container size, for example, he said.

Group members also want to get a better handle on high-risk drinking problems in neighborhoods, to assess what the problems are and what strategies might be working, Rocklin said.

"In neighborhoods, there's really no good definition of the scope of the problem," he said.

The Partnership will continue to meet regularly.

"The things this group is talking about will take years to bring to fruition," Hayek said.