By Ken Stickney

ken.stickney@panews.com

Bob Bowers Civic Center director Adam Saunders told the Port Arthur City Council he’s concerned by brawls connected to events at the recently re-opened facility. But his suggestions for tamping down the violence got a cool reception from elected leaders.

Speaking on Tuesday at the regular City Council meeting, Saunders told councilmembers the problem is twofold, involving “overdrinking” and “severe drunkenness”:

• When the former occurs, patrons have been fighting on the public premises, in some instances generating violence on a large scale.
• When the latter occurs, patrons have to be “carried out” of the facility and are at risk of dropping and breaking liquor bottles and spilling alcohol on the floor, and possibly slipping and injuring themselves.

Either result endangers people on the premises, he said, and potentially puts the city at risk for lawsuits.

But councilmembers roundly rejected his presented suggestions, which included ending a policy of allowing those who rent the facilities to bring their own liquor to the Civic Center, a “bring your own bottle” or BYOB practice.

Saunders suggested that licensed vendors and licensed bartenders be mandated when the Civic Center is rented for events, which he said would put some controls on the flow of alcohol.

Saunders said that would reduce overdrinking, severe drunkenness, accidents involving broken bottles and spills, underage drinking and would obviate the city’s liability.

Acting Police Chief John Owens said police are most concerned about safety at the Civic Center, which he said is paramount.

“We don’t want people to be injured or die,” he said. He said when police deal with drunks, things can “go downhill.”

But councilmembers Charlotte Moses, Kaprina Frank, Cal Jones and Robert Scott expressed skepticism about hiring vendors. Jones and Scott said vendors would try to sell as much alcohol as they could in order to profit, which wouldn’t resolve the drunkenness problems.

Saunders said he has not kept close account of the number of fights at the Civic Center in recent years, instead just handling them as they occur. Councilmembers said they needed more firm evidence to suggest how severe overdrinking, drunkenness and violence are at the public facility before establishing new policy. Councilman Harold Doucet said he wanted to see firm numbers.

“I’m a numbers guy,” he said. “I want to know if this is the right thing to do and if we’re going to accomplish anything.”

Interim City Manager Harvey Robinson, though, interjected that there is “a growing concern that violence is escalating” at Civic Center events. Failure to address the problem, he said, would be irresponsible on the city’s part.

Mayor Derrick Freeman suggested Saunders look at “putting packages together” for various events at the Civic Center, including hiring licensed bartenders.

City leaders suggested they would look more closely at the issue later.