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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah's bar industry is crafting a proposal that would eliminate the state's unique private club system in exchange for offering to electronically scan the driver licenses of customers to ensure they're 21 or older.
Utah is the only state in the country that requires patrons to fill out an application and pay a fee to enter a bar that serves liquor. Gov. Jon Huntsman and businesses in the state's $6 billion-a-year tourism industry are fighting to eliminate the private club system, hoping to make Utah appear less odd to the rest of the world and seem more hospitable to those who live here and choose to drink.
But Huntsman, a Republican, has run into opposition from some legislative leaders in his own party who contend that the fee and paperwork associated with memberships discourage minors from illegally drinking and are partly responsible for Utah having the lowest DUI fatality rate in the country.
However, those leaders have not yet said how Utah's private club system lowers DUI rates or discourages minors from drinking. "That's the part of the dialogue I need better explained to me. I'm very proud of our low DUI rates -- that saves lives. It's hugely important. However, I have not heard a great explanation of how our private club laws lead to that low DUI rate and I definitely haven't heard an argument of why there shouldn't be conversation about improving our existing laws," said Sen. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George.
Membership cards are not legal forms of identification, many bars don't bother to issue them and those that do usually do so on pieces of paper that are easily fabricated.
When asked how private clubs provide any better protections to keep minors out of bars or drunken drivers off the roads than states that require someone to be 21 to enter a bar, Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, did not have a response.
He said the real advantage to the state's private club system is that the state can track where someone is drinking and how much they consumed.
However, contrary to Waddoups' statement, private clubs do not keep a log of who enters a bar each day, whether they had anything to drink or what guests they brought in. Club members must only sign a piece of paper once a year and there is no record beyond that.
Still, Waddoups said, in theory, bar owners should be able to remember who was there each night and how much they had to drink because they are private social clubs and know their customers. "This is what they think happens because they don't frequent private clubs and really don't understand the day-to-day operations and how they relate to the statutes," said Lisa Marcy, a lawyer and spokeswoman for the bar industry's Utah Hospitality Association.
Some clubs, which are all open to the public, have upward of 1,000 people who enter each night, many of whom pay with cash.
Utah is unique in that about 60 percent of the state's residents are members of the Mormon church, which tells its members not to drink alcohol. Even more of the state's lawmakers -- between 80 percent and 90 percent -- are Mormon.
Marcy said that while she doesn't believe Waddoups' arguments make sense, requiring bars to only allow those 21 and up and to scan IDs should allay lawmaker fears of eliminating private clubs. "We obviously are going to have to come up with a reasoned response to a give-and-take situation. We think we have one," she said.
Urquhart said the hospitality association's proposal will do a lot to advance the issue. "I think those are great ideas. I think they add significantly to the dialogue and I hope that we do have a dialogue on this issue," he said.
Marcy said an electronic scanner, which many cigarette companies use when handing out free samples, would cost about $800 and there are versions that do not store personal information. Many tourists complain about filling out applications with their birth dates on them because they're worried about identity theft. Others complain about having to fill out a form and pay a fee for every bar they go into. "The membership doesn't restrict anybody. It just throws up a hassle factor, if you will," said Danny Richardson, executive director of the Utah Tourism Industry Coalition, which represents ski resorts, restaurants and hotels, among others. "Any negative perception of 'I can't do that there. It's a hassle. It's a peculiarity' -- anything like that, when I'm in the process of making a vacation decision, any of those negatives, they mean I make a decision to go elsewhere."
The Utah Hospitality Association forced the issue of eliminating private clubs last year by filing a petition to put the issue on the 2010 ballot. It agreed to put that effort on hold when Huntsman -- the most popular governor in state history -- said he would take the lead on the issue.
Huntsman's spokeswoman, Lisa Roskelley, said the governor is open to advancing the association's proposal when the Legislature convenes Jan. 26. "I think that, certainly, using technological approaches to ensure that people are of age is something that the governor is interested in," she said. "The governor is certainly interested in looking at some of those offsetting compromises, like proper ID methods as well as looking at greater liability requirements. We have a long way to go, but he's hopeful there will be significant alcohol reform."
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
