Mayor Diane Delaware says she believes that much of the resistance from night club owners to earlier closing hours is due to the fact that they never understood the law in the first place.
“We certainly don’t want them to lose any money, but I don’t know what they were selling after midnight,” Delaware said.
A group of local night club owners has been protesting the city’s new ordinance requiring all businesses that sell alcohol to close at midnight. They say that the ordinance is costing them money.
Delaware said that because the law already prohibited alcohol sales after midnight in Yazoo City Clubs, she doesn’t see how club owners are losing as much revenue as they claim.
The mayor said she recently met with several night club owners to hear their concerns.
“We had a cheery, yet disappointing conversation,” she said. “They wanted to know if I was willing to compromise with regard to closing the hours.”
Delaware said that she told them the city will not consider changing the ordinance at this time.
“To alter it now would be considered tampering,” Delaware said. “When you implement change, you give it time to see what happens.”
Delaware said that so far requiring clubs to close earlier seems to be accomplishing what city leaders hoped for – reducing violent incidents in the early morning hours.
“Things have been going really well since the clubs started closing at midnight,” Delaware said. “There have been very few problems.”
Delaware said local club owners should focus on adapting their businesses to thrive under the new rules.
“When change does occur, those affected by the change need to come together and figure out a way to work through it,” Delaware said. “It is possible that the clubs might open earlier. I told them they can benchmark other cities.”
The mayor said she is willing to help club owners make changes that will improve business.
“I told them that I would sit down with them and brainstorm ways to get people out to clubs earlier,” she said. “I will help them, but they should work together as a team to try to figure out ways to get more people out.”
One argument that club owners have made is that people in Yazoo City don’t get out until later. Delaware said she Yazoo City isn’t any different than other towns that require their clubs to close at midnight.
“While they may feel like I’m trying to be funny, I am not,” Delaware said. “They seem to think that Yazoo City is different than any other place in the whole world. I told them that maybe it’s because they have made it different. They have decided that it’s different, but the unfortunate thing about most cities is that they are not unique. We want to believe we are unique and that there are no other people in the world like us, but the bottom line is that people across this world form patterns.”
Delaware said club owners are going to have to use their business skills to adapt to the changes.
“There were some implications that we are treating them like children, and I told them that we would never do such a thing,” Delaware said. “In fact we believe that they are capable of working through this using the skills and all of the brainpower that is available to them.”
Another topic was complaints about police presence around the clubs.
“They said that when our police officers come around their clubs at like 11 or 11:30, they feel intimidated,” Delaware said. “I told them that our police officers go all around the city. They can sit at a club or on a corner. They’re free to come in, and we should welcome them in with open arms. They are not seeking to intimidate, but they may be inspecting. There’s no reason to fear the police. If you’re doing something wrong you should fear them and God, but otherwise you don’t have to fear the police. Our police are really good people who follow the law.”
Ward 3 Alderman Rev. Gregory Robertson said he has also spoken with some club owners about issues with the police, and he wants to be sure that all establishments are required to follow the same rules.
“They seem to think that our policemen are not all on the same page,” Robertson said. “They think that some are allowed to be open later or do different things, and that some clubs are getting favoritism. They say some clubs are closing while others are allowed to stay open. I just want our chief to be aware of this and make sure that the ordinances are enforced across the board and fairly.”
