Group wants to ban a.m. alcohol

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — A local group of activists vows to have the streets of Gallup covered with posters and flyers in the coming days asking you to help them ban all package and by-the-drink alcohol sales until noon within city limits.

Dissatisfied with the efforts of the local government, the Gallup Alcohol Action Team is taking the city's long-standing battle with alcohol abuse to the people.

The posters some 500 of them and flyers another 9,000 will be urging registered voters to sign a petition that would put the question of a morning alcohol ban on the ballot of a special election planned for Nov. 8.

"This is democracy in its rawest form," said Lindsay Mapes, the group's secretary, during a press conference at the El Morro Theater Friday afternoon to formally announce the campaign.

A newly formed non-profit claiming some 25 members of all stripes joined in an effort to alleviate public intoxication and irresponsible liquor sales in Gallup, the Action Team is actually the successor of another group that had been around for four years, said its president, Barbara Quinones. But with its eyes set on downtown Gallup alone, she said, its focus was too narrow.

"While our attempts were good, our efforts fell short," Quinones said.

Birth of a referendum
Searching for a broader approach to the problem, the Action Team and its mission were realized with the help of two city councilors who urged the people to take up the cause of shorter hours a few months ago when the mayor's efforts at reform failed.

Back in June, Mayor Bob Rosebrough proposed several options he hoped would lessen public intoxication downtown, including the restriction of alcohol sales in the neighborhood to restaurant settings. The reformers on the council were out-voted.

Still eager for change, Councilwoman Mary Ann Armijo suggested turning the debate into a public referendum. Informed that the council was legally barred from initiating such a referendum, she and Councilman Pat Butler encouraged the citizens to take it on themselves.

"I think the original quote was, 'Let's take it to the people.' And I think this is a great way to do it because this is grassroots democracy," Quinones said.

A citywide problem
As a local option election, the morning-sales ban the referendum is going for must apply citywide.

The Gallup Alcohol Action Team wouldn't have it any other way.

Although the battle has grown especially bitter of late, with lawsuits filed and allegations of threatening telephone calls to the mayor's home and office, Quinones insists the group has no intention of fighting the liquor industry or targeting particular establishments.

"This referendum, if it passes, will apply to everyone within the city of Gallup," she said.

"We would like to emphasize that the Gallup Alcohol Action Team is not here to combat the industry, rather, to improve the quality of life for our residents by alleviating the problems of public intoxication.

"Everyone has the right to do business," she said. "We're just asking them to do it in a responsible manor."

Shorter hours not enough
The referendum is merely the Action Team's first project. Truly tackling the city's alcohol problems, the group insists, will take more than shorter hours.

The same studies out of Alaska by the Merin Institute that told them banning alcohol sales before noon could make a difference, Mapes said, conclude that the second most affective move is to limit the number of establishments that sell alcohol.

The Na'Nizhoozhi Center, Gallup's local detoxification facility, has also taught the group that simply taking away an alcoholic's liquor won't always stop him from drinking.

"We realize that if you take away one person's addiction, they'll switch to another product," said Mapes.

Hair spray and mouth wash, mixed with water to make "ocean," is a popular alternative for the area's most alcohol dependent people.

Shorter hours won't necessarily do much to combat the rampant bootlegging that goes on across the theoretically dry Navajo reservation either, Quinones conceded.

Quinones says they're all facets of the problem the Gallup Alcohol Action Team will eventually take on.

"I think there have been a lot of Band-Aid approaches," said Mapes, "and if we don't go across the board, then what's the effectiveness?"

And while the group appreciates the stepped-up police presence downtown, Quinones said, it's also working on getting the Gallup Police Department a trailer it could convert into a mobile sub-station.

A comprehensive solution, they say, will also take a shift it popular perceptions.

"This is not a Navajo problem," said Virginia Ballenger, another member of the Action Team, "this is a people problem."

As Quinones put it, "not every Native American is an alcoholic, and not every alcoholic is Native American."

By blaming only Navajos for the city's alcohol problems, Ballenger said, the entire community suffers.

"When you keep a certain segment of your society down, you keep your whole society down. That's what this community needs to do," she said, "is to treat its people equal."

By the numbers ...
For now, the Gallup Alcohol Action Team will be hitting the streets collecting signatures.

By state law, the group has to collect signatures from at least five percent of registered Gallup voters within a 90-day period to turn its petition into a referendum.

The group says that will take at least 450 signatures. Quinones said it has 100 already, and plans to collect the rest by Sept. 20.

Once the list reaches the city clerk's hands, and enough of the signatures prove valid, said City Attorney George Kozeliski, the City Council has 70 days within which to hold the referendum.

The Action Team is aiming for Nov. 8.

That's so long as no one raises a legal challenge, of course.

But by the book?
Mapes says there's no precedent for such a referendum in New Mexico.

And according to Kozeliski, the state's laws on the matter have the legal community divided. There's some question about whether such local option referendums can even address the hours of alcohol sales. By some interpretations, they can only ask voters to ban sales on Sunday or make the municipality completely dry.

"This kind of is a gray area," Kozeliski said. "There's no doubt about it."

If there is a legal challenge, he expects it to come from either the Attorney General's Office, the Alcohol and Gaming Division, or from the alcohol dealers themselves.

But they can't challenge the referendum, he said, until the signatures are turned in.

Hank Stokes, the group's vice president, said he's received only positive feedback from business owners near the "hot spots" around town where public intoxication is most common.

At least one alcohol dealer, however, said he would not sign the petition if it ever came his way.

"I would never support that," said Silver Stallion Saloon owner Benny Padilla, who is being sued by the state on charges that he violated its liquor control laws and is in turn suing the city alleging that officials are trying to close down his bar so they can transfer his liquor license to a "whiter" establishment.

Although the Silver Stallion does not open for business until 1 p.m. and would not be affected by the shorter hours, Padilla said, he does not believe that any other dealers should be dictated to like that.

"They're trying to strip all our rights," he said. "We're supposed to be a free country, you know?"

And he doubts the new hours would achieve the ends the group is hoping for.

"(Alcoholics will) find something else, either hair spray or mouth wash," he said. "One way or the other, they'll get it."

To contact the Gallup Alcohol Action Team, call 870-3969.