Council sets date for vote on alcohol

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Everyone with an interest in how alcohol is sold in this town should start making plans to spare a few minutes of their time March 28. That's the date the City Council set Tuesday evening for Gallup's "not before noon" public referendum.

The council was legally bound to set a date after a local non-profit group handed in just enough valid signatures as required by state statute late last month to trigger a public referendum. But with a public school bond election the first Tuesday in February and a primary election the second Tuesday in June and state rules that prohibit a referendum within 42 days of either the council was limited to picking a day in late March or early April.

City Attorney George Kozeliski said staff were also careful to schedule the referendum around the public school district's March Break since the city will need a few of its buildings for polling places.

Bill Bright, a volunteer for the Gallup Alcohol Action Team, the group that circulated the petitions calling for the referendum, said the date was fine with him.

Bright just wants to make sure that whenever voters show up to the polls, they understand that yes means no. In other words, voting "yes" to the referendum means saying "no" to the sale of alcohol within city limits before 12 p.m.

The city decided to split the referendum into two separate questions, one asking voters whether they want to end the sale of alcohol by the drink before noon, another asking them whether they want to end the sale of package liquor before noon. So the city could conceivably end up with a pre-noon ban on drinks but not package liquor, or vice versa.

Although the Gallup Alcohol Action Team's officers are expecting a legal challenge to their referendum, none has yet arrived. A challenge between now and March 28 could potentially postpone referendum day, according to City Manager Eric Honeyfield. The challengers might also be waiting until after referendum day to find out if they need to bother mounting an opposition. By some interpretations of the state statutes, according to Kozeliski, such a referendum cannot even ask voters whether they want to restrict the hours alcohol is sold.

Bright, of course, has no doubts about the passage of both questions come March 28. Along with others, he's volunteered hours of his time to collect the signatures that have made a referendum even possible.

The fact that the group handed in just enough valid signatures a slim 18 more than the 553 it needed after well over three months of effort, and just before its time ran out Dec. 22, is no reason to think the referendum has little public support, Bright said. Some confusion early on about exactly how many signatures the city expected reportedly slowed things down. Bright also claimed that the group handed in at least twice the number of signatures that ended up being verified. As is typical of public petitions, many names get disqualified for a variety of technicalities.

As another encouraging sign for the pro-ban crowd, Bright added, seven out of every 10 people he visited during his personal door-to-door canvassing signed up willingly, with no partisan prodding.

"The point is, there's plenty of support," he said.

He and the rest of the city will find out just how much there really is March 28.

The Gallup Alcohol Action Team hopes that a pre-noon ban on alcohol sales will cut down on the number of intoxicated people who roam the city's streets and the problems that accompany them. Some critics fear the ban will only drive the most alcohol dependent of them to more dangerous substances like "ocean," a mixture of water and hair spray.