Parents or other adults who host minors who are caught drinking
face fines
Gilroy – Parents and any other adults who host a kegger for underage drinkers face fines of up to $2,000 under a city ordinance approved this week.
On Monday, city council voted 6-1 to enact an emergency version of a Social Hosting Ordinance that allows the law to take immediate effect. Normally, regulations take 30 days to go into effect from the date of approval. Officials were anxious to pass the measure in time for next week’s middle and high school graduations.
Parents who let kids drink at home “will be punished,” Mayor Al Pinheiro said. “They will get fined and they will be taken to task. It’s a simple way to get the message out and if it saves a few kids from driving drunk and crashing, then it was worth it.”
Adults who provide a haven for underage drinkers face a range of punishments under the new ordinance. The regulation calls for an initial warning followed by escalating fines of $250, $1,000 and $2,000 for each subsequent party.
Police retain discretion under the ordinance to waive or increase fines depending on the nature of the incident. Parents who are out of town during a party, for instance, may only receive a warning for a first offense while adults overseeing underage drinkers could face an immediate $2,000 fine.
The regulation defines a party as any gathering of at least four underage drinkers.
Councilman Roland Velasco has been a lead proponent of the social host ordinance, which was modeled on similar laws passed in other Bay Area cities.
“This is not replicating laws currently on the books,” Velasco said. “It’s still illegal for an underage person to purchase alcohol. What this ordinance does do, is allow the city to fine a host – whether a parent or older brother – if the police are called to break up a large party that’s serving alcohol to kids, and to fine the host for the cost of having the police roll out there and break things up. In that sense, we hope to curtail teenage drinking and recover some of the costs involved to the city, and that’s good public policy.”
Councilman Craig Gartman was the sole dissenting vote. Gartman argues that the law amounts to legislating social behavior, and that the city should instead focus on going after people who sell alcohol to underage drinkers.
Serdar Tumgoren, Senior Staff Writer, covers City Hall for The Dispatch. Reach him at 847-7109 or st*******@************ch.com.
