Liquor License Details Must Be Public Under Proposed Law

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — A bill aimed at making liquor license information more readily available online passed in the State Senate this week.

The bill, sponsored by State Sen. Brad Hoylman and Assemblymember Deborah Glick, would require the State Liquor Authority to make information regarding bars' liquor licenses — such as permitted hours and whether an establishment is permitted to have a live DJ — publicly available.

The intent is for the SLA to post the information online.

As it stands, community boards and the public, among others, rely on filing freedom of information law (FOIL) requests to the SLA or digging through old community board records to find what is and what is not permitted under bars' state licenses.

"You shouldn’t have to file a FOIL request just to find out whether a bar in your neighborhood has a liquor license that permits live music or an outside patio," said Hoylman, who represents the East Village, West Village and up through parts of Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen.

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"It's inexplicable why license requirements for bars and restaurants haven't been made publicly available," he said. "I think the status quo really benefited some vested interests perhaps."

The bill has passed in the Assembly twice, but languished in the State Senate since 2013 while Republicans and the Independent Democratic Conference, which was oft criticized for aligning with Republicans, controlled the State Senate.

“It’s a new day in Albany, and we now have the ability to pass legislation, because of a Democratic Senate, on issues concerning our neighborhood that had eluded us [before] now," Hoylman said.

The bill passed the State Senate with 81 percent of the vote and was sent to the Assembly on Tuesday.

"We will push to get it through committee and back out onto the floor," Glick said. "We've passed it before. I assume we'll pass it again."

Though the conditions on the license could be obtained from a bar itself, Glick said, "This is to make it easy for people who have a complaint or are concerned about conditions in a licensed premises to be able to go online and check whether there are grounds for a complaint."

Lower East Sider Diem Boyd applauded the bill.

"This is a very positive thing," said Boyd, a community activist of the Lower East Side Dwellers. "The burden is on you to figure out this information when, in fact, this should be public information."

Boyd said the "common sense legislation" would help avoid the "cumbersome" process of filing FOIL requests.

In the past, she has waited months to find out SLA details regarding watering holes in her neighborhood, she said.

"This is a no-brainer," she added.

Hoylman said the NYPD would also benefit.

Community Board 3's district manager Susan Stetzer said the NYPD often reaches out to the board regarding what are bars' stipulations.

Putting information on the website would give the NYPD "easy and immediate access," Stetzer said by email.

Details regarding liquor licenses posted directly on the website would benefit community boards, the public, and agencies such as the Department of Buildings, Stetzer said.

The State Liquor Authority does not comment on pending legislation, but an SLA spokesman said the authority is "continually adding to the amount of information on our website, on Open Data, and elsewhere and [we] are committed to making additional data readily accessible to the public."

Currently, the public can search for liquor licenses online to see details including who's name the license is under, the dates of the license and the type of license.

An online database also maps licenses, schools, places of worship and adjudicated violations, the spokesman said.

"It's mostly going to be a bureaucratic hurdle," Hoylman said. "That's why we needed to pass a law. Because this is information the public should have easily available."

Boyd, of the LES Dwellers, hopes another Glick-sponsored bill, which would require community board notice and comment from the board regarding liquor license renewals, will be the next to pass in the State Senate.

The LES Dwellers have long wanted to combat the so-called "Hell Square," a Lower East Side region where neighbors often complain of pee, puke and noisy drunkards, and which has a high concentration of liquor licenses, according to a 2017 study commissioned by the Dwellers.

The local activists are calling on lawmakers to tighten the 500-foot rule, which requires no more than three liquor licenses to be granted within 500 feet of each other, Boyd said.

A spokeswoman from the Nightlife Office said the office does not comment on pending legislation. But the office's chief Ariel Palitz, appointed a year ago, told attendees of a Manhattan town hall in December that the Nightlife Office was equally committed to improving quality of life for residents as it was to promoting nightlife businesses.