Social host ordinance still in works, won’t be as severe

By ANDREW MCGINN
a.mcginn@beeherald.com

Of all the beer consumed annually in the state of Iowa, 21.56 percent of it goes down the hatches of underage drinkers.

In other words, 8 million gallons of beer are consumed each year by underage drinkers in Iowa, Peter Komendowski, president and executive director of the Partnership for a Drug Free Iowa, told the Greene County board of supervisors Monday.

Komendowski visited Monday’s board meeting to present sobering facts just like that ­­­­— and to urge supervisors to be more cognizant of the role they can play in fostering healthy youth.

Komendowski also spoke Monday to the Jefferson Rotary Club.

“Who owns the refrigerator? Who’s doing the buying?” he asked.

He pointed to “social host” laws spreading across Iowa as a positive step in holding adults legally accountable for turning a blind eye to underage drinking. The laws have been years in the making, Komendowski said.

Coincidentally, the supervisors Monday were supposed to vote on a first reading of the county’s very own social host ordinance ­­— ­designed to inflict civil penalties on local property owners who knowingly allow an underage drinking party.

There was just a slight hang-up — Greene County’s proposed ordinance was too tough on violators.

After testimony last week from Chief Deputy Sheriff Jack Williams about the proliferation of underage drinking parties in the county, supervisors went big, recommending a first-time fine of $1,000 and subsequent fines of $1,500.

The Iowa Code won’t allow Greene County to assess fines that large, according to county attorney Nic Martino.

Martino, who’s drafting an ordinance for approval, said the penalties likely will be lower ­— in the range of $750 for a first offense and $1,000 for subsequent offenses.

That’s still above what state law mandates ­— $200 for a first-time offense and $500 for subsequent offenses — but Martino believes counties can create civil infractions of their own.

Boone County, which enacted a social host ordinance in 2010, levies fines of $250 and $500.

The reason for such high proposed fines in Greene County stems from a revelation by the sheriff’s office that party organizers stand to make significant profits, selling beer for $5 a cup.

It’s also not uncommon to find upwards of 200 people in attendance at the parties, according to the sheriff’s office.

The parties have gotten “out of control,” Williams told the supervisors last week, with mostly out-of-towners from Webster and Boone counties descending on rural sites in Greene County.

Guns and drugs have been found at the parties, Williams said, and sexual assaults have been reported as well.

If it seems eye-opening, consider it a reality check.

“By 11th grade,” Komendowski reported, “74 percent, four in five kids, know where to get illegal substances on the street.”

The key, he said, is to hold adults accountable.

“We know if we protect kids until they’re 18, the path is clear for them,” Komendowski said.

But any ordinance that goes before supervisors won’t indiscriminately fine landowners for underage drinking on their property, Sheriff Steve Haupert  said.

“It’s going to be case by case,” he said. “Without their knowledge, we’re not going to hold them responsible.”

An ordinance is needed to crack down on certain “rural party houses,” Haupert said. In those cases, the property owners know what’s taking place, he said.

Even with lessened fines, an ordinance should serve its purpose, according to Komendowski.

“As a deterrent, I think it works just as well,” he told supervisors during an informal discussion about the ordinance.

It wasn’t known when supervisors would hold a first reading.