Take the fight to the Man: Responsible bar owners vs. City Attorney
City Attorney Tom Carr has been squabbling with some of the most responsible, smart, and engaged bar and club owners in Seattle.
They have publicly denounced many of his bone-headed publicity grabbing moves and have paid the price with sometimes daily inspections by police, fire or WA state liquor board.
This targeting has led them to (rightfully IMO) file an ethics complaint due to the timing of threats to revoke liquor licenses. Well done. From the complaint.
The SNMA [Seattle Nightlife and Music Association] has received information dating back to at least 2007 inidcating that Tom Carr has used the City Attorney’s Office and the Joint Enforcement Team to aggresively pursue lefitimate Restaurant and Bar Operators who have made every erfort to comply with applicable regulations.
As has been widely reported, on October 6th of this year, Assistant City Attorney Tienney Milnor held a meeting of Restaurant and Bar Operators where she erportely said that she would pull liquor licenses if this did not change. Th emeeting was supposedly brought on by alleged increases in violent crime in the Pike / Pine entertainment area, but review of SPD crime data actually show a decrease in crime during the months leading up to the meeting in that area.
Bravo.
