Assembly to listen, possible rule, on mandatory ID checks ALCOHOL: Public input begins Tuesday; opponents claim proposal misguided.

The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday will find out how residents and the liquor industry really feel about making everybody, from grandmas to newly minted 21-year-olds, show identification to buy alcohol.
The vote was 2-1 in the April city election in favor of mandatory ID checks in liquor stores. But that was just advisory.
Assembly members Dick Traini and Paul Honeman are now proposing a city law that would require universal ID checks -- not just in liquor stores, but also in bars.
At first they included restaurants, too, but in the latest version, restaurants are out of the proposed law.
"In retrospect it was probably too big of a goal," said Traini. "Right now is not the time to do it."
Even so, some in the hospitality industry are not happy.
"I think this whole thing is overkill," said Chris Anderson, co-owner of Orso and Glacier Brewhouse. Both downtown establishments feature a restaurant and a bar.
People who have a problem with alcohol are going to get alcohol, he said. "The real problem they're not addressing."
The alcohol ID issue is up for a public hearing and possible action at Tuesday's Assembly meeting in Loussac Library. Public hearings begin at 6 p.m. or later.
The universal ID check rule for liquor stores would start July 1, but for bars it wouldn't go into effect until July 1, 2013. And there would have to be a review and another Assembly hearing before the provisions take effect for bars.
The point of the ordinance is to curb under-age drinking and to catch those with a red stripe on their driver licenses or state identification that signifies they are court-ordered not to purchase alcohol, a common penalty for drunk driving.
The red-stripe provision comes from a state law enacted in 2007.
"In essence, it (the red stripe) says they are not responsible with alcohol," said Honeman, a former city cop.
As of a couple of weeks ago, there were 486 licenses or state IDs with red stripes issued to Anchorage residents, said Kerry Hennings, driver license manager for the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles. Statewide, it's 2,867.
The Northeast Community Council started the mandatory ID check movement by requesting it for a new liquor store opening up in their area in 2009.
That led to voluntary agreement among many liquor store owners to voluntarily check everyone's ID, but the voluntary agreement fell apart last year.
Then came the city-wide advisory vote this spring.
The Northeast Council still favors mandatory checks at liquor stores and bars, but not at restaurants, said council president Kevin Smestad. The council held a vigorous debate before voting for that position at its April meeting, he said.
Smestad supported applying the law to restaurants, too. "Just because there's a gray area. There are restaurants, then there are restaurants and bars."
A hospitality industry group sees it differently.
Silvia Villamides, executive director of the Anchorage Cabaret, Hotel, Restaurant and Retailers Association, said, "Voters made the choice for package stores. They did not vote for restaurants or the bars, for them to be included."
Some of the language in the proposed law makes it sound like restaurants with full alcohol service, rather than just beer and wine, might be subject to the law, too, she said.
The group's board members are wondering if the compromise version, that delays implementation for bars and is at least intended to take out restaurants, is the best compromise to be had, Villamides said.
"We don't feel good about it, we just don't."
Jens Nannestad, owner of Southside Bistro in South Anchorage and part-owner of City Diner on Minnesota Drive, said he doesn't think the latest version of the ordinance would apply to those restaurants because they only serve beer and wine.
If it did apply to restaurants, "It would be just very inconvenient, silly and stupid," he said.
He is critical of the provision requiring bars to check all ID, too. "Nobody wants to serve an impaired person or anybody under age. We're trained."
"We're getting dumbed down here. Let us be adults," he said. Anderson, of Orso and Brewhouse, said he'd prefer the Assembly not pass a law at all, but if it's going to do so, it makes more sense to require universal checks in bars, as opposed to restaurants.
"That's where the most consumption takes place."
Checking everyone's ID at a busy restaurant like the Brewhouse, which might serve 1,000 meals in a day, would be time-consuming, he said. Fifteen-second checks could add up to two or three hours a day, he said.
Plus there are tourists, old enough that they're not worried about ID, who don't carry it, he said.
Ellaina Shomer, manager of Rumrunner's Old Towne Bar & Grill downtown, said she's fine with mandatory ID checks for bars.
"I completely support it. Because we already check everybody that walks in our door after 10 p.m."
Shomer said Rumrunner's catches and prosecutes under-age patrons who try to buy alcohol.
She said they don't see ID with red stripes. "Anyone who has a red stripe then applies for a passport," which would be a legal ID in an age-check. "I think they should make a law saying if you have an Alaska address, you have to show an Alaska ID."