In 2017, the Alcoholic Beverage Ordinance was implemented. During the rollout, it was determined a revision to Section 6-1215 was needed to address concerns from the business community associated with the administrative process and need for server permits, referred to as bar cards. In April 2017, City Council made the decision to not enforce this provision of the ordinance and allow the City to work with stakeholders to modify the bar card requirements.

Since that time, eight public meetings were held (August 23, 2017; September 6, 2017; March 7, 2018; and April 20, 2018), and an online survey was launched to obtain additional feedback from the community. The information gathered from this process was vetted with Savannah Police, Revenue and Planning and Urban Design departments as well as the City Attorney's Office.  During the First Reading held on June 7, City Council approved removing the background requirement from the ordinance resulting in the following revisions:

• Require Class A, C and H licensees to have managers, servers, bartenders, doorpersons, or any other employee with the responsibility for serving, mixing or dispensing alcoholic beverages for on-premises consumption to complete server training no later than 14 days after commencement of his/her employment;
• Update server training every two years from the date of issuance;
• Require proof of server training issued by the course-provider be maintained on the licensed premise;
• Add event venue to the distance exceptions;
• Include event venue as a license class;
• Establish an administrative hearing officer position and process to handle licensing and permitting issues to include having City Council consider any appeals, suspensions or revocations;
• Add language allowing the City to deny, suspend, revoke or refuse to renew any alcoholic beverage license when the applicant, manager or any other person with a financial interest in the establishment has voluntarily surrendered an alcoholic beverage license issued by the City within the five-year period immediately preceding the application date; and
• Revise “Savannah-Chatham Police Department” to “Savannah Police Department.”

A scrivener's error in Sec. 6-1207B(a) was corrected following the first reading, which clarified that the administrative hearing officer is not "constitued with three persons." 

Approval