Big Box Booze Denied

After a lengthy discussion of alcohol abuse in the community and the role a concentration of outlets that sell alcohol can have on that behavior, Santa Fe City Council voted to deny a Walmart store's request to transfer a retail liquor license. Councilors split 5-4 on the issue.

The "old" Walmart location at 3251 Cerrillos Road sought permission to use a liquor license from Las Cruces, something the state law requires when a jurisdiction is already well above the recommended per capita level. For Santa Fe, the quota is 34 and the city already has 129 liquor licenses. The Alcohol and Gaming Division signed off on the plan in October, however, and even the city attorney seemed to view the Santa Fe City Council's power as limited. The last time council tried to deny Walmart a liquor license, the state overruled their decision.

Councilors who voted to deny the application rooted their logic in the question of whether this new application would put the public health and safety and morals at risk in its immediate surroundings. Santa Fe Prevention Alliance presented a case that having liquor for sale in Walmart would do just that, based on police calls and alcohol-involved crashes for the area. The alliance argued that the store is already a top location to which Santa Fe police and emergency services have responded in recent years, and the frequency at nearby intersections of alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents is evidence that the area doesn’t need another venue for selling alcohol.

Public testimony echoed those concerns, with neighbors and shoppers noting they already fear for personal safety at times and citing example such as needing to educate a child about alcohol miniatures or syringes as they find them in the street, or making a weekly routine of picking up four or five alcohol bottles discarded in their yard in neighborhoods around the Walmart.

“This issue follows students into the classroom,” Gail Herling, coordinator for Santa Fe Public Schools’ Adelante program for students facing homelessness, told councilors during the public hearing on the issue. Herling cited research that tied increased violence in a neighborhood to the number of places to purchase alcohol in the area. “Our families from this neighborhood have described concerns about alcohol, drugs and violence. Listening to hundreds of people’s stories about how alcohol has fueled domestic violence in their lives, it seems like a community-wide epidemic… I can’t imagine why this community would put one more liquor outlet in this neighborhood.”

A number of Walmart employees spoke on the company’s behalf, stating that the many police calls are part of Walmart’s zero-tolerance policy for shoplifting or other calls the store places for accidents in the parking lot or panhandling, and that some of those police calls have led to arresting people wanted for warrants for other crimes.

Andy Padilla, store manager for that Walmart location, said the store will limit displays to what history shows they’re likely to sell, what’s sold will be limited to the allowable hours and cash registers will be programmed not to sell it outside those times. The store will not sell miniatures, he added, and he’s already been approved for more security if allowed to sell alcohol.

“Most of the calls that come out of our store are initiated by us because we want our customers to have a safe shopping environment as well as our associates to have a safe working environment,” Rita Montano Vigneau, who has been an asset protection manager for Walmart for nine years of the 15 she’s worked for the company, told councilors.

In the 8 million transactions since the Walmart on Herrera got its liquor license, they haven’t been issued a single citation for a sale to a minor and just one for having more than the allowed displays, according to Mark Rhodes, a representative for the Arkansas-based megastore. He argued that the case against Walmart’s liquor license misapplied the law.

“It’s not designed to say to a responsible operator that you should not be allowed to sell alcohol because you happen to be located in a troubled area,” Rhodes said. Of Walmart, he claimed, “They’re the best thing that’s happened to that area because they call the police often.”

If there’s a concentration in alcohol-related crashes there, he said, it’s because that’s where police have conducted traffic stops and, for that matter, where city-permitted development has concentrated most commercial centers. And, pressing the political hot button du jour, Rhodes said this policy runs the risk of being “Trump-ish,” referring to Donald Trump's claim that only those already in should be allowed to stay in.

City Attorney Kelley Brennan read councilors the legal framework for the city’s options, which were limited. 

Given the court’s recent overruling of Santa Fe’s attempt to ban miniatures, Councilor Ronald Trujillo asked who had jurisdiction here: the city or the state?

“The city does have jurisdiction," Brennan said. "The question is, has the evidence met the standard the court has said must be met before you can deny.” 

“There’s nothing we can do. Our hands truly are tied here at the city, because you’re going to have the state overturn this,” said Trujillo. “We can all have the best intentions, but the state is eventually going to make their ruling…Do I want to get the city involved in another lawsuit? I don’t. I really don’t…I’ve seen this issue before. I know how it ends.”

“I don’t know if this passes legal muster…but that doesn’t mean I have to necessarily support the application based on the information I’ve been given, based on the data I’ve been given, based on how I read the statute,” said Councilor Carmichael Dominguez, who voted to deny Walmart the license. He was joined in that vote by Councilors Patti Bushee, Peter Ives, Signe Lindell and Christopher Rivera. Councilors Joseph Maestas, Bill Dimas, Trujillo and Mayor Javier Gonzales voted to allow it.

Gonzales said that while he understands the concern about alcohol abuse issues in the community, he wasn’t convinced that this one application would really make a dent in those broader issues.

“I’m afraid that we’re going to focus on just the single issue of outlets or sales being the magic bullet, and it’s not because there’s still going to be an enormous amount of alcohol outlets along this corridor,” he said. A problem that begins with people making a decision to walk into a store to purchase alcohol as a solution to whatever they’re feeling requires a more comprehensive solution, he argued.   

“Minus shutting down all liquor establishments in Santa Fe, I don’t know how we’re even going to begin to...which we don’t have the legal authority to do, but that would be the quickest way to limit access to alcohol, but people would still have problems and challenges.”