WORK SESSION OF THE GREENBELT CITY COUNCIL held Monday, June 11, 2007, for the purpose of meeting with the board of the New Deal Café to discuss conditions of agreement regarding extending beer and wine service to the patio.

Mayor Davis called the meeting to order at 8:02 p.m. It was held in the Council Room of the Municipal Building.

PRESENT WERE: Councilmembers Konrad E. Herling, Leta M. Mach, Edward V. J. Putens, Rodney M. Roberts, and Mayor Judith F. Davis.

STAFF PRESENT WERE: Michael McLaughlin, City Manager; Lt. David Buerger, Sgt. Jerry Potts; and Kathleen Gallagher, City Clerk.

ALSO PRESENT WERE: Peter May, president, David Ziegler, secretary, Joel Moodie, general manager, and members Dorian Winterfeld and Elena Khazanova, New Deal Café; Roosevelt Center Merchants Gwen Vaccaro (Pleasant Touch Spa) and Kim Kash and Michael Cooney ( Greenbelt Om Community Yoga); and residents Eileen Peterson and Bill Orleans.

Following introductions, Mayor Davis said the purpose of the meeting was to discuss terms of an M.O.U. between the City and the New Deal Café with regard to extending the service of wine and beer to the Café’s patio area. Prior to dealing with the terms of the agreement, there was considerable discussion of the current status of the Cafe and people’s general concerns with the patio area.

Mr. May said they had taken care of the change to their license with the Liquor Board to place his name and Mr. Winterfeld’s on the license; however, the Liquor Board asked to receive a signed copy of the agreement between the Café and the City prior to taking action on the Café’s request to extend their license to the patio, Mr. May said they had had several very good weekends, as well as donations and assistance from the community, and had been able to pay off their debt to the IRS for back taxes, as well as meeting payroll. While they have been able to meet expenses, they have also had new expenses crop up: for example, their air-conditioning system, only recently repaired, has gone out again. They have declared the patio a no-smoking area, thereby eliminating one source of complaint from the Credit Union regarding ambient smoke and fires in trashcans. They have developed a low-tolerance for bad behavior and called the police several times to handle problems.

Mayor Davis suggested they might consider establishing an Officers as Agents agreement so that the City would have authority to act after hours if people were loitering on their patio. Mr. Ziegler said they had started bringing the furniture in at night. Although this will not work with the more substantial furniture they anticipate getting, it has made a big difference for now.

Mr. Putens asked if they would persevere to press charges if the police were not available to witness incidents. Mr. May assured him that they will do so.

Lt. Buerger noted there is no conspicuous signage saying the Center closes at 11 p.m. Ms. Peterson commented that one sign is poorly situated, since it is visible as one is leaving the area, not coming in.

Regarding the loiterers, Mr. Herling said he thought distinctions needed to be made between people who were actively causing problems and people who were homeless or might appear to be homeless. The Mayor said she would not, however, want to encourage any after-hours camping out. Ms. Mach added that Mr. Herling was raising social problems that were not something that New Deal should be focusing on; rather, their priority was on establishing a strong business. Mr. Putens said he agreed.

Mr. Herling asked if they had gotten good response from the police. Mr. May said he had a very good response the four or so times he had needed to call, both in terms of response time and the handling of the problem. Mayor Davis added that at the recent meeting of the Center Merchants, others had cited the improvement in response time, as well as an increased police presence at the Center.

The Mayor asked Ms. Vaccaro if there were other merchant concerns that had not been covered. She said some of the merchants would prefer to see slower progress. They feel the Café has not been in good control over the outside area to date, and they would prefer to see control established prior to any introduction of alcohol. Mr. Putens said he had heard reference made to parking problems. Ms. Vaccaro responded that this is only on festival weekends, and “we can live with that.”

Mr. Putens said he was bothered by all the notices and posters in the windows at the New Deal and other Center businesses. He said it was unattractive and also a safety issue, since it can block the view inside. Ms. Kash said part of the problem was that signage is so limited at the Center that merchants have few ways to communicate or announce their businesses. She asked that this broader topic be pursued at another time. When the subject of window clutter was raised again later, Mr. Roberts said he did not want Council to attempt to dictate what people could or could not put in their windows. Mr. Cooney spoke to this issue, too, saying he considered it to be appropriate for the City to require that there be a clear view in order to oversee the area but not to specify how to accomplish that. He said he was also concerned that setting such rules for one business might set a precedent for others. Ms. Mach said she completely agreed with Mr. Cooney that the “how” is up to the business.

Conditions of Agreement

The four conditions originally stated by Council were that: beer and wine must be served in glasses; they must be served by wait-staff, not carried to the patio by patrons; there must be adequate oversight of the area by Café staff; and plans for the delineation of the restricted outdoor area must be approved by the City Council. Mr. May said they had no problem with those conditions. A fifth condition had been added following the merchants’ meeting: outdoor service must end an hour before closing time. Mr. May said that, too, was no problem, since they are required by law to stop serving alcohol anywhere on the premises once the kitchen is closed, and they close the kitchen an hour before closing the restaurant. It was suggested that it be conditioned that there be no smoking on the patio and that there be an unobstructed view of the patio from the indoors. Mayor Davis also asked to expand the original condition requiring Council approval of the plan for defining the outdoor area to say that the plan must be sent to the City’s Advisory Planning Board and the Roosevelt Center Merchants Association for review prior to coming to Council for approval.

It was noted that what permissions might be required from the Christacoses would be governed by their lease and were not part of the City’s agreement.

Ms. Khazanova said it should be mentioned that having people outdoors would actually increase the safety at the Center. Mr. Herling strongly agreed that anything that increased the vibrancy of the Center at night was a plus in this respect.

Other Business

Several informational items were mentioned. Mr. McLaughlin said a letter had come from Larry Taub regarding a meeting in the morning on June 20 regarding the Hanover Apartments issue.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:50 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathleen Gallagher
City Clerk

 

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