City Council takes first step to allow bars to serve alcohol until 2 a.m.

The City Council voted 5-1 last night to approve an ordinance that would allow establishments serving alcoholic beverages to remain open until 2 a.m. seven days a week. This was the first reading of the ordinance so final approval is still to come, but an analysis of the 33 and a half minutes of discussion and some debate at Wednesday’s council meeting suggests the ordinance will be approved when it appears on the agenda for a second reading.


Only council member Becky Selbera voted against the proposal. Council member Samantha Bellows-LeMense did not attend Wednesday’s meeting.

The proposed ordinance was brought to the council at the urging of James Rios, who recently opened a dance hall called Desperados at 110 West Center Street in the heart of downtown Kyle. Currently city law allows drinking establishments to remain open no later than midnight Sunday through Friday and until 1 a.m. on Saturdays.

"I honestly don’t have a problem with this," Mayor Todd Webster said. "We’re trying to energize Center Street. I have been in some of these establishments at closing time – not many times, but a few times – and I’ve heard people say at midnight they are going somewhere else outside the city. Well, I don’t want them to go somewhere else. I want them to stay here in Kyle. I’m in support of this. I’m in support of change."

Selbera said she feared for the safety of those living in the area.

"If people want to drink until 2 a.m., they can go home and drink until 2 a.m. if this means saving people’s lives," she said.

But the mayor countered: "Every time we have made a move to help our small businesses in Kyle there has been this fear that it will lead to some sort of catastrophic event that’s going to be terrible for the city. And it’s never happened. Mr. Rios, I want you to bring more businesses here and I worry about the message we send if we don’t get this done."

The only real concern among council members was that the city had no way of enforcing the ordinance because enforcement responsibility rested solely with the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission. But Police Chief Jeff Barnett seemed to allay those fears when he talked about the close cooperation that exists between the Kyle Police Department and the TABC. Barnett said the city could ticket any establishment serving alcohol after 2 a.m. and then notify the TABC of that action.

"The TABC representative for the city of Kyle regularly stays in contact with us and says he is absolutely at our disposal 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Barnett assured the council.

Rios added that once the TABC is notified of a violation that establishment is immediately slapped with a $5,000 fine and a possible loss of its TABC permits for up to six months.

Mayor pro tem Diane Hervol asked city attorney Ken Johnson whether the ordinance could be modified in a way that permitted establishments to serve alcohol until 2 a.m. only one or two days a week. Johnson replied that a TABC late night permit, which any establishment wishing to remain open after midnight must obtain, allows the establishment to operate until 2 a.m. seven days a week.

During the public hearing on the ordinance, only one citizen, Terry Blackney, came to speak against it. No citizens, other than Rios, came to speak in favor of it. Blackney said he moved to Kyle from Houston 15 years ago and while in Houston he witnessed late night drinking leading to gang wars and drive-by shootings "involving innocent people standing around."

"I think you’re setting up Kyle for a spiraling decline in the way you’re approving these bars and dance halls," Blackney told the council. "Crime is likely to follow and it’s already showing up. Now you want to let these bars remain open until 2 o’clock in the morning every day of the week. And after closing time the residents near these bars will have to have iron bars on their windows and doors and front yard fences and guard dogs. I come from the city and I’ve seen this my whole life."

Council member Shane Arabie did not paint such a bleak picture but he did express concern for the area. He told Rios he had no doubt the ordinance will benefit Desperados and will also add sales tax revenues to the city’s treasury.

"But we also have to protect the citizens who are and will be living in this district," Arabie said. "And even if it has worked in other cities, it is my job to make sure it’s going to work for us and to protect the citizens around this area. That does not mean I’m against this ordinance. It simply means I have some questions about the locations we’re talking about. And it’s not you we’re worried about, it’s the businesses that come in after you."

After the vote was taken, Rios sat down with me and talked a little bit about Desperados.

"It’s a place for people to come, enjoy, drink, hang out, dance and have a good night," he said. "This Sunday we’re doing something for the teenagers from 6 p..m to 10 p.m..

"For the longest time, the people of Kyle have had to go 15 minutes north or 15 minutes south in order to enjoy themselves," Rios continued. "Or they’d start drinking here in Kyle and then they’d drive to Austin or San Marcos. We’re providing place where they don’t have to do that.

"We’re also providing a place where they don’t even have to drink if they don’t want to. We’re going to do live music concerts. We’re going to do acoustic sets. We’re going to do DJs. On the off nights when we’re not open, we could open for private events. We have a capacity for 276 people and it’s a big space but it’s a welcoming space. You can go in, enjoy yourself, have a drink, not have a drink, listen to good music and dance if you want to. It’s a mixture of country, top 40, 80s, retro. We have a live DJ in there so you can go in and request any song you want and dance to anything you want. My thing is to provide an entertainment venue for Kyle."

He said he obviously felt good about the tentative approval of the ordinance.

"At the end of the day, these people on the city council are responsible for the entire city," Rios told me. "So they are going to be careful about anything they put their stamp on. They have every right to question everything and it’s my job to convince them and tell them it’s the right thing to do. Hopefully we achieved that today."