COVINGTON, Ga. — The city of Covington is currently in the process of updating its alcohol ordinances. 

This process would not only revitalize the city’s standards for serving alcohol in restaurants, but it also aims to give the city more leeway to suspend, revoke or otherwise limit a business’s alcohol license if compliance issues arise.

While several of the incoming changes are just intended to modernize dated verbiage and regulations, the council considered making changes to the allowed serving hours and increasing jurisdiction for local police to intervene with routinely unruly locations.

The most debated topic on the table at the work session was whether or not to change the time that restaurants are required to stop serving alcohol to patrons. Currently, the cutoff time is 2 a.m., but the proposal on the table sought to revise it to midnight.

Ultimately, the council made a consensus to leave the cutoff at 2 a.m. as is, but will revisit it if other changes fail to rectify problems.

“I think what we’re trying to define is if we want restaurants or bars,” said Councilwoman Susie Keck. 

The council went back and forth on the matter, trying to predict potential adverse effects and weighing the pros and cons. 

For one, Councilwoman Charika Davis was concerned that if neighboring cities or counties had later serving hours, local patrons would drive to other places after midnight and then drive back into Covington later that evening. 

This might create a competitive disadvantage for local establishments, as some guests may skip over Covington entirely, going straight to another city to drink. The longer drive also poses a safety risk as it could up the chances of DUI-related incidents if people are returning home intoxicated and with more time spent on the road.

Another point raised by Councilwoman Kim Johnson was that, though the council may find it reasonable to stop serving alcoholic beverages at midnight, younger guests who tend to stay up later may find this stifling.

“I’m fine with 2:00 [a.m.],” Johnson said. “We’re older. These younger people don’t go to bed as early. We used to not even start getting ready until 10:00. That was many years ago mind you, but we wouldn’t even start getting dressed until 10 p.m. So I hate to do that.”

Davis and Johnson’s concerns seemed to change the tide of the conversation. While it had first seemed the council was leaning towards dialing back the hours or compromising at 1 a.m., they then began to consider leaving the cutoff at 2 a.m.

This inclination also stemmed from the council speaking more plainly about what their chief reasoning behind overhauling the ordinances stemmed from. According to their discussion, though updating the ordinances will have numerous advantages, the issue is largely with one local establishment that remained unnamed by the council.

Councilman Jared Rutberg, who said he recently went on a ride-along with the Covington Police Department (CPD), was concerned that there may be one specific restaurant at the heart of the problems, citing a recent incident that involved staff “attacking” CPD officers on the scene. 

Allegedly, this unnamed location has become a frequent harbinger of incidents requiring police intervention, and the council is looking to mend the ordinances to clearly distinguish how “excessive” alcohol-related incidents will be dealt with.

Keck asked CPD Chief Philip Bradford, who was present at the meeting, how he would define “excessive” numbers of police visits to an establishment for alcohol-related problems. 

“I would say, four or five times that we repeatedly go back,” Bradford said. 

Bradford added that there needs to be a certain reason for the calls, so if someone had a heart attack or locked their keys in their car it would not be marked against the business.

Councilman Travis Moore later made sure to stipulate, per an audience member’s request, that bars would not be penalized if a patron arrives already intoxicated and creates issues if not having been served at the location.

However, Rutberg voiced a concern that this could discourage establishments to call for help when issues arise, leading to escalation and potentially further harm that could have been prevented.

The council decided that they did not want to “punish” all local restaurant establishments by making them stop serving early, potentially harming their business, because one place is routinely problematic.

“I don’t think we should punish everyone if there’s one business that’s misbehaving,” Davis said. “If we stop serving alcohol at 12:00, that means a lot of people are going to go to Rockdale, and then they’re still going to be driving back into Covington, Newton County around 2:00 anyway.”

Ultimately, the council decided that they would leave the serving cutoff time at 2 a.m. and see if the other changes made to the ordinances would give the police enough ability to rectify the problematic establishment.

A few other changes to the ordinances were addressed, all that underlyingly work to keep restaurants primarily for dining and not bars-in-disguise.

The council also chose to reduce the number of required food items on a menu from 25 to 15. This stipulation has been in place to keep the city’s restaurants from operating like bars, largely serving alcohol but maintaining a handful of food items.

The 15 food items go into detail to keep restaurants from counting sides or desserts as items. Food items will be defined in the ordinances to include appetizers and entrees, though no more than five of the 15 items can be appetizers. 

This does not prohibit a restaurant from putting more than five appetizers on their menu; rather it means that only five may go towards the tally of food items. At least 10 will have to be entrees.

Smoking policies are also being updated. All smoking will be prohibited indoors at restaurants. This will not include any outdoor seating areas.

The council was sure to define smoking as including any of the following: vapes, cigars, cigarettes, pipes, hookah, and other similar tobacco or plant products, including marijuana. There is no differentiation between natural or synthetic instruments, and electronic devices such as e-cigarettes are also subject to the policy.

For these changes to occur, the council will have to undergo two readings with corresponding public hearings. The city has not announced when the first reading will occur.