City makes proposals

Bruce Moore, Little Rock city manager, admitted that, after 37 criminal and civil complaints over the last four years, the city should have known and closed the Power Ultra Lounge. A welcomed, candid admission that lax and uncoordinated city and state regulatory enforcement authorities was a root cause for the carnage. Moore is attempting to improve communication by adding the police department’s liaison with state Alcoholic Beverage Control to the criminal abatement committee, whom he meets with every other week. A breakdown in communication dealt with by improved communication makes sense. That’s what a manager proposes to address the problem.

Mark Stodola’s response is a proposal to require clubs (and other businesses) to install expensive security cameras. Brilliant, Mr. Mayor—require compliant businesses to spend money because the government can’t enforce existing regulations. Ignore the problem and trust the same crack enforcement agencies to now ensure that cameras are installed at all the clubs, spreading enforcement resources even thinner. Why would any sane person believe a noncompliant club like the Ultra Lounge, facing the same insufficient enforcement, would comply with another regulation?

No suggestion for addressing the disease, just another regulation to treat the symptoms in the hopes that the next carnage resulting from existing uncoordinated enforcement might be recorded. Inept governance at its best: Ignore existing government faults and add additional regulation at the cost and burden of non-problem businesses, which will then pass that cost on to consumers.

That’s what a liberal politician proposes to address the problem. NEIL DEININGER

Little Rock