4 a.m. bar bill passes California Senate
State Bill 58 is moving forward in Sacramento.
The bill, authored by State Senator Scott Wiener, would create a pilot program which would allow 10 cities, three in the desert, to extend last call at bars to 4 a.m.
SB-58 passed the State Senate with 28 “Ayes” and 6 “Noes” on May 21, according to legislature.ca.gov.
The following cities would see a change under the bill:
Cathedral City Coachella Palm Springs Los Angeles Long Beach Oakland Sacramento West Hollywood San Francisco Fresno
Assemblyman Chad Mayes became a co-sponsor of the bill on March 25.
In an interview with News Channel 3, the assemblyman representing the 42nd District explained his rationale behind becoming a co-author.
“I believe that there are issues that should be left up to the locals. I believe in local governance, local decision-making,” Mayes said. “And when one of my cities in my assembly district thought that it would be important to be able to expand it, it makes a lot of sense to me.”
This isn’t the first iteration of the bill; last year’s version of Wiener’s bill made it through the State Assembly by a margin of 51-22, with help from an “Aye” vote from Mayes. It made it through the State Senate by a margin of 28-8.
Then, Governor Jerry Brown vetoed it.
In a tweet celebrating the bill’s passage through the Senate, Wiener emphasized that the bill would not automatically impose the new last call on the cities, it would open up the door to the option.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/Scott_Wiener/status/1130896792290095104″,”author_name”:”Scott Wiener”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/Scott_Wiener”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;By a 28-6 vote, the Senate passed my legislation (&#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/SB58?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#SB58&#lt;/a&#gt;) to allow, but not require, 10 pilot cities to extend nightlife hours to 4 a.m.&#lt;br&#gt;&#lt;br&#gt;3 time’s a charm!&#lt;br&#gt;&#lt;br&#gt;(The 10 cities: LA, Oakland, SF, Sacramento, Long Beach, West Hollywood, Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Coachella, & Fresno.) &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/j46u8ogeWQ”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/j46u8ogeWQ&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;— Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/Scott_Wiener/status/1130896792290095104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;May 21, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
Mayes reiterated Wiener’s sentiment.
“It just allows them the opportunity to be able to do it. But they can make this decision on their own. They don’t have to do it. But if they want to be able to do it, they can look at it and see if it’s good for them. I think that decision should be left up to the cities,” Mayes said.
Mayes said that although he hadn’t spoken to representatives from Coachella, Cathedral City, and Palm Springs recently, he knew that Palm Springs had previously embraced the bill. The Palm Springs City Council voted unanimously to be a part of the bar bill program.
“If the bill is signed into law, then it will come back to the city. We’ll discuss it in a council meeting, we’ll get public input, we’ll meet with the restaurants and bars and resident groups and business groups to get input,” Palm Springs Council member Geoff Kors said in July. Then we’ll make a decision if we want to do it, and if we do, how we want to implement it.”
Palm Springs residents had mixed reactions to the bill last summer.
The bill is now in the Assembly.
