Bar owners address Lima City Council

LIMA — An objection to the license of a downtown bar and The Lima News' investigation that followed took center stage at Monday's Lima City Council meeting.During its last meeting, Lima City Council voted 6 to 1 to object to the renewal of the liquor license of the Brownstone bar. Councilman Jesse Lowe was the lone vote against the objection. At the time of the vote, Lima Police Department officials said that since Jan. 1, 2011, officers have responded to the North Elizabeth Street bar 47 times for calls that included shots fired and fights in the parking lot, illegal drugs inside the bar, after-hours sales of alcohol, and underage intoxicated people leaving the bar. On one occasion, officers responded to someone in the parking lot who had been shot. On another occasion, shots were fired at a police cruiser when officers responded to a “shots fired” call.A subsequent investigation by The Lima News showed The Brownstone isn't even in the top five bars police officers most often visit. The bar receiving the most calls, Custer's Chateau at 2307 Spencerville Road, had almost four times the number of police responses — 172, compared to 47 at the Brownstone — according to police records since Jan. 1, 2011. City Council has not objected to the Chateau's license, saying a new owner has made efforts to cooperate with police officials to resolve problems. Brownstone owner Jason Upthegrove used that information to continue his very public battle with the Lima Police Department and to call out City Council members for their decision.“What you did was despicable two weeks ago, What you did was in lock step with the feelings of a lot of people in this community, that you all are just doing the bidding of the administration and police,” Upthegrove said during the meeting.Upthegrove, who also serves as president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, called out individual council members, including Councilman Derry Glenn, who had said he voted to object to Upthegrove's license because he had objected in similar cases in the past. Upthegrove said Glenn had said he wanted more information, then voted against him anyway.“And you still voted in favor of Chief [Kevin] Martin. Poor decision on your part,” Upthegrove said. “You guys wait for the last minute so I won't have the opportunity to respond ... to Chief Martin's lies.”Glenn said he owed no apologies for his vote.“No matter how you respect or disrespect it, I said I would be consistent. I voted against Marko's and The Gator, and that's called being consistent,” Glenn said.Ray Magnus, a city bar owner and a former member of City Council, also addressed the council about The Lima News story. His bar, Ray's Place at 200 W. Grand Ave., was mentioned in the story as having had 68 calls in the same period the Brownstone had 47. But Magnus said his own investigation found that the number was closer to 17 to 25 calls. The rest were calls for service near his business, but were not related to his bar.“There were several on there for animal complaints ... several for vehicle stops in the neighborhood, and things of that nature,” Magnus said.In one instance, a woman came to the bar to call police after being assaulted in a nearby home. That call was attributed to Ray's Place as an assault.“I don't have a problem with the way this [reporting] is done, but I think if The Lima News is going to print something like this, they should check it out,” Magnus said.The investigation into the bars came after Upthegrove and other bar owners came forward with complaints of inconsistent enforcement by the Lima Police Department. Upthegrove is scheduled to stand trial today on a minor misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.