By Doug Miller
The template, drafted by former Democratic City Councilman Denis Kelly, would offer fines and the potential of jail time for anyone who "hosts" a party where underage drinking occurs.
To be sure, there are gray areas, such as how much knowledge the "host" has of the activities of his guests, and exactly how much of this area of the law is already covered by, and therefore pre-empted by, state statutes. In fact, the city's deputy corporation counsel, Noreen Costello, warned the council that other communities' attempts at social host laws have been challenged in court. "I've spoken to several lawyers and judges about this," she said. "At best, they are split."
But Kelly said that a parallel ordinance, proposed in Ramapo, had received the blessing of the New York state attorney general.
There was plenty of uncertainty among members of the public, with several in attendance expressing concern that such a law would expand the police's ability to enter private homes, especially when adults are not present.
To put that to impression to rest, Long Beach Police Lt. Jack Radin told the council of an incident that took place last summer. A street fight in the West End roused several neighbors to call the police, and when officers first arrived, all the youths fled into a single house. Radin said the officers on the scene pointed the house out to him, and he saw a 19- and 20-year-old on the second-floor porch, looking dazed.
"I rang the doorbell, and after a while the two of them appeared," Radin said. "I asked where the parents were, and they said Florida. I asked if I could come in, and one of them said, 'No way. My dad's a cop and he said never let the police in the house!'"
A wave of chuckles made its way through the crowd.
"At that point, there was nothing else we could do," Radin said. "There's a house full of kids drinking and reports of a street fight, beer cans all over the place, and the officers were forced to walk away with our tails between our legs. With this [law], I could have asked for ID and issued summonses, and done it all while standing out on the porch."
Tom Sofield Jr., a Republican councilman, asked Radin if the presence of alcohol in a house full of teenagers wasn't enough probable cause to enter the house, and Radin said it wasn't. He also stressed that under a social host law, the summons would go to the teens "hosting" the party, not the parents in Florida.
The proposed ordinance, which was not voted on Tuesday and whose future is unclear, earned the public hearing at the request of the coalition, which consists of parents, teachers, police and civic leaders. The Long Beach Medical Center runs it by way of a federal grant.
Judy Vining, the coalition's co-coordinator, said that while underage drinking is a national problem, in Long Beach it is something of a tribal rite. According to the most recent surveys of Long Beach High School students, from 2004, 63 percent of 11th-graders reported drinking in the previous month, 33 percent reported losing consciousness while drinking, and 50 percent reported drinking at home without their parents' permission. Meanwhile, 11 percent of ninth-graders reported engaging in sexual activity while drinking that they later regretted.
"As has become our mantra, underage drinking is an adult problem," Vining said. "Anywhere you have a child drinking, an adult must be involved - either selling, providing or simply looking away. As a community, we have the opportunity to put an end to our collective looking away by enacting social host legislation."
Among the leaders of the Coalition is Cliff Richner, the co-publisher of the Herald, who said he was asked to serve at just the right moment in his life. "Judy called me and invited me to join right after I had been keeping a two-week vigil at Schneiders Childrens' Hospital," Richner told the Council. "My 15-year-old cousin had been pulled from the bottom of a swimming pool after drinking half a quart of vodka.
"Social host laws are not about allowing the police to kick down the door," he added. "They are about preventing people from giving alcohol to my children without my consent."
Comments about this story? DMiller@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
