Pullman Scraps Plan For Drinking Ordinance City Cites Cooperative Efforts With WSU Students, Neighbors

The Pullman City Council scrapped plans for a public drinking ordinance Tuesday night before a packed hall of Washington State University students.

The ordinance was one of five proposals being considered to address noise, housing density and deterioration of Pullman neighborhoods near the WSU campus.

Council members unanimously dismissed the controversial ordinance, saying ongoing efforts between the community and students are helping improve alcohol-related problems.

The council vowed to continue talks on other proposals, including registering or licensing rentals, changes to the noise ordinance and limits on the number of unrelated occupants per home.

The public drinking ordinance would have given city police the ability to write tickets for public drinking - even on private property - if the drinking was linked to criminal behavior such as a noise infraction.

“The problem we have is where drinking contributes to lawlessness in the community. We want to try to prevent these drinking episodes from becoming big problems,” said Spokane attorney Thomas Kingen, who drafted the ordinance and represents the city of Pullman.

The ordinance was drafted in response to a court ruling that prohibited city police officers from enforcing state liquor laws against public consumption in the common areas of apartment complexes. The judge ruled that those areas are considered private property, Kingen said.

But Pullman Police Chief Ted Weatherly and officer Scott Patrick urged the council to hold off on the added penalty.

“Quite frankly, there’s a number of mechanisms in place currently that we need to consistently enforce rather than legislate unnecessarily or possibly unfairly,” Patrick said.

Several City Council members said they’ve heard from residents, students and law enforcement officers that the drinking problems were abating.

Colleen Harrington, a representative of the Pullman chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, also expressed constitutional concerns that the proposed ordinance would criminalize legal activity and transform a private place into a public one.

The rental housing ordinance proposes allowing licenses to be revoked if landlords fail inspections. It also contains a nuisance housing clause that could suspend a rental license if a landlord failed to address lewdness, prostitution, drug dealing or repeated criminal or city violations over a period of a year.

Several landlords Tuesday said existing landlord-tenant laws provide enough protection against such problems and regulating the behavior of tenants would be difficult.

Property owner Scott Hill said he resented being held accountable for a problem that originated with WSU. “WSU has chosen to push off the drinking issue and it has moved to the private sector,” Hill said.

A number of city residents spoke emphatically in favor of regulating landlords more heavily.

“It’s an idea that is long overdue,” said Karen Kiessling. “There have been slum landlords in Pullman forever and there are still slum landlords in Pullman.”

Council members said they supported starting a rental registration program that would help disseminate information to landlords and tenants about the responsibilities of both parties.

Housing density, noise and the proposed rental housing licensing ordinances will be discussed again later this spring.