Huntsman signs bill to eliminate private clubs

It was standing room only at a downtown private club late Monday afternoon as Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. signed what he called a historic bill doing away with Utah's members-only bars and changing how restaurants serve alcohol.

"This is an important and new day in our state for purposes of economic enhancement, for purposes of travel and tourism, for purposes of enhancing our image," the governor said. "We're rolling out the welcome mat to the world."

He signed SB187 at a table in the New Yorker, a private club that along with others throughout the state will be able to open its doors to the public on July 1. Under Utah's decades-old private club system, customers had to fill out applications and pay fees before entering the state's equivalent of a bar.

Surrounded by lawmakers, liquor regulators, lobbyists and others involved in the bill, Huntsman joked that the last GOP governor who attempted such sweeping changes in Utah's liquor laws was voted out of office in 1960.

Tom Guinney, an owner of the New Yorker and other private clubs and restaurants along the Wasatch Front, was part of Huntsman's transition team on liquor issues five years ago that recommended getting rid of the private club system because it was confusing to tourists.

Guinney said he was optimistic then that some changes would be made in the state's liquor laws, but not that optimistic. "The one topic I did not believe would change in my lifetime or in my career was the elimination of private clubs."

Huntsman attributed his success to people having "the political will to get it done," and a push from both the public and the tourism industry. Plus, the governor said, "the stars aligned." The Utah Hospitality Association had announced last year it would launch an initiative petition drive to put the issue before voters in 2010.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, and incorporating separate legislation from Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper, was the result of several weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations with a range of interested parties, including Mothers Against Drunk Driving and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The governor said the first and only time he personally raised the private club issue with the LDS Church came after he was elected to his first term in 2004. "It was a business discussion," Huntsman said Monday of that meeting.

The LDS Church, which counsels its members not to drink alcohol and often becomes involved in what it deems moral issues, did not send a representative to the bill signing but did release a statement.