Waddoups touts laws on drunken driving

Instead of toasting the new law doing away with the state's private clubs, Senate President Michael Waddoups said Utahns should be celebrating new, tougher penalties for drunken driving.

The bill eliminating the applications and fees now required to drink at Utah's equivalent of a bar was signed by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. at a crowded ceremony held in a downtown private club. But no such events were held when the governor signed bills requiring vehicle forfeiture and longer loss of drivers' licenses for drinkers who get behind the wheel, Waddoups said.

"I haven't heard a single person talk about taking away drivers' licenses or confiscating cars," the Taylorsville Republican said. "People ought to know that. That's important." Waddoups said he wasn't invited to the signing of SB187, the bill doing away with private club membership requirements and the so-called "Zion curtain" glass barriers separating restaurant customers from liquor service.

Still, he said he might have gone anyway had Huntsman also highlighted the other bills in the liquor reform package. Under HB15, drunken drivers can lose their vehicles, while SB272 increases the length of time their drivers' licenses are suspended. Underage drinkers who drive can lose their licenses until they are 21.

"I think that's a more important part than the other," Waddoups said, calling the private club bill "economic stimulus." The drunken-driving bills, he said, "will change people's behavior and affect people's lives."

Utah Hospitality Association spokeswoman Lisa Marcy said Waddoups "still doesn't understand the significance of the law the governor just signed" to open up private clubs. Especially, she said, since Utah already has some of the toughest DUI laws in the country.

"I think people say, 'Oh, so we have stricter DUI laws in Utah. Ho-hum, no kidding,' because we're already there," Marcy said, calling the new drunken-driving laws "more of a fine-tuning. Private club elimination is a radical change."

During the bill signing at the New Yorker, Huntsman did mention "enhanced public safety" as one of the benefits of the 2009 Legislature's actions on liquor reform. The governor, however, was the force behind the private club change. He had called for the state to make the move toward normalizing its liquor laws to help boost economic development. Too many tourists and potential businesses were confused by the decades-old private club system, Huntsman has said.

The Senate president has experience with drunken drivers. His wife, Anna Kay, still suffers from the effects of her car being struck by a drunken driver several years ago. He has been a critic of how some restaurants serve alcohol in front of underage customers.

Even though the private club bill does address his concerns about restaurants, Waddoups said he wishes it had gone further. The bill bans underage customers from the bar areas of existing restaurants and requires new restaurants to prepare drinks out of sight of customers.

"I wasn't too excited about grandfathering in the ones breaking the law," Waddoups said. "I think that's rewarding bad behavior." He said the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control should be blamed for allowing some restaurants to become too much like bars.

The Utah Restaurant Association's Melva Sine has already said lawmakers need to take another look next session at the restrictions that will be placed on new eateries. Waddoups said that might backfire. "If they want, I could go back and say all of them have to meet the new standards."

E-mail: lisa@desnews.com