A majority of Athens City Council members say they want the council to vote outright on whether to legalize Sunday sales in the city limits rather than ask citizens to vote.

Three of the five council members also seem to be leaning toward approving Sunday sales if they get the chance.

Council members are expected to vote Thursday night on a resolution that would allow them to ask the state Legislature for a local law giving the City Council the authority to vote on Sunday sales. This is significant because the public would have input on the council’s decision-making process but would not decide the alcohol issue at the ballot box as in the past.

If lawmakers grant the council permission, the council could — following one or more public hearings — vote on whether to allow Sunday sales in the city limits

Four of the five council members said Wednesday they plan to vote Thursday to seek that permission from state lawmakers.

Cities and counties in Alabama must seek permission from state lawmakers to make some decisions because Alabama’s Constitution does not give them home rule (self- determination).

Should council decide?

Council President Joseph Cannon, District 2 Councilman Harold Wales, District 3 Councilman Frank Travis and District 5 Councilman Wayne Harper expect to vote Thursday in favor of seeking legislative permission to let the council decide the issue.

Generally, they seem to believe it is time for the City Council to address the issue of Sunday sales one way or the other.

“There have been people voicing support for Sunday sales ever since the city voted to go wet,” said Harper, the city’s former police chief. “I can see both sides of it. I will probably vote just to ask for permission and get the process started.”

Harper initially wanted voters to decide the matter.

“I originally hoped we’d ask for a referendum but the feeling was that that would require more time and money and disruption,” he said. “I’ll probably vote for the resolution Thursday but I’m not committing on how it going after that. There will be a lot of people on both sides who want to be heard, and I want to keep as open a mind as possible.”

Cost of referendum

Holding a vote on Sunday sales would cost taxpayers $30,000 to $40,000, Travis said. He believes a referendum would also take the pressure off the council, which might not be the best course.

“If we decide to make the decision then the council owns it,” Travis said. “I think the council probably needs to own it — we do or we don’t (support Sunday sales). The council is elected by the citizens to represent them. … Anyway, you are not going to please everybody. That is the way life is and that is what makes our democracy great.”

Before making a final decision, Travis first wants to get counsel from the people in his district.

“I welcome their input and it is only fair that I canvass the district or allow them the opportunity to say what they want,” he said.

He pointed out the initial fears about Sunday sales have not materialized.

“One of the fears in 2003 was that we were going to allow Sunday sales and that dereliction would move in and our crime rate would increase,” Travis said. “None of the negative things that people proclaimed were going to happen due to Sunday sales happened. Really, the opposite has happened.”

He said crime has decreased and the city has continued to use alcohol revenue from six-day sales for pavement projects and schools.

Firm supporter

Wales said he’d rather see the people vote on the issue but he will still vote Thursday to send the resolution to Montgomery.

“It will come back to us and we can put on a referendum to allow all to vote or act on our own powers and vote it in,” said Wales, who is already hearing from his constituents on the matter.

“I’ve heard from five or six people in the past few days and their responses are running 80 or 90 percent in favor of us (the council) using our power to vote it in,” he said.

Wales firmly favors Sunday sales.

“I am not going to oppose it; I don’t see any reason to,” he said. “All cities around us have Sunday sales, and businesses like Buffalo Wild Wings are not going to continue to locate in cities without it. In order to see Athens grow in the future — restaurants, sports bars, stuff like that — we’re going to have to have legalized (Sunday) sales or they’re not coming here.”

He said Buffalo Wild Wings appeals to people who like to watch NFL package shows on Sunday and have a beer with their wings. He said those Sunday customers make up about 20 percent of the restaurant’s business. While Athens might attract such a restaurant without Sunday sales, Wales said he does not know if Athens could keep such a restaurant without Sunday sales.

‘Elephant in the room’

During a council budget hearing four years ago, Cannon raised the question of legalizing Sunday sales.

“I brought it up that we needed to discuss having a referendum,” he said.

Since then, Cannon has changed his mind about calling for a vote of the people.

“I’m ready to vote outright to make our own decision,” Cannon said. “I look at it as a business decision. … If I can avoid being part of bringing another contentious election to the city, I’m going to (do so) every time now. There was so much division among people during the tax thing, and I think it will be a lot of the same with the churches on this …”

Part of the disruption to which Harper and Cannon refer is the the 2015 property tax vote to help schools. The current council, except for newcomer Travis, had decided to let voters decide whether to increase property tax millage. Voters rejected the proposal but the issue, at least temporarily, divided citizens.

At election time, the political opponents of some council members claimed in ads and campaign literature council members had voted to raise taxes when what they actually did was vote to allow the public to decide the matter.

What is at stake?

City Clerk Annette Barnes Threet said the city collected just shy of $700,000 from alcohol taxes in fiscal 2016, of which 50 percent (minus a small administrative fee) is appropriated to the city school system.

The city also collected an additional $33,000 in alcohol licensing fees, which is retained by the city’s alcohol fund, she said.

At issue for Cannon is not so much what the city currently collects from the sale of alcohol but what it might collect in the future. He believes the city needs to move on the issue before retail opportunities are lost to other cities.

His concern, he said, is that another city that has territory bordering Athens and that allows Sunday sales might attract a restaurant and collect money Athens could otherwise have collected had it approved Sunday sales.

“All one has to do is look at an annexation map …,” Cannon said. “I’m not trying to scare people but we don’t realize how much we need to protect what we do have. If retail decides to come to land annexed by someone other than Athens, that’s their freedom. But, I sure don’t want it to be because we were too scared to address the elephant in the room (that is) keeping anything from coming to Athens.”

First wet

Athens residents first voted in 2003 to legalize the sale of alcohol in the city limits, except on Sundays. In 2007, voters defeated an effort to repeal legal alcohol sales.

A more than two-year effort to mount enough signatures to call for a vote on legalizing alcohol sales in Limestone County recently failed.