Gulf Breeze News

Change often can be painful, and the enforcement of an ordinance banning alcohol consumption in county parking lots during the Pensacola Beach Mardi Gras parade was no exception.

“Everybody resists change. This change was made to be fair and consistent across the board to make the event safe and fun for everyone,” said Lt. Rodney Eddins of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office on Pensacola Beach.

Deputies on Sunday enforced a 20-year-old ordinance banning alcohol consumption in county parking lots, and 50 deputies were on hand to issue $100 citations for offenders.

It’s no coincidence, according to Eddins, that 57 alcohol citation tickets were written, and the day’s total arrests were down to “about a dozen” from prior years’ average of 25-30 arrests. During the parade, only two criminal citations were written for “minor incidents like stealing or scuffling.”

“The community deserves the credit; the vast majority enjoyed themselves in the right locations and had a good time,” Eddins said. “They drank, but they didn’t draw attention to themselves and didn’t impose on someone else’s good time.”

Some parade attendees contended the law was unclear or wasn’t enforced fairly. Allegations of inconsistency and random checks where officers sniffed people’s cups or soft-drink cans caused concern.

“Deputies were actually smelling people’s drinks,” one business owner said. “We were told if you mind your own business and don’t cause problems, you won’t be bothered, but that was not the case. Deputies were approaching people with cups – not beer cans – and asking to sniff them.”

Justin Michael Smegelski, 28, said he felt unfairly targeted.

“Myself and a friend came out of The Break – with cups – to the parade lineup,” he said. “We approached a group of cops; they were in a cluster. We were told to pour out our drinks and were issued citations. It was early in the afternoon. We did not go there to get drunk, and we had not even had one beer yet.

“We seemed targeted. They were there waiting for us. I was amused at first, and then when I found out the tickets were $100 I was shocked. I could see they would have a rule like that for people who were belligerent, but we had just arrived and were not intoxicated at all.”

Smegelski said he had no idea the rules had changed.

“Seemed like there’d be a warning if you weren’t drunk to tell you about the new rule,” he challenged, “but to hit you with a $100 fine when you were just joining the parade – still literally sober and within 50 feet of the bar? They made us pour it out. They were actually friendly. They didn’t act like they were concerned with our behavior. I just don’t understand.”

Hotels and some businesses have private lots not affected by the ordinance enforcement. Sidewalks are county right-ofways and not covered under the ordinance, Eddins said.

“We’ve had people call and say they enjoyed it and the crowd was a lot less rowdy,” he said. “We didn’t have the normal number of fights we historically have.”

Eddins contends that media coverage in the days leading up to Mardi Gras more than got the word out about the nodrinking ordinance.

“Did the procedure give us the expected and desired impact? I think the people, for the most part, paid attention to what we were asking,” he said.

Eddins admitted that the majority of the citations were in one localized area but said most of the problems in the past had been in the very parking lots where the citations were handed out.

Witnesses reported a dozen deputies in the county lot by The Break and Paddy O’Leary’s.

“I talked to a lot of my friends and people who were definitely upset and felt kind of harassed to a certain extent,” said Seamus Hunt, co-owner of Paddy O’Leary’s Irish Pub. “I value the deputies’ presence being out there and watching over us, but I did hear a lot of people were saying they felt singled out.”

Tommy Lee agreed.

“It’s not okay for the public to enjoy the festive time but it is okay for the parade participants to enjoy an adult beverage?” Lee challenged.

“My concern is for public safety and the opportunity to turn back the clock a little and make Pensacola Beach a more family-oriented place,” Eddins countered. “Bottom line is it was a very successful event. I feared we’d write over 100 tickets, but 57 tickets out of the total number of attendees is really low. If someone got approached, there was a reason for it. If they asked to see inside a cup or smell it, there was a reason for it.

“The spirit of this beach is not armed robberies and shootings and drunken behavior. I have a job to do, and that is to enforce the rules. That ordinance is a rule.”

Bob West, SRIA public safety director, said he had a lot of comments in favor of the crackdown. People walked past him saying, ‘Great parade!’

The number of cars passing through the toll booth was nearly identical to the same event in years past.

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Vici Papajohn and Lisa Newell collaborated on this story.