[unhommefou]

I think this is a shakedown by the city council to get more money out of the bars/clubs, but just in case:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovern...es/2154899

Quote:

TAMPA — It could be one of the biggest changes in years to how drinks are poured at bars, restaurants and nightclubs in the city of Tampa.

On Thursday, the council is scheduled to discuss proposed rules to give the city more leverage over businesses that serve alcohol but look the other way when the clientele starts breaking the law.

It's a question that city officials and bar owners have struggled with since at least late 2011, when shootings at two Ybor City-area clubs left one man dead and six wounded.

What they've come up with is the idea of issuing a new business permit to nightclubs, bars and restaurants with state licenses to serve drinks.

A first ordinance, now in draft form, would roll back bar closing times from 3 a.m. to midnight.

This would only affect businesses that serve drinks to be consumed on the premises — not places like grocery or convenience stores that sell alcohol for carry-out only...

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...Michelini said a lot of his clients weren't even aware that the change was in the pipeline. "When I told them, they said, 'Oh my God. What?' "

That's what worries City Council member Lisa Montelione. She says this is the wrong time of year to consider this kind of change for bars and restaurants, which are in their busiest, most lucrative season of the year and are focused on the demands of their holiday customers.

"The idea that this is going to be put in place when they're working the hardest to eke their way out of a struggling economy, I think, is not fair to them," said Montelione, who plans to ask that the proposal be delayed.

But council member Yvonne Yolie Capin said the proposal has not come out of nowhere.

In May, she noted, the city's cultural assets advisory committee, proposed rolling back the closing times to midnight and creating a separate permit that would allow bars to stay open to 3 a.m.