GREENSBORO — Gate City clubs will be hiring more security before the new year.
The City Council approved a change Tuesday to the city’s entertainment facility security ordinance. Under the new ordinance, clubs that have dancing or live music and a capacity of more than 100 patrons will have to hire two off-duty, uniformed police officers for security or two armed security guards whose training has been certified as outlined by state statute.
The number of armed security staff required will increase as capacity increases, up to eight for venues with a capacity between 1,100 and 1,400.
Clubs have 14 days to comply with the new ordinance.
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The move comes in the wake of a downtown shooting that left one person dead and four people injured last month.
The council approved the change 8-1, with Councilwoman Marikay Abuzuaiter voting no.
Abuzuaiter said she is worried that some of the definitions of clubs are too vague, that some small-business owners who may be affected aren’t aware of the change and that it could make business owners responsible for violence outside or around their clubs that have nothing to do with their security.
Councilman Zack Matheny, who championed the ordinance change, said it’s time for club owners to begin taking that responsibility. Greensboro police are spending far too much time and energy on making nightclubs safer, he said, and many club owners are doing too little.
“It’s time that the nightclubs provide their own security so our men and women can be where they need to be, on patrol,” Matheny said.
City Attorney Tom Carruthers said the city has identified 28 businesses it defines as nightclubs or dance clubs, but that list may change.
The ordinance exempts nonprofit organizations, public bodies and any club that has been operating for three years without an incident of violence. That change came after an objection from Thurston Reeder, the owner of Thirsty’s II Beach Club. Reeder was the only person to speak on the ordinance at Tuesday’s meeting, where he said the ordinance isn’t perfect but he’s not against it in its current form.
Matheny and Mayor Nancy Vaughan said that the absence of club owners appearing to protest the change indicates that these businesses know there is a problem and find the new ordinance reasonable.
“The fact that we only had Mr. Reeder come and talk shows you there’s not a whole lot of animosity about what we’re doing tonight,” Matheny said. “Because ya’ll know ... they’re not afraid to pack the room, and they didn’t.”
An exemption for private, members-only clubs was considered by the council but was eventually nixed because of fears that clubs with a history of violence would sell cheap memberships at the door, call themselves private clubs and attempt to circumvent the security rules.
“I’ve heard that there are strip clubs out there that masquerade as private clubs, and I certainly wouldn’t want them exempted,” Vaughan said. “We need to be careful.”
Councilman Tony Wilkins supported the change but said he wished new clubs without a history of violent incidents could also be exempted.
Several council members objected to that idea, pointing out that many clubs with a history of violence routinely change names or owners on paper and reopen, skirting consequences by passing their businesses off as new clubs.
Councilwoman Nancy Hoffmann said the ordinance may evolve, but it’s a good beginning.
“I think this is a good first step,” Hoffmann said. “Legislating is a process. Laws get tweaked over a period of time.”
Councilman Jamal Fox said the ordinance change may be a good first step, but a larger conversation about handgun violence needs to begin in the community.
