The Greene County Board of Supervisors were recently presented with a draft of a new ordinance.
County Attorney Thomas Laehn wrote a social host ordinance that would make it a criminal offense for someone to host a gathering and knowingly permit individuals under the age of 21-years-old to consume alcohol, controlled substances or illegal prescription drugs. Laehn said in this past Monday’s Supervisors meeting that Iowa Code has a social host ordinance, but it only covers individuals 17 and under. The county ordinance would include 18-20 year-olds.
Greene County Sheriff Jack Williams added, the ordinance would hopefully address a recurring problem in the county where a few party locations continue to have parties with underage attendees, but there are no repercussions. The ordinance would establish a civil penalty against the host of $750 for the first violation and $1,000 for each of the subsequent violations. Williams hopes the penalties would be a deterrent.
“I hope it would decrease the amount of them (the parties). And then if there is a trouble spot, like what we’ve had, where they’re being paid so much per cup or per beer that the fine would exceed the amount of profits that they’re getting, so we can deter the illegal parties.”
The ordinance points out that the host would be exempt from the penalties if the host took reasonable steps to prevent possession or consumption of illegal items and/or notify law enforcement or gave law enforcement consent to enter the property to stop the illegal activities. Supervisor Chair John Muir thought the ordinance addressed the issues from a law enforcement viewpoint, but the Board also questioned another part of it.
“We didn’t stop people from having any social gatherings or anything because they’ve had a heightened concern that they might be unknowingly violating the law. I think it’ll be a good law for them to be able to use accordingly.”
Charges would also be issued to the minors for possession or consumption of illegal items as covered in the law already. Muir said the Supervisors will continue to have discussions regarding the ordinance, with a possible consideration for approval in the future.