Memo - Social Host Ordinance Proposal0 Memorandum
To: Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council
CC: Mike Mornson, City Manager
From: Mike Reynolds, Chief of Police
Date: August 18, 2011
Re: Social Host Ordinance Proposal
I will be at the work session on August 23d to discuss a social host ordinance for the City of Hopkins. Along
with me will be Captain Tony Hanlin and City Attorney Jason Hutchison. As you are aware, we have
partnered with One Voice for reducing youth chemical use in our community. Many of our neighboring
cities already have an ordinance in place for an added tool that police can use when encountering youth
using chemicals, in particular alcohol and/or controlled substances on property that is in the control of
adults. The state statute threshold is extremely difficult for us to prosecute adults who may be furnishing or
providing a place for these youth to consume their alcohol illegally. More times than not, adults will not face
any criminal charges, due to the lack of evidence to prosecute them through our state statute system. By
passing our proposed ordinance on social hosts, this gives the police another tool to use to hold adults
• accountable who are hosting parties where our youth are consuming alcohol and other controlled
substances.
0
0 Memorandum
To: Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council
CC: Mike Mornson, City Manager
From: Mike Reynolds, Chief of Police
Date: August 30, 2011
Re: Social Host Ordinance Follow -Up
This is a follow-up memorandum to the City Council work session which occurred on Tuesday,
August 23, 2011. You had asked Jason Hutchison, City Attorney and I to research some data and
reply back to you with this data via memorandum with our recommendation prior to the first reading
of the Social Host Ordinance to take place at our next council meeting on Tuesday, September 6,
2011. City Attorney Hutchison has replied to me with the information he has learned. I have
attached his memorandum
Jason has spoken to and received responses from the prosecuting attorneys representing the cities of
Minnetonka, Golden Valley and Edina. All of the responding prosecutors stated that they had less
• than five cases they prosecuted for violations of their social host ordinances during a year's time.
Most, if not all of the cases were violations where parents were purchasing alcohol for their 19 or 20
year old children and their friends at the parent's residence, or were 20-25 year old adults purchasing
alcohol and having a party where underage drinkers were present. One of the prosecutors went so far
as to say they have seen a much larger decrease in these kinds of parties due to the educational aspect
that comes from this ordinance and feels this aspect has actually had a bigger impact on the
community than the actual enforcement of the social host ordinance.
Jason continues in his memorandum to me to explain the legal jargon or wording of the ordinance. I
would direct you to his memorandum for his clear explanation. In the end, I agree with what Jason
has expressed. With this in mind, I recommend that we keep the wording of the social host ordinance
as presented to you at the last council work session.
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Section 2015 - Open House Parties / Social Host Ordinance
2005.01, Definitions. For the purpose of this Section, the following terms shall have the stated
meanings:
a) Alcoholic Beverage. Any beverage containing more than one-half of one percent of alcohol by
volume.
b) Control. The present right of possession of a residence or premises; or the right to exclude
persons from a residence or premises.
c) Controlled Substance. Any drug, substance or immediate precursor so defined in M.S. 152.01.
d) Minor. A person not legally permitted by reason of age to possess alcoholic beverages pursuant
to the provisions of this Code and State law.
e) Residence or Premises. A home, apartment, condominium, hotel room, dwelling unit, meeting
room, hall, or curtilage thereof, whether occupied on a temporary basis or permanent basis, whether
occupied as a dwelling or utilized for a social function, whether owned, rented, leased or under the control
of any person or persons of such residence or premises.
f) Open House Party. A social gathering of persons at a residence or premises. However, a social
gathering attended only by the owners or those with rights of possession of the residence or premises, or
their immediate family members, is not an open house party for purposes of this Section.
• 2015.02. Acts Prohibited. Subdivision 1. No person having control of any residence or
premises shall allow an open house party to take place knowing or having reason to know that any
alcoholic beverage or controlled substance is being possessed or consumed by any minor.
Subd. 2. Notwithstanding the foregoing, nothing in this Section shall impair or criminalize
conduct permitted by Minn. Stat. Section 340A.503, subd. 1(2).
Subd. 3. A violation of this section is a misdemeanor.
2015.03. Severability. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, part, provision, phrase,
word, or other portion of this Section is, for any reason, held to be unconstitutional or invalid, in whole or
in part by any court of competent jurisdiction, such portion shall be deemed severable, and such
unconstitutionality or invalidity shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this Section,
which remaining portions shall continue in full force and effect.
0
STEINER & CURTISS, P.A.
ATTORNEYS AT LAW
• 400 WELLS FARGO BANK BUILDING
1011 FIRST STREET SOUTH
HOPKINS, MN 55343
JEREMY S. STEINER*
WYNN CURTISS
JASON T. HUTCHISON
*Real Property Law Specialist, certified
by the Minnesota State Bar Association
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Date: 30 August 2011
To: Chief Reynolds
Captain Hanlin
From: Jason T. Hutchison
Re: Social Host Ordinance: follow-up from work session
Office: (952) 938-7635
Fax: (952)938-7670
Direct: (952) 253-0070
jhutchison@steinercurtiss.com
Following the most recent Council work session, I was asked to investigate and comment on :(1) the use of
"knowing or having reason to know" as a standard of criminal culpability in the proposed Social Host/ Open
Party ordinance; and (2) the experiences of other prosecutors in enforcing similar ordinances.
• A review of Minnesota Statutes Chapter 609 (where most, but not all, criminal statutes are codified) reveals at
least 35 instances of the textual phrase "reason to know," in matters as varied as misdemeanor Possession of
Stolen Property to felony Criminal Sexual Conduct. There is a long history in Minnesota of "reason to know" as
an element of criminal conduct; any defendant charged for conduct under a "reason to know" standard would be
entitled to the benefit of the case law that has evolved to construe this standard. In short, "reason to know" has a
long-standing place in Minnesota criminal law. While I could change the language at your request, there is no
legal necessity for me to do so.
I e-mailed and called a number of local prosecutors to inquire about their experiences prosecuting similar
ordinances. Golden Valley aggressively prosecutes its social host ordinance; the prosecutor reports 2-3 cases per
year - mostly for parents allowing their child's friends to drink at their house. Minnetonka reports that they
prosecute "a few" cases per year, but not many. Their cases have generally been 20-25 year olds allowing
underage people to drink at their residences (the classic "college drinking party"). Edina's prosecutor reports
similar numbers - less than 5 cases per year - but spontaneously commented (without my prodding) that he
believes it has a deterrent effect and has, anecdotally, decreased the number of these events in the city as the word
has spread.
•
As for the cost of prosecution, there are too many variables for me to accurately estimate its impact: if people
plead guilty (and most people do plead guilty) the cost won't be a significant increase. If I add a few trials per
year, the City's prosecution costs would increase — but not by a large amount. However, please keep in mind that
some or all of these costs would offset by increased fine revenue.
As always, please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments.
/Social Host/Reynolds.memo.doc
- JTH