Hollister council members Monday voted 4-0 in closed session to require bars in the downtown motorcycle rally area to halt alcohol sales at midnight during the three-day event.
The vote, with Mayor Ignacio Velazquez recusing himself due to his ownership of The Vault establishment in downtown Hollister, came during a closed-session setting after the regular council meeting, the mayor confirmed.
The Hollister Freedom Rally, the city’s signature event drawing tens of thousands of visitors and spurring a lively nightlife scene, is set for July 3-5 in downtown Hollister. Bars are normally allowed open until 2 a.m.
Charisse Tyson, owner of Johnny’s Bar & Grill on the San Benito Street main drag of downtown, said prior to the meeting that the early closure would “hurt me in a huge way.”
“I’m praying they don’t go along with it,” Tyson told the Free Lance on Monday before the vote.
After hearing of the decision Monday to stop alcohol sales at 12, she replied by text: “It’s not the 12:00 last call I’d hoped for but it is better than the original proposal. It is what it is and we’ll do what we have to do.”
City officials recently broached the possibility of closing bars at midnight with local business owners. Tyson said she responded by writing all council members expressing her opposition to the idea, weighed during closed session of Monday’s council meeting.
The idea came from the police department and Chief David Westrick, who said Monday morning he couldn’t comment on closed-session items.
The idea was floated about a month after May shooting deaths in Waco, Texas involving rival biker gangs. Hollister also is hosting its first rally since last year’s non-fatal shooting at a Chevron gas station in the city, outside the event area, on the final morning of the 2014 biker gathering.
It is unclear why Hollister officials considered the matter in closed session. According to the Brown Act, California’s law governing open meetings matters, about closed session limitations: “They primarily involve personnel issues, pending litigation, labor negotiations and real property acquisitions.”
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