Cambridge amends policy for public alcohol sales

Cambridge City Council opened the door regarding sales of alcohol at city events at its meeting held Monday, April 1.

Community Development Director Marcia Westover said city code prohibits alcohol consumption in city parks or at city events without written approval from the city.

“We’d like to change that, in the best interest of our summer events at our parks and downtown,” Westover said. “We’d like to allow consumption in our city parks and sales by mobile vendors – during city events only.”

Council member Lisa Iverson asked if there was any liability issues that would arise from this amended ordinance; City Administrator Evan Vogel said there are issues that would be covered by insurance and by following regulations.

“We’ll have to make sure that any service is done by people who are licensed and authorized, so the burden is with the vendor,” Vogel said. “If we were the supplier, the burden would come to us.”

Westover noted that language for amended ordinance came after discussion with the city’s insurance agents.

The amendment to the ordinance passed unanimously at 4-0; council member Bob Shogren did not attend the meeting.

Weather policy

Vogel said the severe weather that hit Cambridge a few weeks ago led him to reconsider the city’s policy for “off” days for its employees.

“City Hall does not get a lot of traffic on days like that because it’s just too nasty out,” Vogel said. “So I wanted to ask council to consider creating a ‘snow day’ for employees.”

Vogel said his proposal was to create a flexible policy that would allow employees to go home and to close City Hall. The idea was to give employees a chance to weigh the value of driving to City Hall during difficult weather times as opposed to staying safe at home.

“I think many employees would still come in, especially if they lived close,” Vogel said. “But I want to make sure employees know that safety is most important.”

Council member Aaron Berg noted that the state has created something called “safe time” that allows employees with children to stay home if schools closed. ESST time (Earned Sick and Safe Time) is accumulated at 1 hour earned for every 30 hours worked.

Eventually council gave Vogel the authority to create a plan to cover this contingency.