Mayor Greg Nickels has urged the state Liquor Control Board to close the Mr. Lucky bar following the April 15 shootings of three people in the Lower Queen Anne club. He did that by faxing and mailing a letter to the agency last Friday.
"After consulting with public-safety officials, I'm asking the Liquor Control Board to take swift action and either suspend or cancel the bar's license," the mayor said in a press release.
Nickels felt it was important to act immediately, said mayoral spokesman Marty McOmber. "We've been working very closely with the Liquor Control Board, and they've been very receptive."
The move followed a flurry of meetings among Seattle police, the city attorney's office and Liquor Control Board officials. State Senator and Queen Anne resident Jeanne Kohl-Welles also held a meeting last Thursday, April 20, attended by members of all three agencies.
Kohl-Welles said at the meeting she has heard from the community that finding a solution to the problems at the club is very, very important.
That could be easier said than done, according to Rex Prout, assistant chief for enforcement and education for the Liquor Board. It all comes down to levels of responsibility, he said at the meeting.
"The more distance from the premise and the more distance in time from closing, the harder it is to deal with," Prout said of criminal incidents at nightclubs. "Oftentimes, it's very hard to prove a nexus (with a club)."
A Greater Queen Anne Chamber of Commerce member who has followed public-safety issues in Lower Queen Anne for years, Chris Bihary said he wasn't buying the argument. "If this were the first one, I would think differently," he said of three shootings at the bar. "Nothing is really being done."
Linda Pierce, assistant Seattle Police Department chief, was sympathetic. "I know it sounds like we're not doing anything." But she stressed that the city is dealing with club violence, pointing to the closing of Larry's bar in Pioneer Square as an example.
As for Mr. Lucky, "we are definitely raising the bar... to encourage better business practices," Pierce said.
Ellen Monrad, chair of the Queen Anne Community Council, said she wasn't impressed. "What I'm hearing now is, 'Gee whiz, we don't want to put anyone out of business.'"
But the city has to tread carefully when closing a club to prevent the club from filing lawsuits against the city, according to Prout. "The level of proof we have to deal with now has risen," he said.
Douglas Dunham, a lawyer representing Mr. Lucky owner Kyriakos Kyrkos, insisted that Kyrkos is trying to act responsibly. "He's cooperated with police thoroughly; he's cooperated with the liquor board thoroughly."
The problems at the nightclub stemmed from Friday night events when an independent promoter played hip-hop music, said Dunham, who added that Kyrkos prefers not to use that musical term.
"And we've stopped that," said Dunham, who added that Kyrkos announced the move in a letter posted on his front door last week. "That's the context in which this should be looked at," the lawyer said of calls to revoke the club's liquor license.
Susan Reams, a public information officer for the Liquor Control Board, said on Monday this week that the decision would probably be made about the Mr. Lucky liquor license early this week. "We're working swiftly and trying to conclude the investigation as rapidly as possible," she said.
An emergency license suspension is effective for four months, while revoking the license is permanent, Reams said. But she noted that both actions can be appealed.
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at 461-1309.[[In-content Ad]]
