LA HABRA : Council Reluctantly Renews Bar’s Permit

Despite strong opposition from residents and council members, the City Council has renewed the entertainment permit of a local bar where police have responded to 32 calls in the past 10 months.

Council members said they feared a lawsuit if the city did not grant the permit renewal to the owners of The Casbah. But along with the renewal, the council required that the bar hire two uniformed security guards to patrol inside and outside the establishment.

In a stern voice, Councilman William D. Mahoney cited a list of serious police calls to the bar, including one that resulted in the arrest of a patron and an employee after the pair stabbed each other, and two others that involved assaults.

“We don’t need those kinds of people in this community,” Mahoney told The Casbah’s owner, Eric B. Bewley, at the council session last week. “You’re drawing the kind of people that we don’t like in this community.”

Nevertheless, Mahoney and the four other council members said they voted for the permit renewal to avoid a lawsuit. The permit allows Bewley to hire “theatrical dancers” to perform on stage, play recorded music and operate a jukebox, a video game and pool tables.

Bewley’s attorney, Joshua Kaplan, said he did not believe uniformed security guards are necessary and that the current security guards, who don’t wear uniforms, are effective.

“A uniform is just going to cause more problems than it will cure,” he said, adding that “I don’t think there is a problem at all.”

Residents and people who own businesses adjacent to the bar, however, complained that the bar’s patrons constantly urinate, litter and vomit in the parking lot and leave beer bottles, cans, used condoms and other trash on the sidewalks.