LA HABRA : Unamplified Music Approved for Bar

The City Council has decided to allow live entertainment at a bar that has been the target of numerous complaints from neighbors about loud music.

O’Leary’s Pub, which had its entertainment permit revoked 16 months ago as the result of residents’ complaints, may now provide limited live music, council members ruled.

The board restricted the music to three musicians without amplification and required that the bar’s owner, Ronald Slutsky, hire uniformed security guards during the hours of live entertainment.

Slutsky’s permit was issued on a 3-2 vote.

Mayor Juan M. Garcia and Councilman David M. Cheverton cast the dissenting votes after Slutsky said he needed amplified music or his business would suffer.

“It would do me no good financially to have a band without amplified music,” Slutsky told the council at a meeting last week. “The people who come to these places want amplified music. . . . By not allowing it, you are telling me I’m not going to have live entertainment.”

Garcia and Cheverton said they understood Slutsky’s argument, and wanted to approve the request for amplified music on the condition that if police received two calls complaining about the bar in three months, the permit would be revoked.

“We were kind of willing to give the guy a chance,” Cheverton said.