KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City, Missouri, City Council voted 10-0 to end the requirement for bar and restaurant workers to obtain a liquor license.
Mayor Quinton Lucas and council members Kevin O’Neill and Andrea Bough sponsored Ordinance No. 230419, affecting the city's 8,000 bartenders, waiters and waitresses, and other bar and restaurant workers.
Lucas took to Twitter soon after the vote went final.
The Kansas City liquor card requirement for thousands of our servers is no more.
— Mayor Q (@QuintonLucasKC) May 18, 2023
Workers are welcome, without red tape, in Kansas City. Good luck everyone and support our restaurants and taverns.
Under previous law, anyone involved in “delivering, taking orders for, accepting payment for, mixing, serving or assisting in mixing or serving alcoholic beverages” had to purchase a city-issued liquor license.
Emily Johnson, who has 15 years of experience in the industry and is a bartender at The Peanut, recently renewed her liquor license. She said the new ordinance is a good way for more people to get into the bar and restaurant industry.
"It allows people, again, to save time (and) money," Johnson said. "More people will be more inclined to work in the industry. It's a great way to make money, and you also have the flexibility to do things."
Anyone convicted of a felony or released from prison for a felony conviction for assault, domestic assault, robbery, armed criminal action, sexual exploitation of a minor, trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation or a similar offense within the last five years can now receive a liquor license.
It is still required for “retail sales-by-drink licensed establishments” not to hire registered sex offenders for alcohol-related jobs.
Businesses with a permit to serve alcohol must verify that the applicant isn’t listed on the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Registry, the Missouri State Highway Patrol Sex Offender Registry or the KBI Sex Offender Registry.
Using a third-party company to conduct background checks will end as a result of the council’s vote.
A liquor license costs $42 for a three-year permit.
Terry Keith, owner of Double Tap, said the $42 permit was somewhat of a financial struggle for industry workers.
"It's another 42 (dollars), we might as well round up 50 (dollars) to have that," Keith said. "These are college kids, right? They are trying to make ends meet, pay their rent, you know? Enough to buy groceries. This is just another thing that we, as businesses, required of them."
The ordinance noted that “employee liquor permits are outdated and not used widely today in other cities across the country,” stating that those permits are a barrier to employment, require workers to pay for access to the job market, do little to improve public health and are redundant as the city has other liquor-control systems in place.
Keith said that as a business owner, he and his general manger will renew their liquor licenses, but moving forward he will not require his employees to pay the fee.
"When we serve a customer, we are taking care of them and we have to have their best interest at heart, and that is what we practice here at double tap," Keith said. "To make sure that when they are coming in, we are checking IDs, everybody is of age, we are not over-serving. These are all things every establishment does."
Two local store owners struggled to obtain a liquor license for their business last year until they worked with council member Bough to change the city’s ordinance.
La'Nesha Frazier, one of the store's owners, described obtaining a liquor license as the essence of Bliss Books and Wine, which finally held its grand opening in February 2023.
—
