Daylight savings costs City $9000
Staff report
Folly Beach closed bars early on Halloween night. Now the City is paying $9000 to make up for the mistake.
On a busy weekend Halloween weekend local bars were baffled when authorities forced businesses to shut down an hour early after the City questioned daylight savings time. The move has cost the City $9000 so far.
Halloween happened to fall on a Saturday this past October which meant a culmination of celebration. Good news for restaurants and bars in a depressed economy. Because of Daylight Savings Time, the clock would be set back an hour at 2am. On Folly Beach, that was supposed to mean an extra hour of revenue on a popular drinking weekend. Folly Beach bars have generally stayed open that extra hour on previous “fall backs” during daylight savings.
“We’ve always been able to stay open an extra hour,” Council member Eddie Ellis said to Mayor Beckmann at the December 8 meeting of City Council. Mayor Beckmann took full responsibility for the incident saying that it was his decision. SLED and Charleston County were contacted the evening of the incident and Ellis asked why this last minute call was made.
“Nobody thought about it,” Beckmann responded.
While Mayor Beckmann took responsibility, local businessman and resident DJ Rich of Planet Follywood blames the shift leader from the Public Safety Department that night. Planet Follywood was one of many establishments forced to close an hour early after Sergeant Brian Kale took it upon himself to contact SLED and Charleston County regarding closing time, according to Rich. He says that Kale contacted SLED and Charleston County the same night that daylight savings went into effect and was told that bars need to close at 2am. He took that to mean “two o’clock is two o’clock” according to Mayor Beckmann.
Public Safety Director Terry Boatwright also took full responsibility for the incident and explained that Sergeant Kale was only trying to fulfill his duty of enforcing the law. Boatwright says that neither SLED nor Charleston County actually gave Kale a straight answer on the matter, further muddling the situation for the officer. In fact, both SLED and the County representatives that night had to inquire of supervisors and finally their lawyers before it was realized that the bars, indeed, had a right to that extra hour. Unfortunately, the lawyers’ revelations came to late. Furthermore, Kale was unable to get in touch with Boatwright to ask what needed to be done. Kale then contacted Mayor Beckmann and received support to close the bars based on the information he provided to the Mayor at that time.
In retrospect, Mayor Beckmann says the call was a bad decision. However, he followed that up by saying he made the right choice with the information he had at the time.
When Folly Beach bars have historically stayed open an extra hour with daylight savings since as long as most can remember, Rich wonders why the City suddenly decided to question the practice and act on it, not only this year, but at the very last moment. As a result of the revenue lost from the hour that was taken, local businesses responded by requesting reimbursement.
Director Boatwright says that he and the City recognized the mistake and have made every effort to apologize to local businesses and make things right. They tried to access their appropriate insurance but were denied because the City’s policy does not cover loss of revenue. However, the City Council passed a resolution which allows the City to pay $9000 to several bars for the “early” closure. It is possible that the City may receive a couple more requests for reimbursement before the issue is laid to rest. Checks for the mistake were supposed to be ready for the affected businesses on December 9.
Boatwright says the mistake should not happen again now that the City, SLED and Charleston County know the proper procedure. This was Sergeant Kale’s first daylight savings experience since becoming a shift leader.
