City chasing Hess restaurants for paid duty police fees

After a largely peaceful year between club owners and the city, licensing officials are now chasing restaurant owners near Hess Village for paid duty policing fees.

The owners of Lou Dawg's Southern BBQ, Agave Mex-I-Can and Ten Decades are all scheduled to appear at the city's licensing tribunal on Monday over unpaid fees.

But while Hess Village's nightclub owners often faced bills of thousands of dollars for mandatory paid duty policing, these restaurants are only dealing with bills ranging from just under $60 to $370.

• City will pay half of Hess Village police costs
• Hess Village club owners fuming over policing costs

Up until 2015, about a dozen Hess Village bar and restaurant owners were paying about $115,000 a year to cover paid duty policing in the city's entertainment district. Both city staff and Hamilton police say that sort of arrangement doesn't exist anywhere else in Canada.

In that time crowdsdwindled, and club owners decried paying for police costs themselves.

Several ended up before the city's licensing tribunal for unpaid police bills, and Sizzle/Koi owner Dean Collett launched a lawsuit in 2013 over what he called an unfair practice.

Things improved last year, when the city agreed to pay half of the owners'costs for the next two years as part of a special pilot project. But now, the issue is creeping up again.

A lack of information

Lou Dawg's co-owner Erika Puckering told CBC News that she hasn't paid her bill largely because she can't get a straight answer from the city as to how her fee is calculated. Lou Dawg's opened in April on George Street, near Hess Village.

"We started receiving invoices at the end of May it just describes what [the bill] is, but not any details," Puckering said.

She has called the city several times looking for information, but no one has been able to give her a straight answer, she says.

"No one seems to know who we should be talking to."Puckering says she plans to use the hearing as a venue to be able to ask those questions.

Puckering also pointed out that Lou Dawg's is "food focused," and is on the neighbouring George Street, and therefore she doesn't think that it should be on the hook for Hess's police costs.

"There hasn't been any need in our area," she said.

Area seeing improvements, councillor says

But Ward 2 Coun. Jason Farr told CBC News that any establishment that stays open past 11 p.m. in the Hess entertainment district ends up paying a portion of the paid duty fees.

He also said that the licensing tribunal can't ignore the bills, even if they are for small amounts.

"There is a protocol, and the amount isn't a stipulation," he said.

Farr has long fought to get the cost of bylaw under control, and was one of the main drivers of the new agreement between the club owners and the city last year.

He says the situation at Hess Village has improved in that time, with larger crowds, more of a focus on food, and capital improvements in the area by the city.

"I've met with the bar owners on a number of occasions and they tell me things are better," he said. "Addressing the policing issue, as it stands, has been helpful."

"We're starting to see the benefits after all this time."

adam.carter@cbc.ca