Abby Council declines to renew La Botana license

By Neal Hogden

The city of Abbotsford deliberated in closed session at a public hearing on Wednesday, June 19, before deciding to decline the owners of La Botana bar a liquor license for the year.

The owners of the bar, German Hernandez and Ivone Vazquez, were present at the meeting to provide insight into a six incidents in which citations had been handed out to the bar or patrons of the bar since the first of the year. Colby-Abbotsford Police Department officers James Wagner and Eric English also attended the meeting to give the council insight to the department’s visits to the bar in 2024.

The council was provided with a list of five different instances where the bar was issued demerit points for citations that were issued in visits to the bar. The city’s ordinances state that establishments that accrue 200 demerit points are subject to a suspension of its Class “B” fermented malt beverage and intoxicating liquor license. In this case however, the council enacted another city ordinance in which the city can review and potentially not renew any license that has had alcohol-related incidents during the liquor license renewal period.

At the public hearing, both the officers and the owners of the bar had a chance to provide the council with some background.

The officers were asked if they ever feared for their safety when responding to calls at the bar. Wagner said he didn’t respond to calls at night at that bar because he was on day shift while English said he has never feared for his safety.

Vazquez said she and her husband had owned the bar for the last seven years. She also told the council that she had leased out the bar to different ownership for two years from 2021 - 2023 and as of January 1, had re-taken ownership of the bar.

Vazquez said she and her husband remodeled the bar and in February of this year, they re-opened to the public. Vazquez provided the council with some background regarding the specific calls that were listed on the report that was given to the council.

On February 17, CAPD officers cited a patron for leaving the premises with an open container and also cited the bar owners for permitting that to happen. She said that night, an officer told her that he knew the games she was playing in hiding what was going on at the bar.

Vazquez said that was a Saturday night and on Monday, February 19, she went and spoke to city officials to let them know that the bar had new ownership and to ask about new laws and regulations the city might have passed since Vazquez had last operated the bar.

She then addressed a citation that was not given to the bar, but still cost the bar demerit points. On April 7, officers responded to a fight in progress at the bar. Vazquez clarified

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and said that the fight did not occur in the bar but instead occurred out on the street. Several individuals were issued disorderly conduct citations that morning.

“The two fights they have listed here, did not occur in the bar but occurred out on the street. I do want to know if that means if a fight is going on outside the premises, what is the space we are going to be held responsible for outside of [the premises],” Vazquez asked.

She asked why the bar owners should call law enforcement like they have been requested to do when a fight happens if they are going to be docked points for altercations happening not on bar grounds.

Vazquez said since taking over, they have attempted to limit the amount of issues by hiring a person to check for identification at the door earlier in June and by kicking people out of the bar who have been involved in fights for six months at a time.

“As you may know, there’s not a lot of places where people can go to get a distraction or to go and dance or just get out of their daily routine,” Vazquez said. “So when we expel them, they do suffer the consequences.”

They said during their previous stint as owners of the liquor license at the bar, the back door was often left unlocked. But now, they lock the back door so they can control who gets in and out of the bar using the front door. She also said they have had two people every night after the bar closes go outside and look for empty containers in the parking lot or on the sidewalks. She said the issue of littering was something that was brought up in a meeting with Mayor Jim Weix and former Police Chief Jason Bauer and they have worked hard to mitigate that issue.

Alderman Roger Weideman said the calls the police department received to respond to the bar were of great concern to him. On the morning of May 26 at 2:50 a.m., an officer witnessed 20-25 people inside the bar after hours, consuming alcohol. The owners of the bar were issued a citation for being open after hours and received 75 demerit points. Then, approximately a half hour later, officers were at the bar for a fight in progress. There were several people fighting outside the bar and one male was arrested for battery to law enforcement and disorderly conduct.

Vazquez said this particular incident occurred when they were celebrating her birthday. She said she had family and friends over at the bar but it was not open to the public. As soon as she received a citation for being open after hours, Vazquez said they began packing the food and party supplies up to take the party to a different location.

While packing up, some of the party attendees got in an argument outside which precipitated the second law enforcement contact of the night. She said once again, the fight and disorderly conduct happened out on the street.

Soyk asked Wagner if most of the fights involved people who had been inside the bar. Wagner said all of them, and said the people involved were very intoxicated.

Soyk said it is illegal to serve intoxicated patrons inside the bar and is worth 25 demerit points. Vazquez later said when people walk in and are already intoxicated, they do not serve them and said every weekend, they take drunk patrons home. She also cited that the officers who responded to issues at the bar offered and carried out a ride home to Caucasian people who were involved in a fight, but do not offer rides to Hispanic parties who are intoxicated and involved in fights.

Wagner said there have been plenty of times the officers have asked Hispanic people if they would need a ride home and they decline.

The council entered into closed session where they deliberated whether to renew the license or not. After coming out of closed session, the council informed Vazquez and Hernandez that the license would not be renewed by a unanimous vote.

Prior to the non-renewal of the La Botana liquor license, the city of Abbotsford was capped at how many liquor licenses it could hand out. Now, the license can be applied for and if approved, the owners of La Botana would not have the opportunity to apply for a license in the future unless another license were to not be renewed by either the city or a license holder.

Soyk said he needed to consult with the city’s attorney to confirm what period of time would lie between when the owners of La Botana could apply for a liquor license again.