Stanford\u2019s one-year exemption from Santa Clara County\u2019s social host ordinance to crack down on underage drinking is up for re-evaluation by county officials later this month.<\/p>\n
The ordinance, which went into effect in January 2009 and applies to unincorporated areas of the county such as the University, holds accountable parents and those over 21 who host parties where underage drinking occurs. The penalties are civil, not criminal, and one warning can be issued before violators are fined.<\/p>\n
Because of Stanford\u2019s pre-existing \u201cextensive\u201d program to curtail underage drinking, the University was granted a one-year exemption from the ordinance to continue efforts free from the county\u2019s new regulation. The results of the past year will be presented to the county\u2019s board of supervisors for evaluation at its board meeting on Jan. 26.<\/p>\n
Stanford officials suggested that the language changes they will propose would make the exemption more permanent; the past year’s exemption, they said, was successful.
\n\u201c[The current set-up] has worked very well this past year,\u201d said Jean McCown, Stanford\u2019s director of community relations. \u201cObviously we have an extensive set of alcohol policies on campus, and the original intent [of the ordinance] was already being upheld by Stanford.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liz Kniss, president of the county board of supervisors, whose district includes Stanford, said as much. \u201cAs far as I can say, there haven\u2019t been any incidents that show a problem with the current exemption Stanford has from the ordinance,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve worked well with them in the past, and I have faith we\u2019ll find an agreement for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCown said that this time, however, Stanford isn\u2019t hoping for an extension of the exemption, but would rather have the language of the ordinance changed to accommodate Stanford\u2019s unique situation in a more permanent way — a change she said was very \u201ctechnical.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur suggestion [a year ago] was for a change in the ordinance language,\u201d she said. \u201c[The county] found it simpler to just exempt us, but it never quite felt like the best way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both McCown and Substance Abuse Prevention Program Manager Ralph Castro said the University is planning to meet with county staff to sketch out possible language changes for the next year. But supervisors say they are not sure what the outcome will be.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s too early to say,\u201d Kniss said. \u201cStanford is a particular aspect of dealing with this, and it needs to be dealt with as a particular segment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kniss echoed McCown in emphasizing that no matter the outcome of the meeting, the goals of the county and the University are the same: to reduce underage drinking.<\/p>\n
Stanford\u2019s exemption was scheduled to be considered at the Dec. 15 supervisors’ meeting, but was postponed because Stanford spokespeople weren\u2019t yet ready to present their case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Stanford\u2019s one-year exemption from Santa Clara County\u2019s social host ordinance to crack down on underage drinking is up for re-evaluation by county officials later this month. The ordinance, which went into effect in January 2009 and applies to unincorporated areas of the county such as the University, holds accountable parents and those over 21 who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}