The bill approved Tuesday would subject bars to a points system in which violations are given varying weights. An offense such as underage drinking would be three points. More serious violations such as homicides and weapons violations would score a 3.5.

A bar’s license could be revoked if it garners 6.5 points or more, or if a bar gets three violations of certain offenses within a 90-day period. The license also could be revoked if the bar can’t show that at least 50 percent of its gross receipts are from food.

Dave Beckering, Mary West, Bart Haberstroh, Rod Herrmann, John Hanneke, Bridget Ohmes and Vince Ratchford supported the bill. Councilman Jerry Reese was absent.

Beckering said he didn’t expect “100 percent agreement” on the bill but that the new food sales requirement wouldn’t come into place until Jan 1. and that bars would have the whole length of each year to meet it.

In voting against the bill, Besselman said he thought it was unfair to place a new food sales requirement on established businesses.

“I believe if we do away with the dollar amount right now it’s going to hurt and change the lives of businesses,” he said.

Nigel said she would try to appeal the bill.

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Leah Thorsen Leah Thorsen is a regional reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Email her at lthorsen@post-dispatch.com and follow her on Twitter: @leahthorsen Follow Leah Thorsen Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today