WESTBROOK – Westbrook Municipal Officers will decide Monday whether to grant liquor and other licenses to the Skybox Bar and Grill. But an attorney for the Brown Street tavern says it will take more than a favorable vote to end the owners’ legal battle with the city.

Skybox owners Allen and Lynn Moore sued the city last year after the Municipal Officers denied them food service, poolroom and pinball licenses in an attempt to shut down the bar. Part of the suit was an appeal of the officers’ decision, which argued the elected officials were biased.

A judge last week granted that appeal, concluding that Councilor Dotty Aube, one of the four officers who voted against the licenses, was indeed biased against the bar.

But the Moores’ attorney, David Lourie, said that despite the favorable court decision, the litigation is still pending. According to Lourie, the city’s ordinance for granting licenses is unconstitutional and the Moores will fight the city until the ordinance is changed.

Last year, city licenses were reorganized by City Clerk Lynda Adams so that they all fall under one ordinance with the same set of standards for approval. One of those standards is that granting the license would not result in causing a nuisance in the neighborhood. That is the standard city officials used as the basis for their denial.

However, Lourie said, the determination that the bar was a nuisance was made based on the historical problems at the location, not what had happened since the Moores took over the establishment -and the perennial fight against the city – from former owners Tom and Ellen Dore. Furthermore, he said, the term “nuisance” is too broad and not a characterization that should be decided by a local board, but by a court.

“There’s so many things wrong with what they did,” Lourie said.

Municipal Officers denied the Moores a liquor license in August 2009, but the state’s Department of Public Safety’s Liquor Licensing and Compliance Division overturned that decision. The officers tried to keep the bar closed by denying the other licenses, particularly the one for food service, because state law requires food to be served anywhere alcohol is served. The Skybox has been allowed to stay open while the Moores’ lawsuit against the city is pending.

According to Lourie, the Moores attempted to settle with the city in the fall, but those negotiations fell through because the city wanted the case dismissed with prejudice, meaning the Moores would agree never to raise the issues again.

But in that case, Lourie said, even if the licenses were granted in the settlement, they would come up for renewal every year and the Moores would have no tools to fight a subsequent denial.

Looking ahead to Monday’s meeting, officials, including Aube, say they’re not closed to the idea of granting a license, but that their votes will be based on reports from the police department as to whether the bar continues to be a problem in the area.

“I’m very interested in hearing what’s happening,” Aube said.

The court determined Aube was biased based on her comments at previous hearings, when she stated that she didn’t believe a bar belonged in the area and that she would vote the way she believed her constituents would want her to.

However, Aube said, she understands her job on Monday will be to interpret the ordinance and she plans, with an open mind, to do just that.

“If it’s shown that the bar has not been a nuisance to the neighborhood, then I would have to vote in favor of it,” she said.

Councilor John O’Hara said the historic problems with the bar still weigh heavily on his mind and the onus is on the Moores to prove they’ve changed the Skybox into a different type of establishment than it has been in the past.

“So far, I haven’t seen that,” he said.

O’Hara said the difficulties the city has had with the Skybox have made him wary of any new bar trying to open. That could be problematic for Bill Umbel, whose licenses to open a new bar and restaurant off Route 302 are up for approval on Monday as well.

“I think we really have to find a new and varied approach to handing out liquor licenses,” O’Hara said. “When it gets above the local jurisdiction, our complaints fall on deaf ears.”

But the Moores have already passed that first hurdle, and they don’t plan on backing down.

“The day’s going to come where this is going to be behind us,” said Allen Moore. “I’m going to run this business for a long, long time.”

The Skybox Bar and Grill on Brown Street in Westbrook has been a controversial bar for years. (File photo)