By Jim Bloch
A year and a half after the death of 26-year-old Josh Conant on the sidewalk in front of the Roche Bar in Port Huron following a struggle with bouncers, the city has adopted and ordinance that mandates safety training for security personnel at bars and other entertainment venues.
Conant died Nov. 4, 2023.
The city council voted unanimously at its regular meeting April 14 to adopt the ordinance following its second reading.
“This ordinance, if approved tonight, will take effect Saturday (April 19),” said City Manager James Freed, as heard on the recording of the meeting posted on YouTube. “No liquor license will get approved until they can prove to us that they are conforming to this law. We are continuing to work with state officials to get this into bill text form and get it to the House legislative agency to get it to the House and Senate before a committee meeting. I’m working with our reps and senators on both sides of the aisle … To get this to become state law is very difficult. It will take the community as a whole to lobby Lansing to make sure we can get this done.”
Mayor Anita Ashford addressed Conant’s mother, Sandy Schultz.
“Sandy, you did it,” said Ashford. “It took a mother’s love to bring this where it’s supposed to be. I’m just glad we were here to back that up. But you were the foundation. You were the true grit that made it happen. So, thank you very much.”
Entertainment establishments include “nightclubs, bars, concerts, theatres, sports facilities,” among others, according to the ordinance.
Security personnel are employees of entertainment venues whose duties may include “crowd control, prevention or detection, or both, of abuse, fighting, instigating, intrusion, unauthorized entry, larceny, vandalism, fire or trespass on private property.”
All security personnel must be fingerprinted and those prints “submitted to approved Private Live Scan Vendors available on the Michigan State Police website so that a criminal background check be conducted…” They must be trained “in de-escalation techniques, crowd control, and proper and safe restraint techniques including the dangers of positional asphyxia.” They must complete “a first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation training course, with retraining occurring every two years.”
The council voted 7-0 to adopt the ordinance.
“You can clap,” said the mayor.
The audience obeyed.
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
