CHAMPAIGN – Champaign plans to issue city citations to bars where minors are frequently found in possession of alcohol.

Until now, the city ticketed the underage customers, but not the bar owners.

A report on Champaign police liquor enforcement since August shows seven campus bars with more than 20 tickets issued to minors for having alcohol. The tickets carry a fine of $310.

Mayor Jerry Schweighart, who is also the city's liquor commissioner, said the city is working to establish a format in which liquor-license holders, after a certain number of minors have been ticketed, will also face city penalties.

Penalties could be up to a 30-day suspension, fines or a combination, Schweighart said. City attorneys are working on the details, and no date to begin the new procedures has yet been determined, he said.

The argument from the bars has been that they have no obligation to do any checking after checking IDs at the door, Schweighart said.

"We are telling them, 'You do have a responsibility,'" he said.

Tracey Herbert, who represents the campus bars on the Champaign Liquor Advisory Commission, was unavailable for comment Tuesday. Eric Meyer, owner of Kam's, 610 E. Daniel St., C, declined to comment on the proposed changes in enforcement.

Schweighart is frustrated with some bar owners. One who currently has a pending citation for an alleged "happy hour" violation has been advertising for a "New Year's Eve special" with all drinks costing 50 cents, he said.

Last week, Schweighart said 11 campus bars violated city liquor rules during a "Fall Barscramble" on Nov. 17 and face heavy sanctions. More than 1,000 people signed up in teams to participate. He said promoting binge drinking has long been a major concern of his.

Schweighart said the event was sponsored by the Irish Illini, which is not registered as a student organization with the University of Illinois.

The Web site for the organization says, "Irish Illini is one of the premier social organizations on campus. We host Chambana's largest barcrawls (our semesterly barscrambles) as well as weekly Friday Happy Hours with great specials and themed events."

Champaign police Sgt. Scott Friedlein, who supervises alcohol enforcement for the city, said that in some cases during the Barscramble, there was "direct evidence that the bar was allowing the playing of a drinking game, such as taking a quiz or a 'Fear Factor' challenge." Police seized scooters, balls and signs that had been posted in the bars, he said.

Judges from the Irish Illini club that organized the event determined a performance level for teams and decided how many drinks or pitchers or shots had to be consumed at a given bar. The judges then awarded teams stickers for that bar, Friedlein said.

"The team would then race over to the next bar and complete the assigned task there before moving on," he said.

The winning team completed all 10 tasks at 10 bars in less than an hour, Friedlein said.

Friedlein said that officers also make bar checks in downtown Champaign or other areas of the city, but problems with minors having alcohol occur most frequently in the campus bars.

"We check other businesses, but we don't get the problems we do with our regular players," Friedlein said.

Issues of liquor enforcement in Champaign have been discussed for months.

In May, the Illinois Liquor Control Commission cited six Champaign campus taverns, based on bar checks done in a joint Champaign police and state police program. That prompted many of the members of the Champaign Liquor Advisory Commission to complain about unfair "double" punishment from both local and state agencies.

In August, Champaign officials warned liquor-license holders that the city would be watching for underage drinking, especially for violations involving those under 18 years old.

A city report that month showed that the liquor commissioner issued more than $10,000 in fines and eight days of suspension against liquor licenses through July.

Schweighart issued a one-week suspension to Joe's Brewery effective when UI students were returning to campus. That sanction resulted from a "happy hour" violation on Jan. 23 and multiple violations involving the presence of minors on Jan. 23-24.

He also declared a mandatory 21-year-old entry age for one year beginning Aug. 23 for C.O. Daniels. That case resulted from a bar check March 14 in which seven people under age 19 were found with alcohol and two entered without showing identification.