PARTY BIKE SEEKS POLICY CHANGE

SIOUX CITY — The co-owner of a party bike told the Sioux City Council Monday that his business is going to fail if laws can't be changed or adjusted.

Pedal Party Pub can't operate in the city because its owners can't obtain the $1.5 million minimum liability insurance policy that is needed for a vehicle for hire permit. The bike, which can hold up to 14 customers, is considered a vehicle for hire because the owners want customers to be able to bring their own beer and wine coolers on board to consume.

"We are thousands of dollars in debt already," Pedal Party Pub co-owner Scott Bieler said. "If we don't get some sort of answer, we're just going to have to close our doors and we're just going to have to take this somewhere else."

Siouxland Chamber of Commerce President Chris McGowan advocated on the owners' behalf, telling the council that they have done everything they possibly could have in the last 12 months to get their business off the ground.

"These people have tried to comply with everything that you've thrown at them for a year. Everything they've been asked to do, they've done. Every change you've asked them to make, they've made," McGowan said.

The owners of Pedal Party Pub previously appeared before the council on June 12. After that meeting, Councilwoman Julie Schoenherr told The Journal the council can't override state law.

"We don't have the power to do it," she said. "They traded a bicycle for a vehicle, so that they can include alcohol service. By doing so, their insurance company will not insure the amount that the state requires that they have."

On Monday, McGowan said the private sector's chief complaint is "how difficult the bureaucracy is." He said that $1.5 million in liability insurance "isn't really written for vehicles that move about five miles per hour."

"We need to do better. We need to try harder," he said. "If this applies to this business, then, it needs to apply equally to every single other similarly situated business, and you know it does not. To me, that is targeting."

Mayor Pro Tem Dan Moore requested a list of those companies, since the city "is being charged with targeting" Pedal Party Pub.

Mayor Bob Scott remarked that there are about five party buses that aren't even licensed in the city.

"That's been my complaint — unequal enforcement of our rules," he said.

Bieler questioned why the vehicle for hire permit is being asked for, when it can't be regulated. He noted that party bikes could come into the city from other locations, be unaware of the permit and be ticketed by police because they didn't know.

"This is such a new thing for the country. It's very hard for any of the laws to really put this in any category," he said of party bikes. "When you look at the description of any vehicles that are in this permit, ours doesn't even fit into it at all."

City Attorney Nicole DuBois said the council could consider doing away with the vehicle for hire chapter of Sioux City Code, which would result in the city not regulating taxis or buses any longer.

"But, the insurance requirements are still under state code," she said. "That is an option. The city does not have to regulate vehicle for hire."

McGowan said a waiver would also be an option for a party bike like the one Pedal Party Pub wants to operate.

"It's not a vehicle in the traditional sense. They went to the IDOT to make it a vehicle because that's what was recommended by this body," he said.

DuBois said the city "never gave direction" that Pedal Party Pub become a vehicle for hire. She said it's the only way to legally have alcohol on a bike under Iowa Code.

"You've got at least four or five bus companies, I can find on Facebook, on the internet. When are we going to go to those companies and demand that they get licensed? You know when? Never," Scott said. "If you don't get it done in a year, you're not going to get it done, and that's not how we ought to enforce our rules."