The Greensboro City Council got an update on the city’s response to the recent shootings at the Blind Tiger on Spring Garden Road at the Tuesday, April 19 meeting.

The update also revealed how the controversial Safety Review Board is operating, which appears to be different from what is stated in the resolution establishing the Safety Review Board.

Assistant City Manager Trey Davis reported to the City Council that, after the shootings, the Blind Tiger had been closed down for a number of code violations.

According to a memo from Davis to city councilmembers, after two shooting incidents outside the Blind Tiger the city sent inspectors from the Neighborhood Development Department, Engineering and Inspections and the Fire Marshall’s office to the Blind Tiger. The city inspectors discovered a number of violations and closed the business down.

The resolution establishing the Safety Review Board states that city inspectors could be sent to the premises if a business does not comply with the recommendations of the Safety Review Board.  In this case the Safety Review Board had not met to make recommendations when the inspectors were sent to the Blind Tiger.

Councilmember and mayoral candidate Justin Outling cast the only vote against establishing the Safety Review Board, which only applies to violent incidents at or near private businesses with licenses for on premises alcohol consumption.

After Davis gave his report on temporarily closing the Blind Tiger, Outling said, “In that same vein, with the information provided.  To me it was noteworthy that it was shut down for code compliance violations that apparently have nothing to do with it serving alcohol, and so when the ALE does its investigation and what not, if you could continue to keep us updated, because I imagine for other organizations and businesses, if you have code violations, then you have code violations, and the city can shut you down. So, it’s important to understand why it was shut down. Moreover, if there is not a link between the code violations and any conduct that is linked to any crime, I obviously want to find where the link is to the actual crime and interrupt that as opposed to just going into a business and finding a bunch of code violations, which we should be doing anyway.”