Surdyk's punishment isn't tough enough, Mpls. leaders say

Surdyk's liquor store isn't getting a tough enough punishment for bucking the state's Sunday booze sales law that isn't yet in effect, Minneapolis council members said.

A city council committee on Tuesday rejected a plan that would've imposed a $6,000 fine on the store and kept it closed for the first nine Sundays of legal sales, plus a Saturday. Jim Surdyk, who owns the northeast Minneapolis shop, agreed to that deal with city licensing officials.

Council Member Lisa Goodman said that's too lenient.

"We went down and asked him not to open. The state called and asked him not to be open. And he basically said 'too bad, I'm not going to do it,'" Goodman said. "I watched it on TV. He got a lot of publicity out of it."

Surdyk opened his shop March 12, just after lawmakers repealed Minnesota's Sunday liquor store sales ban.

But the new state law doesn't take effect until July.

Surdyk's attorney Dennis Johnson says opening on Sunday was a "bonehead move," and the fine wipes out the store's profits from that day.

"He has no excuse. He simply wants to move on. He's a one-store operation. There's a lot of competition out there these days with multi-store operations, so this will be a substantial effect on him and the family," Johnson said. "But we understand it has to be done, and we're trying to get it behind us."

Council members gave city staff a month to negotiate a tougher penalty.