Maybe the city won't have enough money in the future to provide crossing guards to help Walnut Creek kids get to school, or crisis counselors to help some kids once they get there. Or to provide two unique summer camps aimed at nurturing kids' inner artists and kids who have disabilities. 

Popping up into this ongoing City Council budget discussion about which programs to save and which to cut was the idea to institute some kind of fee on those downtown bars that stay open past midnight.

(You can also read our story on council members other proposed solutions for saving the above-mentioned programs, as well as several others.) 

These dozen or so alcohol-serving establishments demand quite a bit of police monitoring on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, according to Chief Joel Bryden and some council members. Officers from both the swing and grave yard shifts are dedicated to making sure the streets stay safe before, during and after bars close.  

At these bars, some patrons will fuel up--too much--on liquid courage. Some get disruptive in the bars, or outside of them. Fights might break out, and young women have been known to pass out and not be able to get home. Guys--and girls--have also been known to find not-so-discreet corners in front of businesses to relieve themselves. A few might jump in their cars and drive away with more than the legal limit of alcohol in their system.

Just last Friday night, reports say that large group of young males got into a fight off Geary Road.  A short time later, some of those males might have turned up in downtown, near Crogan's Bar and Grill and McDonald's. Police arrested two for being drunk in public. 

Chief Joel Bryden estimates that the police department probably spends about $150,000 a year on dealing with the impact of the late-night bar scene. 

Mayor Pro Tem Cindy Silva expressed concerns about the city's priorities: "It's one thing to talk about how we might not have enough money for crisis counselors and crossing guards, but we have enough money to support police and public services to benefit these [bars], which don't provide us with a direct benefit."

Councilman Bob Simmons said he'd like to see City Staff come up with a recommendation for imposing some kind of fee: "These late night bars are having an impact on the city disproportionate to what they provide. We're giving a major subsidy to five or six places that I can't justify."

In these ongoing budget talks--aimed to finalize a 2010-12 budget by June 15--the idea for imposing a fee on these bars is new. Council members acknowledged that it couldn't be imposed to help the city deal with its immediate budget issues. Actually, any fee probably would not be worked out until the fall when the city presents the findings of its alcohol task force. City Planner Victoria Walker told the council that imposing fees on bars is one matter that is addressed in the task force study. 

Currently, there are six bars that stay open to 2 a.m. and a half dozen or so that stay open past midnight. Council members were thinking that those bars would share the costs to police to patrol the downtown during bar closing time. 

Both Mayor Sue Rainey and Council Member Gary Skrel expressed reservations about spreading this $150,000 to those six to 12 bars, with Skrel concerned that this potentially large fee, even on some "bad apples," would discourage a vibrant downtown night life. 

Silva had a different take on this "vibrant" night life: "Many people who live in Walnut Creek do not consider what happens after 11 p.m. in Walnut Creek to be part of a vibrant downtown," she said. "It's just a bar scene."