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#Party boat that earned Cuomo ire followed all the rules, owners say

#Party boat that earned Cuomo ire followed all the rules, owners say

When the Liberty Belle set sail around 7:30 pm on a warm August evening, the pair of Brooklyn natives who own the party boat thought they had ticked all the necessary boxes.

They filed an approved social distancing plan with the city agency that manages the East River and harbor, a cop inspected the vessel before it departed, the ship was carrying just a fraction of its capacity and the guests all wore masks when they boarded.

Just hours and a viral photo later, Ronny Vargas and Alex Suazo and their boat became the poster boys for behavior that Gov. Andrew Cuomo castigated as “disrespectful” among the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s illegal, it not only violates public health, it violates common decency,” the third-term governor told reporters on Aug. 3. The press release put out by his office that same day said the State Liquor Authority would nix the renewal of the ship’s booze license.

But a review of records by The Post lays out a more complicated story — one of a business attempting to comply with ever-shifting social distancing regulations, which have tripped up a slew of restaurants and bars already struggling to survive.

“We’re not in this for the quick dollar, Alex and myself have worked very hard to put this company together,” Vargas told The Post. “It was never our intent to put people in harm’s way.”

“It was a shock, we felt that we followed all of our protocols that were submitted and we felt that we went beyond and above on our side,” he added.

Ronny Vargas and Alex Suazo photographed on the deck of their boat the Liberty Belle.
Ronny Vargas and Alex Suazo photographed on the deck of their boat the Liberty Belle.STEFAN JEREMIAH

The pair said that the Aug. 1st cruise was the Liberty Belle’s first charter since the coronavirus outbreak in March forced officials to shut down the Big Apple’s bars, restaurants and venues.

The mask-to-board requirement was among the social distancing measures that Vargas and Suazo included in the 12-page safety plan for the Liberty Belle approved by the city agency DockNYC. They also promised to create a guest list to aid contact tracing and to check the temperatures of passengers who boarded.

Little of that mattered when New Yorkers spotted the boat sailing along the East River and complained to authorities, prompting a visit and inspection from the Sheriff’s Office when it returned to Pier 36 around 11:30 pm.

City officials say they found passengers not wearing masks upon the Liberty Belle’s arrival and evidence that the boat’s indoor bar had been used during the cruise.

The owners told The Post that the indoor space was used for grab-and-go food and drink service like what’s commonly found in restaurants — and denied that passengers were allowed to linger inside.

Three of the five violations the Sheriff’s Office slapped on Vargas and Suazo were for serving alcohol with a license that had expired the day before. The pair had applied to renew the liquor license in late June and were still waiting for the paperwork to clear.

NYPD vehicles arrive at the docking area of the Liberty Belle boat.
NYPD vehicles arrive at the docking area of the Liberty Belle boat.AP

Records show they cut the State Liquor Authority a $3,290 check on June 23.

One of the violations issued by the Sheriff’s Office was tied to violations of social distancing protocols.

The State Liquor Authority listed violating Cuomo’s emergency coronavirus order as the rationale for refusing to renew the Liberty Belle’s liquor license, records show.

However, at the time, even officials seemed to be unclear about what standards applied to party boats. The coronavirus safety plan approved by DockNYC allowed the Liberty Belle to operate at half its 600 passenger capacity. That night, it set off with roughly 170 passengers for a private birthday party — roughly 25 percent of its capacity and just over half the legally allowed load.

Then, four days after the citations were issued, on Aug. 5, the State Liquor Authority sent a message that clarified the state’s 50-person cap on gatherings should apply to boats, too.

Lawmakers who have criticized Cuomo’s use of the SLA to crack down on restaurants and bars for alleged social distancing violations decried what they described as the SLA’s circular logic.

“We’re in the middle of a pandemic, if restaurants are aren’t complying, we should be finding ways to help them,” said state Sen. Jessica Ramos (D-Queens), who’s been vocally pushing back against Cuomo’s use of the liquor authority to enforce social distancing rules. “We shouldn’t be driving small businesses into bankruptcy.

The Liberty Belle
The Liberty BelleTower Association via TMX.news

“For some pretty minor stuff, they just go in and take their license – which is problematic because it means they’re essentially shut down,” she added.

However, state officials defended the decision made official Aug. 20 to deny the liquor license renewal.

“On Aug. 1, the New York City Sheriff’s Office discovered over 100 patrons aboard this party vessel ignoring social distancing guidelines, with the operators serving alcohol with an expired liquor license and recklessly placing New Yorkers’ health and safety in danger in the middle of a global pandemic,” said SLA spokesman William Crowley in a statement.

“Given the serious nature of these violations, the [SLA] denied Liberty Belle’s renewal application on Aug. 20 as we can have no confidence this business will protect public health going forward.”

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