Liquor Advisory Board

CITY OF CARBONDALE, ILLINOIS LIQUOR ADVISORY BOARD Minutes of the Regular Meeting Thursday, March 5, 2020 The City of Carbondale’s Liquor Advisory Board held a meeting on Thursday, March 5, 2020, in Room 103 of Carbondale City Hall, 200 South Illinois Avenue. Chair Donald Monty called the meeting to order at 5:33 p.m. with the following-named members of the Board present/absent: 1. Roll Call Present: Steve Payne, Tasis Karayiannis, David Cisco, and Don Monty Absent: John Mills, Mark Robinson, and Colton Newlin A quorum was available to take action on the agenda items. City Staff present for the meeting included City Clerk Jennifer Sorrell, City Attorney Jamie Snyder, and Building & Neighborhood Services Supervisor John Lenzini. 2. Approval of Minutes from the L.A.B. Meeting of December 5, 2019 T Karayiannis moved, D Cisco seconded, to approve the minutes of the L.A.B. meeting of December 5, 2019. VOTE: All voted aye; motion declared carried. 3. Review and Acceptance of Second Quarter Reports for Liquor License Year 2019-2020 Questions and Comments from the Board: Police Reports: It was noted that there were three sales to minors. Illinois Liquor Commission conducted a sting, these citations were issued to employees of the bar. Violations from this quarter and last quarter will go before the Hearing Officer and then to the Liquor Commission. The City Attorney’s office is working on those violations. Development Services Reports: The only activity was occupancy checks; BNS issued an advisory letter to Levels regarding occupancy counts. D Cisco moved, T Karayiannis seconded, to accept the second quarter reports for liquor license year 2019- 2020 and forward them to the Local Liquor Control Commission. VOTE: All voted aye; motion declared carried. 4. Review of Citizen Complaint and Police Incident Report Regarding Underage Persons in Levels The City Attorney provided a summary of the complaints. No direct evidence was available. He indicated it seemed appropriate to bring in the licensee to advise them to take a look at the issue and noted that there appears to be a reputation of allowing underage individuals.  Liquor Advisory Board Meeting Minutes 03-05-2020 The City Clerk stated that this was in the LAB’s purview; they can determine whether to send this to the Commission. There was discussion as to whether or not it would be appropriate to bring minors in to provide testimony and whether to send the information to the Commission as part of the quarterly reviews. Attorney Sonny Sanders stated the only firsthand information is from a Grandmother, remarked on the matter of hand stamps and a credibility issue. Mr. Sanders pulled one month of confiscated IDs from a bag; there were approximately 35 – 45 IDs. He noted that the newer false IDs purchased online are high quality. Levels is now surrendering them to the DMV. Further, he stated that if underage persons could just “walk in”, then the license holder wouldn’t be in possession of all of these false IDs. The City Attorney stated a fourteen year old entering versus a twenty-one year old appears quite differently; Attorney Sanders countered that age appearances vary, and showed his own picture from high school as a means of demonstrating. The Board indicated it is more concerning is when they don’t involve false identification, but rather walk in without any ID. Alfred “Sonny” Sanders stated that they had received an emailed report from an Elkville individual whose identification was stolen and that a sixteen year old will be using it for illegal bar entry. The Board asked if the cameras were not functioning, and that they had heard about this problem before for a different location. Tasis suggested the City should look further at it. David remarked it was shocking that a fourteen year old could enter several establishments and reminded the Board of recent discussion regarding a lower entry age. He was not sure what to do with this. It was not the City’s policy to chase down false IDs. Don remarked that in recent years, there has been a shift in focus on neighborhood patrols versus bar checks. Perhaps it is worth increasing the frequency of bar checks to catch some of these violations. The options before the Board were to do nothing, pass it to the Liquor Control Commission, and ask the City Attorney’s office to follow up on these two cases to see if sufficient information to pursue. The City Attorney will work with Mr. Sanders to develop a plan of action to prosecute individuals with false ids. T Karayiannis moved, D Monty seconded, to have the City Attorney further investigate these two incidents. 5. Citizens’ Comments Clerk: Next meeting is scheduled for April 2. Don Monty inquired about the liquor license renewals and the due dates. Liquor license renewal packets were mailed out the last week of February with a due date of Friday, May 1, 2020. The anticipated time for application review is mid-May. Mr. Monty also inquired about the liquor code rewrite regarding penalties for late submission of liquor license renewal applications. Unfortunately, further discussion has not taken place due to preparation of the City budget. Further discussion and decisions regarding this topic will impact the 2021-2022 liquor license year. 2  Liquor Advisory Board Meeting Minutes 03-05-2020 6. Adjournment Meeting adjourned at 6:20 p.m. ________________________________ _____________________________ Jennifer R. Sorrell, City Clerk Date Approved 3