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HomeMy WebLinkAboutResolution No. 2018-14Sponsored by: Council Members Tim Navarre and Jim Glendening C ITY OF KENAI RESOLUTION NO. 20 18-14 A RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF KENAI, ALASKA, REQUESTING THE ALASKA ALCOHOL AND MARIJUANA CONTROL OFFICE/ ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL BOARD EXPEDITIOUSLY WORK WITH THE KENAI ELKS LODGE #2425 TO REINSTATE OR RENEW ITS LIQUOR LICENSE AND PROVIDE IMPROVED PUBLIC OUTREACH AND COMMUNICATION SERVICES . WHEREAS , the Kenai Elks Lodge #2425 (Kenai Elks) has been a registered non-profit in the City of Kenai since 1970; and, WHEREAS, over the last almost 50 years the Kenai Elks have provided significant monetary contributions and services to the community , including regular on-going events like academic, vocational, and technical scholarships, basketball hoop shoot contests, community wide Easter dinners and egg hunts, Safe-Haven Halloween events, student of the month stipends, Americanism Essay Contests, Veterans Day dinners, Flag Day Ceremonies at the Oilers Park, Memorial Day Services , wounded veterans support through several fishing events, support for the Pioneers of Alaska Kenai Igloo , as well as volunteer and financial support for many other community and school events; and, WHEREAS, the loss of the Kenai Elks in the City will jeopardize the viability of many of the above mentioned programs, cause job loss , and the loss of an important social venue; and , WHEREAS, the Kenai Elks utilized their best efforts as a volunteer organization to apply for reinstatement/renewal of its liquor license with the State of Alaska , at the January 13, 2018 Alcoholic Beverage Control Board Meeting and candidly respond to all request for information; and, WHEREAS , the director of the Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office recommended denial of the reinstatement or renewal despite attempts from the Kenai Elks to work with the Director to address irregularities by both parties, relied on by the Kenai Elk 's to its detriment; and , WHEREAS, the denial of the reinstatement or renewal occurred prior to the Kenai Pen insula Borough 's and City of Kenai 's issuance of a non-objection to the reinstatement or renewal on February 14 and 21 , 2018 respectively, depriving the City and Borough of a meaningful opportunity to respond ; and, WHEREAS , the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board only has four regular meetings a year where licenses are approved ; and, WHEREAS, adding to the difficulty in working with the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board's meeting schedule, especially for non-profit volunteer organizations, is slow response time to phone and email messages and difficulty in communicating to staff reported by licensees ; and , Resolution No. 2018-14 Page 2 of 2 WHEREAS, the City Council, encourages AMCO to work efficiently with licensees and municipalities, and improve outreach and communication in recognition of the limited resources many non-profit volunteer entities have, the positive impact they have on local communities and the value imparted to all agencies and licensees from cooperation and transparency. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF KENAI, ALASKA: Section 1. That the City Council requests the Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office/ Alcohol Beverage Control Board work expeditiously and cooperatively with the Kenai Elks to reinstate, renew, reissue, or issue a new liquor license. Section 2. That copies of this resolution be forwarded to Governor Bill Walker, Senator Peter Micciche, Representative Mike Chenault, Representative Paul Seaton, Representative Gary Knopp, Commissioner of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development Mike Navarre, ABC Chair Bob Klein, ABC Member Rex Leath, ABC Member Robert Evans, ABC Member Thomas Manning and the AMCO Director Erika McConnell. Section 3. That this resolution takes effect immediately upon adoption. ADOPTED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF KENAI, ALASKA, this 7 day of March, 2018. AN GABRIEL SR., MAYOR T M NAVARRE Vl MAYOR /ROBERT,MOLLOY. COUNCIL MEMBER =NESE PEI 'lltfl~ «1/t/z, a Pa~~ Ct'ti «1/t/z, a fu.tt<l"e" 210 F idalgo Ave , Kenai, Alaska 99611-7794 Telephone : (907) 283-7535 I Fax: (907) 283-3014 www.kenai.c ity MEMORANDUM TO: FROM: DATE: SUBJECT: Mayor Brian Gabriel and Kenai City Council Council Members Tim Navarre and Jim Glendening March 1, 2018 Resolution No. 2018-14 -AMCO Outreach and Communication Services In lieu of a Memorandum, please see the attached letter from Mary A. Jackson, dated January 26, 2018. Your consideration is appreciated. Mary A. Jackson PO Box 2935 Soldotna, AK 99669 January 26, 2018 Honorable Governor Bill Walker, State of Alaska Pete Kelly, Senate President Bryce Edgmon, Speaker of the House RE: Alcohol Beverage Control Board Jan 23, 2018 Meeting Gentlemen; I flew to Juneau from Kenai to attend the referenced Board meeting on behalf of Kenai Elks Lodge #2425, where I currently serve as Chair of the Board of Directors and President of the Non -Profit Corporation. However, this letter is my opinion and should not be taken as representative of the Kenai Elks Lodge . I was at Centennial Hall at 8:30am (our issue was slated for lpm) and the Board meeting was noticed to start at 9am . Shortly before 9am, the four members of the Board who were in Juneau went behind closed doors to a different room w ith three staff. The CHAR representative, Pete Hanson, asked to attend and was told no . They spent about 15-20 minutes meeting behind closed doors and then called the regular meeting to order. Obviously, I don't know what took place there, but submit to you that any items they acted on are, in my opinion, suspect, including my issue (Tab 17). Under Tab 5, they cleared the room for an Executive Session . There is no document posted online on this, it simply says "Executive Session -Confidential". I searched the Administrative Code did not find any reference to an Executive Session . When I sat on a City Council (note please this was 25 years ago!) we were required to say if the Executive Session was concerning personnel or litigation -both of which were deemed confidential and appropriate to an Executive Session . The Board authorized the Director to vote in the case of a tie . This is apparently authorized under 3 AAC 304.025 . Conduct of board meetings . What I understand is that a member, who has a conflict of interest in an issue, is required to recuse themselves from participating. While that makes some sense, it does NOT make sense to authorize a paid employee, who is responsible for preparing and presenting recommendations to the Board, to break a tie vote . Page Two (ABC Meeting of Jan 23, 2018) Should not that paid employee also recuse themselves since they have a conflict of interest in protecting their own recommendations? If so , the only time they could break a tie would be if they had NOT made a recommendation. This Board Action seems very inappropriate. The Board spent almost 20 minutes addressing an issue raised by the Enforcement Officer about signage for a "BEER PONG" event . Apparently, the sign/poster had a disclaimer at the bottom that said it was non-alcoholic beer. Staff suggest ions was it should clearly state "non-alcoholic" at the top of the poster, not at the bottom in smaller print. REALLY!!! Is the State of Alaska paying people to get that far down into the weeds? The Board clarified no, we don't need to get that meticulous with things, which I appreciated. But no one asked how much time was involved in checking into this kind of thing. It seems to me that the staff shortfalls on the licensing side could be partially addressed by removing a position from the enforcement side. They seem to have time on their hands. Under Public ·comments on Items Not on the Agenda, I tried to address a Temporary Liquor License the Elks Lodge had received in the mail the day before. I was shut down, because we were on Tab 17. My point was that the Temporary License was NOT shown on the agenda. It was very confusing. The Board recessed at 12:30 for lunch, saying they would be back in one hour. At l :SOpm they gaveled back in and my issue was up. The Director was given the opportunity to speak first and she explained that the Temporary License was in error. She spoke to her memorandum and her recommendation to not approve reinstatement and renewal. I was then invited to make a presentation. My points were that: 1-the State had received and deposited our check for the license on December 20, 2016 . We had not received a reimbursement so believed we had a license and; 2 -a reported dated May 15, 2017 was posted online and that report, titled "Currently Active Licenses" listed #368 for the Kenai Elks Lodge. We did not have the "white paper" which is the license, which we thought was an error by the State. In October, it came to our attention that the Corporation had been involuntarily dissolved because we didn't file a bi-annual report. We immediately did that and the Corporation was reinstated on November 13, 2017. We assumed that the Corporate paperwork was holding up the "white paper". The State asserted that they had sent letters (one to the wrong address) and an email to the Lodge and the Lodge did not respond. Page Three (ABC Meeting of Jan 23, 2018) I did not dispute the State 's asse rtion, how would I know if they did or did not send a letter, although I pointed out then and again here, nothing wa s sent Certified except the initial filing (with a check for $1,400.00) by the Ken ai Lodge . The Lodge Sec ret ary said he did not rece ive notice from the State and I can 't dispute that. Again , none of the State 's letters were certified, including the one saying we no longer had a license. This lack of protocol is unwarranted in my opinion . The cost of a certified letter is minimal and clearly resolves whether it was or was not received or for that matter, whether it was even sent. The State asserted that a phone call wa s made to the Lodge on August 2, during which the Inspector allegedly said the license had expired and the Lodge needed to stop selling liquor immediately. The State did note that for some "unknown" reason, the Inspector and the Lodge Secretary did not speak . I disputed the date of the phone call , the substance of the phone call and clarified the "unknown" reason , wh ich was simply that the Inspector did not return the Lodge Secretary's call! The Lodge Secretary left a message to do so, after the recording which basically said "due to budgets cuts we are unable to answer your call and will return your call within 3-7 days". I have no knowledge why a phone call would be placed by the State in August, some five months after a license had supposedly expired . The Board supported, on a four to one vote, the recommendations to deny the reinstatement and renewal, relying as far as I could determine, on the communications sent from the State to the Lodge , none of which wer e certified . When I asked how I get my money back, I was advised by a staff member that the board had determined that reimbursements required a request for reimbursement by the submitter. I didn't know that; if I don't get the letter saying it wasn 't renewed, how would I know to request a reimbursement? Apparently, we will now receive a request for reimbursement form from AMCO which then needs to be completed and returned. This protocol is very strange . As more background on this issue, I offer the following . On December 12, 2017, an Inspector came to the Lodge , before we were open, and said you don 't have a license. We IMMEDIATELY moved the liquor behind a locked storage area . Two members of the Lodge called AMCO and, again , got the me ssage the "due to budget cuts we are unable to answer your call and will return your call within 3-7 days". My husband and I were vacationing in Mexico and on December 13 started a serie s of emails with the state on what had occurred and what we needed to do to rectify it. Those emails are included in TAB 17 . Page Four (ABC Meeting of Jan 23, 2018) On December 20, at 4:22pm, the AMCO Director sent an email with paperwork for an application for renewal, which need to be submitted and reviewed by Jan. 5, 2018 for inclusion before the Board meeting. We completed the application (including 3 fingerprints), scanned and sent it back at 3pm the next day, as well as sending the hard copy (express mail) with a check for $500 late filing fee and fees to conduct background checks on three individuals. (It is puzzling why three peop le are now required when in previous applications only one was required to be fingerprinted.) On January 9, we had an email advising it was incomplete -we had left out the license number "368" on the sheet authorizing back ground checks for the three required fingerprinted officers. We had included the Treasurer on a page. I hand wrote in "368" and hand deleted the Treasurer, sca nned and emailed the revisions and sent a hard copy via express mail on January 10 . The reinstatement and renewal made it on th e agenda, as TAB 17. The documents for that Agenda were not available online until the following day (Jan. 19). The Director's recommendation was to NOT authorize the reinstatement and renewal. Here I am today, frustrated with several things. First and foremost is the deposit of our check for a license which was not renewed, but no reimbursement was made by the State. It's been almost 40 years since I looked at Corbin on Contracts, but I'm pretty sure if you fail to return the money, you have a contract to provide services. It certainly is a reasonable person's assumption. Second, I relied on information provided online, via the AMCO site, to the public sector dated May 15, 2017 and entitled Currently Active Licenses. That was the ONLY thing that came up online when I typed in "kenai elks " and hit the sea rch button. Again, it is a reasonable person's ass umption that a report issued by the State was correct. Third, the only thing that I could see missing was the 'white paper". But on January 22, 2018 we did receive a "white paper" date stamped Janu ary 19, which I was told at the meeting on January 23 was in error. Clearly, if the State can issue one in "error" it could equally have NOT issued one, in error. Fourth, and l ast, the Kenai Elks Lodge is now restricted from a primary revenue source for at least four months. In the meantime, our fi xe d costs (electric, natural gas, mortgage, etc.) of around $5,000 monthly remain, at a hit of at least $20,000. We are severely limited in our ability to pay expenses as well as make contributions to our community, which were some $750,000 in volunteer time, mileage and direct cas h for the past seven years. Page Five (ABC Meeting of Jan 23, 2018) President Kelly and Speaker Edgmon, I understand that the sunset of the Board is before the Legislature as well as bills on Title 4. I respectfully encourage a cautious review. I also respectfully encourage obtaining a legal opinion on whether the Board is required to comply with the Open Meetings Act and whether the Board's apparent direction to staff to NOT issue reimbursements for denied renewals unless requested by the applicant is authorized and/or in accord with standard protocols for entering into contracts, licenses or agreements. Governor Walker, I respectfully encourage a discussion with your Attorney General as to the authority for executive sessions and whether the Board is required to comply with the Open Meetings Act. I respectfully suggest reviewing the Enforcement Division of AMCO to determine if a position there can be relocated to Licensing. I respectfully suggest removing all online reports by AMCO since they are apparently unreliable. Also, I am confused as to the reporting relationship with the Director and the Board -who hires and who fires? Is the full staff of the Alcohol Division under the direction of the Board? For my part, as a ROW (retired old woman) I intend to pursue this, in the public's interest. I have held numerous political and civic positions during my 45-year tenure in Alaska and have considerable familiarity with Boards and Commissions. I have zero expectation of relief by the State for my Lodge but believe I have a personal obligation to attend to this so other entities are not faced with the same problems. In closing, thank you for your time and effort in reading this missive and I remain, Sincerely, Mary Jackson -ROW Encl: TAB 17 from ABC Board Meeting Jan. 23, 2018 (6) pages Letter sent via USPO this date and emails this date (Governor's sent to darwin.peterson@alaska.gov) Copies sent via email to: Senator Pete Micciche Representative Mike Chenault Representative Gary Knopp Commissioner Mike Navarre Pete Hanson, President CHAR