06-10-13 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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LIQUOR COMPLIANCE HEARING May 29, 2013 DRAFT CITY OF LINO LAKES 1 MINUTES 2 3 4 DATE : May 29, 2013 5 TIME STARTED : 6:15 p.m. 6 TIME ENDED : 6:30 p.m. 7 MEMBERS PRESENT : Council M em ber s Rafferty, O’Donnell, 8 Roeser, Stoesz and Mayor Reinert 9 MEMBERS ABSENT : None 10 11 Staff members present: City Administrator Jeff Karlson; City Attorney Joseph Langel; Public 12 Safety Director John Swenson; Police Captain Kent Strege; and City Clerk, Julie Bartell 13 14 H EARING ON LIQUOR CODE VIOLATION 15 16 Captain Strege reported that o n May 7, 2012 at 2:31 a .m . an officer s topped at Miller’s On Main 17 to check on people still in the bar. Upon approaching the bar a male fled and was subsequently 18 caught and identified. The male was jailed for underage consumption and fleeing an officer. 19 Upon further investigation it was found that an employee, Lauren Wagner , served alcohol to the 20 male sus pect who was under the age of twenty -one . Ms. Wagner was cited for serving alcohol 21 to a minor and pled guilty to the charge on April 10, 2013. 22 23 This is the first license violation at Miller’s on Main in a 12 -month period so i n accordance with 24 the Best Practices Grid, a $500 civil penalty is recommended . 25 26 Tavern on Main (formerly Miller’s on Main) license holder Chad Wagner addressed t he council . 27 He explained that while Ms. Wagner is being ac cused of serving an underage person, she tells 28 him that she did not do it. The underage person who was seen in the parking lot was actually 29 meeting someone there and he was not in the bar. The surveillance system at the business at that 30 time recycled af ter a certain period so the recording was lost by the time Mr. Wagner heard 31 about the accusation . Since a ticket was issued, Mr. Wagner and the accused employee have 32 been through a legal process. The prosecuting attorney admitted to him that the case is weak 33 and also the court reduced the charge with no admission of guilt. Furthermore there were some 34 discrepancies in the police report. 35 36 Police Chief Swenson noted that he would take exception to some of the points made by Mr. 37 Wagner. The City’s prosecut ing attorney is not involved in license matters such as t he matter 38 before the council now. 39 40 Mayor Reinert noted that the council isn’t trying a legal case. The council’s job is to react to 41 the outcome of the court. It is not a reflection on the good management that normally occurs at 42 Mr. Wagner’s facility. The council has an established policy and staff’s recommendation 43 follows that. He also clarified that the best practices grid is based on offenses within a 12 month 44 period and that has already pas sed since the actual violation. 45 46