Safety Committee now serves as county beer board
The Warren County Commission voted unanimously at its last meeting to authorize the Safety Committee to act as the county’s official beer board, rather than the full county commission.
Previously, the Safety Committee only heard requests for licenses or reports of problems, and then made recommendations to the full commission, which made the final decision. Now the Safety Committee will have full authority to issue or revoke beer licenses in the county.
“I think this is a move that needed to be done,” County Executive Kenneth Rogers said. “I applaud the commissioners for seeing it and being able to act on it the way they did.”
The move to make a change to the original system came after a meeting of the Safety Committee in July where the idea was introduced and discussed as a way to expedite both the issuance and revocation of beer licenses. Committee members were concerned that the change in frequency of commission meetings from once a month to every other month could present problems with handling licensing issues in a timely fashion, allowing businesses recommended for revocation to sell alcohol for up to 60 days, in some cases, before their beer licenses could be formally revoked.
“By allowing the Safety Committee to be the beer board, the Safety Committee can meet quicker and more often,” said District Attorney General Dale Potter on learning of the decision. “You don’t need all 24 members to make a decision on whether somebody should get a beer permit or not. Allowing the Safety Committee to make that decision, I think, is more efficient and effective for the County Commission.”
The July meeting was attended by Potter and County Attorney Larry Stanley, both of whom provided input as to how the proposal could be implemented. Stanley told the committee at the time they had some latitude according to the law.
“The county law is you can either have the full county court,” Stanley said at the meeting, “or you can have a committee established by the full county court to be a beer board.”
Stanley said the committee could be made up of private citizens, as is the case in McMinnville, or be part of the commission. Potter recommended the committee be kept within the commission, and Stanley went even further, suggesting the Safety Committee itself be established as the beer board, since members were already familiar with the issues and procedures of beer licensing.