COMMENTARY-- Liquour Licences

Many of you have heard that the Round Lake Police Department participated in an Alcohol Countermeasure Enforcement (ACE) operation on December 28, 2006. The ACE operation was organized by the Lake County Chiefs of Police – Underage Drinking Committee, of which Chief Cliff Metaxa is a member. The ACE operation was a county-wide one in eight jurisdictions.

NOTE: I have posted twice before about underage drinking, here and here. I also talked about this and the hearings below in Mayors comments last night at the village board meeting.

Early last year we held a compliance check at 5 establishments and 4 flunked by selling to the minor. I held liquor hearings for all 4 of the violators three days later, one individual did not show up, so I directed the Police Chief to chain his coolers shut until the owner could grace me with his presence and then we could find a mutually agreeable time to have a hearing. It took 7 days if I am not mistaken!

When Chief Metaxa approached me about doing this again in the middle of December I was receptive with two caveat's, the first was that we specifically go after the violators and second to make sure we got some that we missed the first time around.

As an aside I am also the Liquor Commissioner as well, which is quite the interesting position. I can appoint someone to be it for me, but I have elected to keep it as me for now, I think at some point in the future I will appoint some fool hardy soul to be the commissioner for the village.

The ACE program was designed with a media component and we had Jason King of the Daily Herald ride with the Chief and observe but not participate. Here is his article that ran the next day.

Round Lake businesses ticketed in liquor sting
By Jason King Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Friday, December 29, 2006

Six Round Lake businesses were cited Thursday for serving or selling alcohol to minors. Round Lake police conducted a sweep Thursday evening of 13 of the 16 businesses which have liquor licenses as part an alcohol countermeasure operation.

Eight police departments across Lake County participated in the operation, including Round Lake Park, Waukegan and North Chicago. Round Lake Police Chief Cliff Metaxa said the sweep was conducted with the help of the Illinois State Police.

Bars and liquor merchants who violate the law, Metaxa said, could face significant sanctions, particularly places that have been in violation before. “If we have some repeat offenders we might have some liquor licenses revoked,” Metaxa said at the start of the operation.

Businesses cited on Thursday included :

• The Tool Shed, 417 W. Railroad Ave.
• Miz Liquors, 1841 S. Cedar Lake Road.
• BP Amoco, 320 W. Nippersink Road.
• Four Coynes Inn, 302 W. Nippersink Road.
• Janetta’s, 259 N. Cedar Lake Road.
• Copa’s, 304 N. Cedar Lake Road.

The operation consisted of a 19-year-old male, specially trained by the Illinois State Police, who attempted to purchase either package liquor at stores or to get served at a bar. Two police officers were in each establishment at the time the minor attempted to make the purchase to observe the transaction. The minor was instructed to attempt to make the purchase without any sort of falsified identification or scheme. If asked for ID, he presented his true identification. If the minor was not served, all three exited the building without further action.

If he was served, however, a Round Lake detective walked into the store and wrote a citation on the spot. The operation’s first store, The Tool Shed, was the first offender, and no stranger to Round Lake police. The minor walked in, purchased alcohol and walked back to the car an undercover team of officers was driving. “That was too easy,” Metaxa said. “They didn’t pass last time. They might lose their license.”

Some stores carded the minor and sold him alcohol anyway; others didn’t card him at all and sold to him. For the offending businesses, Mayor Bill Gentes will render the ultimate decision as the village’s liquor commissioner.

At least two of the businesses which were cited in the past, passed this round, including one which had its license suspended and its coolers chained shut by the village over a long holiday weekend last year. “They learned their lesson,” Metaxa said.

The overall number of liquor establishments in the operation that sold alcohol to a minor was 32 of 85 or .37 percent in Lake County. In Round Lake, the following liquor establishments sold or served alcohol to the minor: Four Coynes Bar, Janetta’s Place Bar, Copa’s Bar, MIZ Liquors, BP Amoco (prior violator) and The Tool Shed (prior violator).

Yesterday morning since I was off from work I decided to have a Liquor hearing for each one of the violators every 20 minutes. Aside from some issues with tardiness, all six hearings went well. The first four listed above were given severe warnings, and told in no uncertain terms that the next time was the last time.

Oddly I was hearing from two sides, I had some people advocating zero tolerance and to take the licenses away from them. On the other hand I had a few feelers from people in the community to go easy on them as well!

My thinking was that since I had set a precedent early last year with severe warnings of the first time offenders that I could not very well treat this set differently. In researching what other municipalities do I discovered they were all over the place as far as penalties. So no guidance there!

Ultimately I decided that what I intended to do was fair. Which were warnings to the first time offenders and for the second time offenders a 10 day suspension of license. In addition I told the, two strikes group, that any trip in front of me for a violation in the future was automatic revocation of license. I also reserved the right to take the license away at any time from the first group if the second offense was over board.