Two beer permits were issued at the meeting of the Chattanooga Beer Board on Thursday, but the majority of the meeting was used for talking about how to handle issues that are relatively new.
Cherokee Distributing Company, Inc. has been in business since 1958. The business received a distributor beer license for the Chattanooga location at 5045 Summit Spring Way in Ooltewah. The wholesale beer distributor sells many of the leading beer brands as well as non-alcoholic beverages. The business services 48 counties in the eastern half of Tennessee. The Chattanooga location distributes to eight surrounding counties.
And the Hampton Inn and Suites Hamilton Place was approved for a Consumer/Carry-Out beer permit for the hotel at 2014 Hamilton Place Blvd. just off I-75.
After hearing the applications, the board spent the remainder of the meeting in discussion. In the last several months, the Chattanooga Beer Board has run into some problems it has not encountered before. Neither Chairman of the Beer Board Dan Mayfield or Board Member Ron Smith, the two longest serving members, could remember dealing with an applicant with a DUI conviction until a couple of months ago.
The board has had a couple of recent incidents since then when a background check found that the applicant had received a DUI within 10 years of applying for a beer permit. In his research, Beer Inspector Jason Wood found that the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission does not consider a DUI as a prohibitive factor in issuing a liquor license.
Assistant City Attorney Kathryn McDonald said that the beer code specifies a permit cannot be given if there has been a crime related to possession, sale or transportation of beer within 10 years or a crime related to moral turpitude, but it does not use DUI by name.
Until recently, the beer board did background checks for applicants through the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation but that has changed. Board Chairman Mayfield said that now the background of applicants is being checked nationwide, which reveals more DUI convictions than before. That is one reason that the beer board has started seeing the violations show up on applications. The beer board must now decide on how to deal with applicants with a history of DUIs.
The beer board’s interpretation that was decided on Thursday will set its policy going forward. That is a single DUI conviction within 10 years will not prevent the applicant from getting a permit to sell beer in Chattanooga.
The second topic of discussion at the meeting was about the requirements and rules for brown bagging. That is when a business does not sell liquor or wine but sells set-ups and allows customers to bring their own bottles. It has always been in the beer ordinance but people have been misinformed about it, said Sgt. Wood, "so we started telling business owners that if they to do it, the business has to be permitted." He has also been looking for guidance for how the practice is handled in other cities. He has discovered that there is not a lot of information to find and that there is not any real guidance.
The practice is really about liquor, not beer, however the permit holder is still responsible for their customers, said Calandra Smith, the certified trainer in alcohol sales for the Hamilton County Coalition and the city beer board. Brown bagging is found most often in bars and restaurants that only sell beer.
Ms. Smith said that if a customer arrives intoxicated, bringing a brown bag or not, the permit holder must decide whether to allow them in, because there is not supposed to be anyone on the property that is intoxicated. And to protect themselves, it is up to the owner to notify 911 or the police non-emergency number if they decline to leave. And the business still has to monitor the condition of its customers the same as it does for alcohol sales. If the bottle is not empty when they leave, she said that the person who brings it in is responsible to cork or seal the bottle when they leave, because the permit holder is not allowed to touch or store the liquor.
Penalties are the same for a consumer or brown bag permit, said Ms. Smith. The business takes on the liability. And that is one of the reasons that businesses allow brown bagging, said Beer Board member Smith. The high cost of liability insurance for businesses that do serve liquor is a factor that is considered.