2019-06-06 Liquor Commission Minutes

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Ibarra: It sounds like you have a good operation and everything seems to be great, but my only concern is legally, and Commissioner Greenwell brought it up, if we're going to bypass; firstly, is there a requirement for a public hearing under the Rules or Statutes, or does the Commission have the discretion to bypass a public hearing? I can see, if we're going to do it for her, the next people that come in following the same process, it sounds like you're going to get it if you have a public hearing, but I'm just looking at the process. Masuda: The process is, as a modification you (the Commission) can modify any condition at any time. Should you increase the condition or decrease the condition at this point; the question actually is, is the modification a matter of concern to the majority of the public? That's what you voted on, that's why you have a roll call vote, and you voted that it was not a matter of widespread concern where the general public would want to weigh in on. Ibarra: So you said that Commission can do that? Masuda: The Commission can make the adjustment. Ibarra: And for future cases, the same can be followed? Takase: Yes. Typically the Commission grants licenses without any conditions, but in this case when the license was first approved, conditions were placed on the Licensee because there was concerns from Commissioners about what was going to happen. It was not in response to any specific complaints or anything. That is why she's coming in today to ask for those conditions be removed. I think that since they were Commission -generated conditions, not in response to any complaints, the Commission is free to amend or remove those conditions without going to a public hearing. Ibarra: The Commission could have granted it without conditions at the time the initial permit (license) was approved? Takase: Yes. Salave`a: Gerald, to your point, would you say it's fair to say that the conditions of approval were placed as sort of a, not temporary, but a trial basis so that the applicant has a time period in which their performance can be observed so that the Commission could, at some future time, re -consider? Takase: Yes. When the Commission imposed the conditions they also asked for us to report back after one year which we did and it's pretty much the same report that Brandon just gave you. There was no request to remove the conditions at that point, but this is like an extension of that. We've passed it and from the Department's side, they have been a good Licensee. They've done everything they said they were going to do, our investigators report no problems with them, so this is the next step. They went through the trial period, they seemed to have satisfied all the requirements, so do they still have to have the JUNE 6, 2019 - LIQUOR COMMISSION MINUTES 21