2019-09-05 Liquor Adjudication Board Minutes

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Giffin: It's been moved and seconded that a violation for Count 2 be accepted. All those in favor say, "Aye." The Board Members voted "Aye." Giffin: And the Chair votes "Aye." Motion is carried. There was no opposition by the Board Members. The motion was carried unanimously. Giffin: Is there anything else? I would like to ask that you please identify yourself again. Williams: Sure, my name is Ryan Williams. Giffin: Good. As I've been reminded, would you like to say anything in terms of what happened? Williams: Sure. Kaia, the bartender, was on duty that day, has written a letter and I'll just briefly touch on that. She explained, first of all, I want to acknowledge that, as has been so eloquently expressed, there is absolutely no possible explanation whatsoever. For the life of me, I cannot figure it out because, as you said, I mean, you would have to install a neon sign on the ID to make it clear that they're not of age. You know what I mean? I cannot in any way try to excuse or explain this to make it make sense. I just would like to take the opportunity to put into context what Kaia was maybe experiencing on a personal level at that moment and how she expressed it to me and in the letter. Williams: She was having, unbeknownst to me at the time, otherwise I would have taken steps to make sure she wasn't in this situation, experiencing extreme personal distress with a family member passing away, a very close friend having a major health condition that occurred that was causing her to have a lack of sleep, not eating properly; so she was in a particular physical condition where her brain wasn't functioning right. That's the only way that I can process it, that it can make any sense to me. She is fully aware that the vertical ID is an automatic red flag to take extra time to look at the date to make sure that they are 21. I know for a fact that Kaia takes it very seriously because she is the bartender that actually took it upon herself years ago, to put a 'do not serve anyone, this date, this year' sign next to the cash register. She is very adamant about not serving underage people and doing that. When she was presented with this situation, it astonished me that she was unable to fully calculate the date properly. Like I said, I'm not in any way trying to excuse it or make it seem like it's acceptable, because it's not. Williams: I also want to express that our policy is 100 percent not to serve underage people, to the point that we err on the side of caution because, as Mr. Takase touched on, oftentimes underage people won't even present their ID. Maybe to some degree, that's why it was confusing to her that someone underage would actually show their ID. Oftentimes, they give us a lot of explanations of why they don't have an ID; they forgot their ID, they lost their ID, or they left it in the car. In which case our policy is to just not serve them at that point, unless obviously, if you're 40 or 50 years old. With most people who are young, who knows? You know what I mean? SEPTEMBER 5, 2019-LIQUOR ADJUDICATION BOARD MINUTES 15