2020-07-02 Liquor Commission Minutes

Home

stop to think, you might also expect that our neighbors would not have appreciated any person-to-person contact during that time. The Liquor Control Department has evidence that residents in opposition to the issuance of the liquor license had already completed and signed their form before the lockdown was in place. The concern regarding our door-to-door canvassing is unfounded. The applicant's planned community meeting scheduled for late next March, cancelled because of COVID-19, would have taken place after a majority of the property owners and registered voters had completed their forms. I doubt that people would have attended. The applicant's planned meeting with John Kaye and Susan Forbes would have taken place after our protest forms were submitted. If we had met with them at all, it would have just been a courtesy visit, and our issues with the planned establishment were categorical. There were no arguments that they could have about the bridge being adequate for the traffic, etcetera, etcetera. It wouldn't have mattered. Forbes: Mr. Shropshire's concerns, including his perception of unfair advantage for the protest organizing, are not supported by the facts, given the timing of the completion of the protest forms, it's concluded that the lockdown for COVID-19 did not impact the outcome. The rules related to COVID-19 are irrelevant in the context of the timing of the completion and signatures of the protest forms. Based on the facts substantiated on the protest forms submitted to the Department of Liquor Control, I request that you deny Mr. Shropshire's petition for rehearing. Thank you. Onizuka: Thank you, Ms. Forbes. Any other public statement? There was no other public statement. Onizuka: (10:15 A.M.) Hearing none, we move on. At this time, the Commission will take an item out of order on the agenda. We will take New Business, Item 22. 22. Petition for Rehearing submitted by Steve Shropshire for Application No. 18-21 Pacific Aqua Beverages LLC, dba Hilo Brewing Company, for Commission review, discussion, and decision-making. The Petition was filed pursuant to Liquor Rule 1-9 by Steve Shropshire, the landowner of the subject property and received by the Department of Liquor Control on June 9, 2020. At this time, we will hear from Corporation Counsel on a jurisdictional matter concerning this Petition for Rehearing. Kaye: Could I interrupt for one second? I got cut off when Susan Forbes was speaking, and want to say that I also would like to have the opportunity to speak against the petition for rehearing. Onizuka: Mr. Kaye, is this something in addition to your submitted testimony? Kaye: What I submitted on the testimony that everybody's gotten a copy of, I guess in terms of anything new or anything different that I would have liked to have pointed out, there was one thing that I did not mention, because it got by me, is the fact that the notice of the denial, JULY 2, 2020 - LIQUOR COMMISSION MINUTES 7