After significant wrangling, mayoral vote breaks tie and only change to Lincoln liquor and video gaming regulations raises fees

 

[August 21, 2019] 

On Monday evening Lincoln Aldermen debated for quite some time regarding requested changes to the current liquor ordinance. When the council ended up deadlocked following three motions and votes, the final decision on the topic came from Mayor Seth Goodman with his tie-breaking vote.

The greatest concern of the aldermen came from the proposed elimination of all reporting requirements pertaining to video gambling in liquor establishments.

An additional change that met with very little opposition was to impose an additional $1,000 annual fee for those liquor establishments that do offer gaming.

The first motion on the floor came from Steve Parrott. He moved that the new ordinance be revised to eliminate paragraph seven on page one that stated, “Whereas the city of Lincoln believes that businesses should be able to operate their businesses unencumbered by any reporting requirements, and thereby desires to remove 3-7-5(K) in its entirety thereby moving up subsection (L) on letter, removing the reporting requirements of the previous 3-7-5(L), and the stipulation in 3-7-22 dealing with revocation of a liquor license:”

Parrott’s motion also included altering the second paragraph on page two. In that paragraph it stated that those applying for license or license renewal for alcohol that also had video gaming would pay an additional $500 effective January 1, 2020 and an additional $1,000 starting January 1, 2021. Parrott recommended that the “stair-step” be removed and that the additional fee of $1,000 be made effective January 1, 2020.

Finally, Parrot asked that section (K) not be removed from the ordinance as proposed. He did offer a compromise for the reporting requirements within that section. The current ordinance stated that all liquor establishments with video gaming were required to annually report their gross sales and the percentage of the sales that came from liquor and food specifically.

The ordinance required that at least 30 percent of the gross receipts for the year come from those two components. Parrott said that he would keep the 30 percent requirement but would change the requirement to a more generic statement of “other.” Doing so would open the business to include in its 30 percent, all food, alcohol, and other retail items such as cigarettes or convenience items.

There were several comments on the motion after it was seconded by Kathryn Schmidt, beginning with Kevin Bateman.

Bateman said that if reporting of any fashion were going to remain in the ordinance, he wanted it in writing that the reports go to the liquor commission, and that said commission was solely responsible for checking and verifying reports. He said he also wanted to see a specific date for the deadline of turning those reports in to the commission.

City Administrator Beth Kavelman said that the process has always been for the reports to be given to the City Clerk and the clerk in turn gave them to the commission. City Clerk Peggy Bateman however said it didn’t seem to go that way, and her office was more heavily involved than what Kavelman had indicated. Peggy Bateman said she wanted the proper procedure in writing.

In regard to the deadline for turning in reports, Kavelman said reports are supposed to be submitted by February 15th of each year, but sometimes leeway had to be given based on the filing of tax returns by the licensee.

Kevin Bateman said it was all well and fine that there was supposed to be a policy and a deadline, but if it isn’t in writing in the ordinance it is not necessarily how things end up.

After further discussion Kevin Bateman said he would make an amended motion on top of Parrott’s. However, that led to discussion on the rules of order and it was determined that such an additional amendment could not be moved on until the first motion had been addressed.

The motion to amend the proposed ordinance was voted upon and failed with a vote of 5-3. In that vote Schmidt, Parrott and Sam Downs voted ‘yes.’ Tracy Welch, Bateman, Kathy Horn, Jeff Hoinacki and Ron Keller voted ‘no.’

At that point, the council was back to the original ordinance being submitted for approval. In that ordinance the additional fee would be $500 in 2020, $1,000 in 2021, and all reporting requirements would be dropped.

The second motion then came from Bateman. He moved to eliminate the stair-step and make the additional fee for gaming $1,000 per year beginning January 1, 2020.

The motion for that amendment passed with a vote of 5-3. Those voting yes were Welch, Downs, Keller, Horn and Bateman. Those voting no were Parrott, Hoinacki and Schmidt.

At this point in time, the revised amendment only altered the gaming fee and left everything else in the original draft intact. City Attorney John Hoblit said there now needed to be one final vote, to accept the ordinance on the whole with the approved amendment. That vote was taken and ended in a tie vote of 4-4.

Those who voted yes were Welch, Downs, Keller and Bateman. Those voting no were Parrott, Horn, Hoinacki and Schmidt. At this point the council was in deadlock and it was up to Goodman to resolve the issue. He stated that he wanted the ordinance to be passed, and would vote “yes.”

This final decision was the end result of several weeks of discussion about changing the liquor license as requested by the liquor commission. Among the objections from Parrott was that the city had recently passed an ordinance at the recommendation of the commission, and now the commission was coming back asking for more changes.

During a discussion last week, it was noted that since the first new ordinance was passed in February of 2019, there has been a significant change in aldermen and a change in the liquor commission.

The city had approved the appointment of Rick Hoefle to serve on the commission along with long-time commissioner Dan Wheat. Since February, Wheat has resigned from the commission and there is once again only one citizen commissioner. In additional, there are four new aldermen who were not on the council in February – Downs, Schmidt, Bateman and Horn.

The commission, consisting of Hoefle, Kavelman and Goodman has outlined the new ordinance requirements for Hoblit and asked that he draft the new ordinance to present to the council.

Parrott also objected to the method in which the ordinance had been handled. He said he didn’t like that the commission had requested the ordinance without asking first for permission to re-write it.

However, Hoblit and Kavelman both said that doing so was appropriate. Welch had also weighed in on this saying that any alderman has the right to request the city attorney to draft an ordinance for the council to review. Welch said that he personally would first clear the request with the mayor, but that Goodman was on the commission, so it all appeared to be appropriate.

Parrott spoke out on several occasions during the weeks of discussion, expressing that he wanted to keep control on the gaming as well as the liquor, and that he didn’t want the city to be known as a free-for-all location for gaming.

However, on the other side, Welch, as well as Goodman and others, felt that the city was placing undue restraints on one area of the retail industry in town by forcing them to report their sales to the city. They repeated on several occasions that no other type of retail business is monitored so closely.

With laws changing in the state of Illinois, it also came up that all establishments with the appropriate liquor license can apply to have up to six gaming machines (up one from the current allowance) with the exception of truck stops. Truck stops will be permitted to have up to 10 machines.

Bateman wanted to see a special gaming fee set for truck stops that would reflect the fact they are permitted four more machines than any other gaming establishment.

In addition to the three sticking points in the amended ordinance, the now approved revisions will also include raising the Class B Liquor License (restaurants, tavern, bar, saloon, lounge, bowling alley, pub) annual license fee from $1,125 to $1,250.

The changes made Monday night will take effect immediately.

[Nila Smith]