Cape council revamps liquor review board

The Cape Girardeau City Council has revamped the liquor-license review board, giving itself the power to appoint all three members of the board and eliminating the need for the council to handle appeals.

Under the measure given first-round approval last week, the city manager would no longer appoint any review board members and city employees no longer would serve on the board.

The review board considers appeals when the city manager denies liquor licenses. The board’s decision until now could be appealed to the council.

But under the new policy, such an appeal would go directly to circuit court, city attorney Eric Cunningham said.

The council is expected to give final approval to the changes next week.

The changes come little more than eight years after council members established a liquor-license review board and a process allowing an appeal to the council.

Council members in 2011 concluded it would streamline and shorten the process by allowing the city manager to grant and deny liquor-license applications.

Before then, the council handled every liquor-license request, amounting to 20 to 25 new applications a year and about 120 renewals, according to Southeast Missourian archives.

The latest changes come only months after the council had to deal with an appeal of a controversial liquor-license renewal application.

In July, the liquor board, whose members included two employees of the city, upheld city manager Scott Meyer’s decision to deny the application for a south-side banquet hall, which had been the scene of several shootings.

River Valley Banquet Center owner Ricky Werner had appealed Meyer’s decision in late June to deny the liquor-license renewal application.

Attorney Ron Garms, representing Werner, argued at the July hearing his client was being unfairly singled out for disturbances for which the banquet hall at 631 S. Sprigg St. was not to blame.

Garms had questioned how the review board could properly review a decision made by the city manager when two of its members worked for the city government.

Cunningham said this week the issue had surfaced before the most recent controversy, but the banquet center application brought the issue to the forefront.

City regulations already prevent city employees from serving as voting members on other city boards, Cunningham said.

The organizational change would bring the liquor board in line with the other boards and eliminate the risk of due-process complaints in regard to appeals, Cunningham said.

He said it “made a lot of sense” not to have city employees deciding whether to overturn a city manager’s decision.

Werner successfully appealed to the council this summer to grant the liquor license.

Werner received his license after the council in August failed to secure the necessary four votes to uphold the city manager’s decision to deny it.

Council members initially voted 3-2 to grant a provisional license for six months rather than the regular one-year license with Mayor Bob Fox and council members Daniel Presson and Shelly Moore supporting the motion. Council members Ryan Essex and Stacy Kinder dissented.

The council then sought to uphold the denial of the liquor license, which garnered “yes” votes from only Essex and Kinder.

Councilman Robbie Guard abstained on both votes.

Afterward, the Cape Girardeau banker said he abstained because Werner is a customer of his bank.

Only six council members attended the meeting as the Ward 3 seat was vacant at the time.

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