The Alcohol Beverage Board on Feb. 14 approved its FY09 budget to send to county administrators, adopted specified rule-and-regulation edits, and received its monthly enforcement briefing.

Nut graf: The board voted to forward the FY09 budget package, approved highlighted changes to the county rules and regulations (including administrative schedule updates), and heard enforcement coordinator Emery Johnson report on compliance checks and DUI/public-safety enforcement from the preceding period.

Budget and rules: Board members reviewed a revised FY09 budget package and voted to approve it for transmission to county officials. The board also approved targeted edits to local rules and regulations (changes noted in the board packet and highlighted in the meeting materials); staff will prepare the formal legislative package for consideration in the county process, with a target timeline to present draft changes to the board by June so the legal/administrative package can be assembled for the county’s August cycle.

Enforcement and compliance checks: Enforcement Coordinator Emery Johnson reported operations for January and cited countywide compliance-check activity. For the month the department recorded multiple DUI arrests and several compliance-check operations. Stephanie Johnson read the results of a compliance-check operation: attempts were made at 23 establishments countywide; 18 establishments passed (did not sell to the underage informant), and five sales to the underage occurred in separate cases (these were the cases the board addressed in the enforcement article). Johnson also described other enforcement patrol and DUI statistics in the monthly report.

Administrative items and next steps: The board approved a small set of trade-name and officer changes, approved two name-change requests (Torpedo Bar & Grill and Donovan’s Pub & Rick’s), and granted a 90-day extension for Chef’s American Bistro to complete permits and build-out. Staff and members discussed compiling proposed rule changes and notifying the beverage-association stakeholders ahead of the June review.

Ending: The board asked staff to draft the legislative package timeline and to prepare a letter to the state Comptroller’s office asking for continued hard-copy access to Article 2B (statute) if feasible; staff will also circulate the FY09 packet and the adopted rules changes to stakeholders.