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Board of Appeals denies two rehearing requests in tobacco permit suspensions
Summary
The San Francisco Board of Appeals on June 22 denied rehearing requests from two retailers who had appealed Department of Public Health suspensions for sales of tobacco to minors. Commissioners found no new evidence or manifest injustice and upheld the prior penalties.
The San Francisco Board of Appeals on June 22 denied two rehearing requests from retailers who had challenged suspensions of their tobacco sales permits after allegations of sales to minors.
Antoinette Lam, manager of Chuck's Store at 249 Cortland Avenue, told the board she had appealed a 25‑day suspension by the Department of Public Health and that the board had reduced that penalty to 20 days. Lam said she had not received the written summary of the board’s decision required by the San Francisco Charter and argued the department’s testimony was "false and or misleading," including that DPH had not trained retailers or timely informed them of the 2011 California driver license changes. "To uphold the appeal and yet penalize the store is a further injustice," Lam said.
Johnson Ojo, representing the Department of Public Health, told the board the appellant had not presented new information warranting a rehearing and said DPH had suspended the permit for 25 days in keeping with state authority; "we suspended it to 25 days," he said, and the board subsequently reduced it to 20 days. Ojo also said the Tobacco Free Project distributes annual multilingual compliance materials and that training is not a mandatory DPH function under state law.
Ray Yasser, owner of White Palace Liquor at 1524 Silver Avenue, made a separate rehearing request, saying he had new evidence and again arguing the department’s findings were not factual. Ojo repeated the department’s position and asked the board to deny rehearing.
Board members debated whether the appellants had shown "manifest injustice" or presented new facts not available at prior hearings. Commissioners said they were troubled by procedural questions but concluded the record did not support reopening the matters. Vice President Michael Garcia moved to deny both rehearing requests; the motions passed unanimously by the four commissioners present (Frank Fung, Tanya Peterson and Commissioner Huang voted aye; President Kendall Goh was absent).
