THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 27, 1995 TAG: 9501270627
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
A trio of high-profile Democrats is taking on the state's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, trying to strip the agency of its law-enforcement powers because of questions about effectiveness and fairness.
House Bill 1771 would eliminate the ABC's 140-officer police force and transfer the responsibility for enforcing liquor laws to the state police.
The bill is co-sponsored by House Speaker Thomas W. Moss Jr. of Norfolk, House Majority Leader C. Richard Cranwell of Roanoke County and Del. William P. Robinson Jr. of Norfolk.
Moss and Robinson said they are targeting the ABC in part because of complaints from restaurant and nightclub owners about ``selective enforcement'' of state liquor regulations. Moss said one of those complaints came from a client he represented before the ABC board.
``There are some questions about the objectivity and the integrity of the agency and its ability to separate its enforcement and administrative duties,'' said Robinson, who is chief sponsor of the bill but said he submitted it for Moss.
``The integrity of the state police, however, has never been questioned.''
For Moss, the bill represents the latest offering on a subject that often was the bane of his legislative career in the 1980s. Dogged by questions about his law firm's representation of clients before the state liquor agency, Moss once stopped submitting ABC legislation to avoid any perceived conflict.
In 1988, the House Ethics Committee cleared him of any conflict of interest.
Recent financial disclosure forms show Moss represented seven clients in ABC-related cases last year, far fewer than in past years. Robinson and Cranwell, also lawyers, represented two and zero, respectively.
Moss, on Wednesday, acknowledged the flap that his ties to liquor legislation have caused in the past, but said the ABC board never gave him any favors because of his political clout.
Still, Moss said his drop in clients with ties to the liquor industry could be blamed, in part, on politics - clients are shifting to Republican lawyers because there is a Republican in the Executive Mansion.
``They figure they'll get a better shake'' with a GOP-appointed board, Moss said.
Indeed, Moss' drop in representation before the ABC board was met with a corresponding increase in representation by some Republicans. For instance, Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, represented five clients before the ABC board last year, four more than the year before.
Moss and Robinson declined to cite specific examples of selective enforcement, saying restaurant owners fear retribution for speaking out. But Robinson said he heard of one agent who followed an intoxicated man from bar to bar, stopping at a restaurant that refused to serve the man but allowed him to play pool. The agent then cited the restaurant for allowing the man to loiter, Robinson said.
``This is what I call selective enforcement, because they are trying to get this licensee,'' Robinson said.
Roughly 30 bills relating to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control have been introduced this year, including one that would privatize liquor stores in Virginia and virtually dissolve the liquor control arm of state government.
Another bill would take away the ABC Board's power to hold its own hearings, requiring that alleged liquor-law violations be heard by special officers appointed by the state Supreme Court.
Robinson also is pushing a bill to lower the amount of food restaurants have to sell to get a liquor license.
``I'm not trying to create bars, I'm just trying to be more consistent with what the industry bears,'' Robinson said.
The ABC department's budget this year includes $8.1 million for enforcement of liquor laws.
The department operates a 140-agent police force, with arrest powers. Its duties include investigating liquor-law violations ranging from selling to minors to manufacturing illegal whiskey, and providing security and police protection at the state's ABC stores.
Merging that force with the state police was one recommendation of Gov. George F. Allen's Blue Ribbon Strike Force on government reform. Moss, similarly, called the ABC force a duplication of law-enforcement effort.
So far, no plan is in place for the state police to expand if given the responsibility of investigating and enforcing liquor laws. Robinson said state police have asked for a delay in implementation of the law, if it passes, in order to consider shuffling staff or hiring more officers. MEMO: Staff writer David M. Poole contributed to this story.
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