THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, December 18, 1995 TAG: 9512180063
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
An alcohol control commissioner resigned after bottling company executives complained that he asked them to join him in a business venture.
Frederick T. Dykes, one of three members of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, submitted his letter of resignation Nov. 27, The Washington Post reported Sunday.
The resignation came just hours after an official from Gov. George F.Allen's Cabinet called to question him about the matter.
Dykes, an Allen appointee, said he approached two companies with his proposition to produce and distribute alcoholic fruit drinks. Both companies turned him down. He said he found nothing wrong with scouting business opportunities in the industry he regulates because he intended to leave his state post before seeking any ABC license from the agency.
Although his actions ``may be dumb,'' he said, ``I didn't do anything illegal, unethical or improper.'' But he said he decided to resign earlier than planned because of the complaint.
Dykes would not identify the companies he approached, but he said one is a bottler of nonalcoholic drinks in Virginia and the other is an out-of-state distiller that supplies a Virginia company.
A law that took effect July 1 allows the stores to sell alcoholic fruit juice or iced tea as long as the beverages contain no more than 7.5 percent alcohol.
Public Safety Secretary Jerry W. Kilgore, who oversees the ABC, referred the issue to the attorney general's office and was told after a brief investigation that there were no criminal violations because the two companies do not have contracts with the agency.
``It's certainly not behavior I would encourage,'' Kilgore said of Dykes' actions. ``But in this situation, with my long working situation with Ted Dykes, I give him the benefit of the doubt.''
The ABC regulates the manufacture, sale and advertising of alcohol, issues and revokes alcohol licenses to stores and restaurants, and sells hard liquor in 244 retail stores across the state.
Some Democratic lawmakers said Dykes' conduct was inappropriate.
Sen. Joseph V. Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax, chairman of the panel that writes ethics laws, agreed that there apparently was no criminal violation. ``But having said that, it doesn't seem to me to enhance the image of a board to have one of its members try to get into a business that is regulated,'' he said.
``That raises all kinds of image and perception problems. It was ill-advised to have fooled around with it and well-advised to have quit,'' Gartlan said.
Dykes, 56, led a voter revolt in Northern Virginia in 1989 against skyrocketing real estate taxes that briefly threatened to unseat members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
Dykes later lost a race for the state Senate as a Republican in 1991 but was named by Allen in February 1994 to the ABC board. by CNB