The applicant of this license is Pester Marketing d/b/a Alta Convenience #3501. The representatives present of this license were Denise Dirkse, Maria Esquer, and Lenny Rangel for Pester Marketing. Also present to present the findings of the petitions was Max Scott of Oedipus.
Counselor Schwiesow gave an overview of the hearing procedure, and the licensee's obligation to affirmatively prove the needs of the neighborhood and the desires of the adult inhabitants of the neighborhood. The City's presumptive neighborhood is the city limits plus a one-mile radius. No request has been made to consider different boundaries, so this neighborhood will apply to this hearing.
City Clerk Holly Martinez presented information related to the application of this liquor license including the following: the application is for 3213 Main Street, the licensed premise is proposed by the entirety of the interior of the structure at the said address, the license met all requirements of the application and is eligible to be licensed. The property of proposed license was posted to inform the public of the public hearing on July 2, 2018 and the legal notice was published in the Valley Courier on August 1, 2018.
Dennis Dirkse, the Vice President of Operations for Pester Marketing d/b/a Alta Convenience, presented the following information to Council:
- They are applying for a 3.2% Beer Off Premise license
- Mr. Dirkse has been in the convenient store business for 32 years and has been in the position to sell alcohol for several of those years.
- In his current position as Vice President of Operations, he oversees 109 stores and 715 employees.
- They currently have over 40 licenses and in the last four years have had zero violations.
- They have read the Colorado Beer Code and are familiar with the rules and regulations of such and provided some of those details.
Mr. Dirkse also provided information about the outlet store operations including that it is open from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. The store currently has 5 employees and the location of the beer in the store would be where it can be viewed from the register area. The next available TIPS class in Alamosa will be mandatory for all employees but they also have their own employee training program that employees are trained on the techniques of alcohol and tobacco sales. They are a member of the BARS program as well. He also informed Council that if there is ever an employee who sells to an underage person, they are immediately terminated.
Max Scott of Opedius spoke next and provided information related to the surveys conducted to provide for the evidence of the needs and desires of the neighborhood. Mr. Scott provided the following information:
- The petitions are address to parties and interests (business owners or managers, or residents of the defined neighborhood) and are then screened to make sure they are 21 to relate to the legal age of sale/consumption.
- Just above the signature, there are two statements, one for and one against and just above the signature line it explains why the survey is being conducted.
- There is also a statement that states if you've been unduly influenced to contact the Clerk.
- When the survey is presented, they were told what it was about and then they can sign for or against. They execute signature on petition and can write the reason down for what they want.
- There are two business petitions and two residential petitions. In each petition, there is a City map that shows where the petitions were circulated.
- Opedius provided a report of the survey results which also included.
- 33 Businesses favoring and 7 against.
- 132 Residences favoring and 18 against.
- When people write in reasons, they were usually opposed and provided the following reasons that state:
- 7 No need
- 4 Abhorrence of Alcohol
- 5 Usage Objections
- 1 Miscellaneous Reasons
- 8 No Reason Givens
- Based on the survey results, it is 87% favoring the issuance of the license. If subtract out the desire reasons only, the survey result goes to 96%.
- Both survey categories show a needs and desires and argue that the license should be issued, with the margin of error being 2.6%.
Counselor Schwiesow stated the poster that was posted on the property is entered as Exhibit 1 and the survey and petitions will be entered as Exhibit 2. Counselor Schwiesow opened the public hearing portion of this application at 7:40 p.m.
Councilor Broyles asked the applicant to describe the process of how the survey was conducted. Mr. Scott stated that they have employees that have been trained to know how to conduct the survey. After the neighborhood was defined, then they assigned areas to circulate throughout the city and the circulators went into those areas and would need to have some many completions. Once it is completed, it goes through a 2-step editing process to ensure the integrity of the signatures and prepare the report. The areas circulated were chosen to be a geographical representation throughout the neighborhood.
After these comments, Counselor Schwiesow opened the floor up to anyone in the audience wishing to speak for or against this application.
Darrell Cooper spoke in question to if there is a need to issue another license in this area as there is already Wal-Mart nearby and BeerKeg Depot who both sell packaged liquor.
Mr. Dennis Dirkse spoke stating that there are a lot of out of town people who stop and ask for beer. They have not just the community but also a lot of people who travel through that do show that they want this license there.
Councilor Broyles asked again how many stores Mr. Dirkse managed. Mr. Dirkse confirmed he had 109 stores with 40 of them having a liquor license.
There being no one else wishing to speak, the hearing closed at 7:58 p.m.
Councilor Vigil asked Ms. Martinez to remind him of what a 3.2 beer off-premise license meant. Ms. Martinez confirmed that this meant the beer that is not full strength and off-premise means they can buy the liquor and consume it off-premise; they cannot consume on premise. Ms. Martinez also informed Council that as of January 1, 2019, the law changes to where 3.2 license change to Fermented Malt Beverage which means they can sell full strength beer.
Councilor Broyles reminded Council that there are 41 licenses and for a city of 10,000, that's a lot and he worries about the youth having access to alcohol.
Councilor Hensley stated that she was concerned with the idea of the switch as of January 1, 2019 and was concerned with the competition. However, she was impressed with the research done and they were able to see who was for and who was against the license and that it's been posted and if any of the competition was concerned, they would have been there at the hearing tonight.
Counselor Schwiesow reminded Council that their decision is based on what is presented at the hearing tonight.
Councilor Griego stated his commendation of the management of this organization.
Councilor Daniel stated her appreciation of the presentation and also for the TIPS information training that they do and the policies they have in place already.
Councilor Carson stated that he agreed that the applicants did a great presentation, however, he still has a hard time agreeing to another liquor license in the city.
Councilor Hensley moved, seconded by Councilor Carson to approve the license for Pester Marketing. The motion carried 5 to 2 with Councilor Broyles and Councilor Carson casting the no votes. Counselor Schwiesow will prepare written findings to be presented at the next City Council meeting.