TO: Mike Wildgen, City Manager
CC: Dave Corliss, Assistant City Manager/Director of Legal Services
FROM: Frank S. Reeb, Administrative Services Director/City Clerk
DATE: February 13, 2004
RE: Information for Downtown Drinking Establishments Study Session
___________________________________________________________________________________
This memo contains information on three issues of interest to the Commission during the February 18th study session on downtown drinking establishments: 1) annual non-alcohol sales percentages for all businesses subject to the food sales requirement; 2) City Clerk’s Office license process issues; and 3) possible food sales audit training by Alcohol Beverage Control and Kansas Department of Revenue staff.
Current license year Non-alcohol sales
The following table contains the most recent annual non-alcohol sales percentages for those fourteen drinking establishments that are subject to the 55% food sales requirement. These percentages were taken from state liquor drink tax returns filed with the current year drinking establishment license application. It was created for the sole purpose of providing a collective review of all the sales percentages to assist the Commission during its study session discussions.
|
Business |
Annual Non-alcohol Sales Percentage |
|
Wheatfields |
99.5 |
|
Miltons Coffee, Inc. |
99 (5 months only) |
|
Chipotle |
98.7 |
|
India Palace |
96.6 |
|
PaPa Keno’s |
95.1 |
|
LaParilla |
94.2 |
|
Zen Zero |
90.4 |
|
Wa Restaurant |
88.6 |
|
Jefferson’s |
83.8 |
|
Thai House |
77 (estimate—new licensee) |
|
Buffalo Wild Wings |
69.3 |
|
Capt. Rib Man’s Meat Market |
65 (estimate—new licensee) |
|
Henry’s on Henry Street |
56 |
|
BrewHawk |
56 (3 months only) |
|
|
|
While it is possible to draw several inferences from these sales percentages, one inference is that the food sales ordinance appears to be meeting its original goal of prohibiting the downtown area from having a substantial amount of new businesses devoted solely to liquor sales. The table also points out that, with the exception of one or two establishments a year, the vast majority of businesses appear to have no difficulty meeting the food sales ordinance.
However, the table raises several questions as well. Are these the types of businesses the Commission wants to see in downtown Lawrence? Are there any types of businesses not on the list of fourteen that should be and therefore is the food sales ordinance too limiting in its impact?
License Process Issues
The three license processing issues that seemed to create the most interest are: 1) the conditioning of a city license on receipt of a state license; 2) the practice of issuing a temporary license while the annual license is in process; and 3) our license renewal process. As to the first item, on occasion we do submit a drinking establishment license application for Commission approval conditioned on the City Clerk’s receipt of the state license. In most cases, this is done for a renewal application when the applicant has submitted all other requirements and is waiting for receipt of the state license. In all cases we do not issue the actual city license until we receive a copy of the state license. We view this as a customer service effort and business friendly practice and the City Clerk’s Office has been done it for approximately the last 10 years.
Another customer service practice is to issue a temporary drinking establishment license, which allows the establishment to operate until the City Commission acts the annual license on. We generally only issue temporary licenses for renewal applications and only after we receive the license fee and other required information. For example, we issue a temporary license in situations when an application comes in on a Thursday afternoon or Friday after the agenda deadline and the annual license will expire before the next City Commission meeting. This practice is also a long-standing practice in the City Clerk’s Office.
Lastly, while we did stop sending written renewal notices for a period of time in 2003 due to workload (we continued to make reminder calls when workload allowed), we have since started sending those renewal notices again. With the assistance of Information Systems we’ve automated the process and we now send a one-page renewal notice the beginning of the month prior to the month the license expires. For example, in early March the notices will be mailed to those drinking establishments and retail liquor establishments with April expiration dates. Depending on the workload, we also have followed the written renewal notice with a phone call reminder as the due date draws closer.
Food Sales Audit Training
At the direction of the Commission, I looked into whether ABC staff and Kansas Department of Revenue staff can assist with food sales audit training should the Commission decide that would be an appropriate enforcement tool. I talked with staff from both ABC and the Department of Revenue Audit Bureau and no one could remember the training that was given to the City of Pittsburg Police Department in the 1990’s. Staff from both divisions indicated their willingness to “be a resource” but because of their own workload and because this was somewhat of an unusual request and a specific training program would need to be developed neither division could commit to a specific date or timeframe.