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Liquor Fee Increase Memo <br />October 28, 2002 <br /> <br />Page 2 <br /> <br />enough staff to provide inspections and monitoring of the required criteria set for the <br />liquor license (i.e. percentage of food, size of establishment). <br /> <br />State law requires that license fees cover the costs of issuing, inspecting, and other <br />directly related costs of enforcement. The following comments have been provided by the <br />Chief of Police and Assistant Police Chief regarding liquor enforcement. <br /> <br />"The liquor industry in general creates a very heavy call load for us in the evening and <br />early morning hours. Calls of possible intoxicated drivers, fights in lots, person trying to <br />get in with bad ID's - all of these eat up our manpower allotments and time. <br /> <br />If we make an arrest that takes up time, not only for the initial report but follow-up, <br />reports and then of course prosecution costs, court time (usually overtime) and <br />maintaining files and reporting to the state. Add to that increased patrols due to nature of <br />calls and past reports and it really starts to build in a hurry. Finally, add compliance <br />checks and over-time costs to insure that each business is within the legal limits provided <br />by statute and ordinance." <br /> <br />It seems that there is an increased demand on law enforcement resulting from the liquor <br />licenses in the City. Elk River currently has 9 on-sale liquor establishments, with a <br />potential to increase this to 18. <br /> <br />The State law requires that that liquor related fee increases require a hearing by the <br />council with a notice of the hearing to be sent to all affected licensees. This notice has <br />been sent to all liquor license holders. <br /> <br />Staff has made recommendations regarding the liquor and tobacco fee increases. These <br />are only recommendations and can be decreased or increased as the council deems <br />appropriate. The recommendations are as follows: <br /> <br />LICENSE TYPE <br /> <br />Tobacco <br /> <br />Proposed Fee <br /> <br />$100 <br /> <br />Proposed Fee <br /> <br />$160 <br /> <br />$5,000 <br /> <br />On-Sale Liquor $4,000 <br />On-Sale Wine $ 650 $700 <br />3.2 Beer On-Sale $ 225 No Change <br />3.2 Beer Off-Sale $ 75 No Change <br />Liquor Investigation Fee $250/$150 $400/$200 <br /> <br />Staff has already heard from a couple of the licensees regarding the increase. I expect that <br />liquor licensees will be in attendance at the November 18 Council meeting to express <br />their opposition to this increase. <br /> <br />S:\CLERK\LICENSES\LIQUOR\Letters \Increase memo,doc <br /> <br /> <br />