BETHEL – Liquor sales are coming to Bethel – legal ones – for the first time in four decades, city leaders say, and actions taken late Tuesday night by a divided city council are easing the way.
In two 4-3 votes, the Bethel City Council agreed to drop its protests of liquor license applications being sought by Bethel Native Corp. and Alaska Commercial Co.
The state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board is scheduled to consider the Bethel applications – and the already-filed protests – at a Nov. 19 meeting in Anchorage.
The latest council votes change the course set only a week earlier when the council decided – after a lengthy closed-door session with lawyers – to postpone action until Nov. 24, after the ABC Board met on the Bethel applications for liquor stores.
Mayor Rick Robb, who supports legal sales but voted Nov. 3 to postpone, said he made a mistake and put the matter back on the agenda.
"After great personal contemplation, I realized that my vote I think was a disservice to our community, a disservice to our council and a disservice to the vote of the people," Robb said Tuesday night in a meeting that extended into Wednesday morning.
A majority of city voters said they supported a liquor store in an October advisory measure, a change from a 2010 vote.
The mayor said he was persuaded a week ago by Michael Gatti, an Anchorage lawyer hired by the city to work on the liquor license challenges. But now he thinks "we made the wrong decision for the wrong reasons." He said Gatti seemed focused on "a W," which he later explained referenced "win."
Some council members were upset that a matter debated at length in executive session at a special meeting only a week earlier had emerged anew at the last minute.
"The battle has been fought. We're going to sell alcohol in this community. And that's coming," said council member Leif Albertson, who has been opposed to sales. "What this is about is the way that we get there."
The legal team told the council that it would be irresponsible to drop its protest midway and it should instead see that course of action through, Albertson said. He said it was challenging to discuss legal issues without guidance from lawyers in another executive session.
"Why we need to rush this and do exactly the wrong thing moving forward to save us two weeks on this, and not move at our pace, the city's pace, is inexplicable to me," he said.
The council is working on a major rewrite of its alcohol code in anticipation of sales, but under the current code, Bethel Native Corp.'s proposed location for Bethel Spirits is too close to a school, said council member Zach Fansler. He was referring to the school within Bethel Youth Facility, a juvenile detention center across the highway from Kipusvik, Bethel Native Corp.'s largely empty retail center where it wants to open the liquor store.
The council discussed in the earlier executive session maintaining the protest, then once the alcohol code is changed to remove some of the restrictions, consider new liquor applications, he said.
The city needs to follow its own rules, Albertson said.
But others on the council, which shifted in the October election to a majority in support of sales, said they agreed with the mayor that the city needed to end its fight.
"The people of Bethel have officially spoken," said new council member Alisha Welch. "We need to respect their views and give the applicants a fair chance by withdrawing the protests in order to allow the ABC Board to do its job."
While the vote count was the same for the two licenses, the arguments were different and the mayor and Fansler switched sides on the two applications.
The AC Quickstop isn't too close to a school under either city or state law. But it's a popular place for Bethel high school students to grab snacks and is in a residential area, the Bethel neighborhood that many people just call "Housing," for the Bethel Heights public housing development.
"It's just the wrong location for an alcohol store in this town," said council member Chuck Herman.
Nikki Hoffman, another of the new council members, said the council should not prejudge a neighborhood.
Considering "a specific socio-economic class of citizens and whether they should or should not have an alcohol store within walking vicinity is subjective," Hoffman said.
Fansler said he was concerned that if the city dropped one protest and not the other, it could be subject to a lawsuit. City attorney Patty Burley advised each proposed store be considered individually. Robb said he was concerned the AC Quickstop was in a residential area, not a commercial district.
Those voting to rescind the protest on the Bethel Native Corp. application and allow the Bethel Spirits proposal to move forward, were: Robb, Hoffman, Welch and council member Byron Maczynski. Those against it were Albertson, Fansler and Herman.
On the AC Quickstop proposal, Fansler supported dropping the protest, along with Hoffman, Welch and Maczynski. Robb joined Albertson and Herman on the losing side.
The ABC Board still must decide whether to issue the liquor licenses. The board earlier rejected the city's protest of the Bethel Spirits application, but it is reconsidering that on Nov. 19, a matter now moot.
The council didn't take action on Tuesday on whether to drop its separate administrative appeal related to Bethel Spirits. Robb said he believed dropping the protest "by default would stop the appeal." The council may take that up at its meeting.
Maczynski has said he was told Bethel Native Corp. will need time to ready the retail space for a liquor store. Ana Hoffman, president and chief executive of Bethel Native Corp., has not responded to requests for an interview about the project.