Board of Aldermen 09-22-2020 Page 62
teeth to be able to go in and say, “hey we’ve warned you, we’ve told you, we’ve asked you, now you have
to start following the rules”. So we are certainly about the education for the business owners as well as the
customers, but without the enforcement, we really have no legs to stand on.
President Wilshire
Alderman Clemons?
Alderman Clemons
Thank you. So this | my question and I’m glad the Chief is here. This has been one of my major concerns
with this Legislation and the way it is currently written. So if we have businesses and we will say
businesses, that are not in compliance or we keep getting complaints and everything, let's suppose we
pass this Ordinance and you go down and you talk to the business owner, give them a warning and then it
continues to happen even after we pass this Ordinance.
My question is who is getting the thousand fine or who is going to Court? Is it the owner of the business, it
is the manager, is it the kid at the door. Who is going to Court?
Police Chief Carignan
Remember something Alderman Clemons, it is not necessarily $1,000.00 summons. What happens is we
goin and we give the person in charge which would be the manager, if the business owner is there, we
would give it to the owner. We give them a Summons and they have to appear in Court and answer to a
judge. The Police Department doesn't issue a fine or give them a setfine. It would go into a judge for the
violation. The judge would hear the facts and make a decision. Ajudge could say, “OK you have a $10.00
fine”, “you have a $100.00 fine”, “you have a $1,000.00 fine” based on the violation and the history of
offenses. So that’s beyond our control. We are just going in and enforcing that with asummons. We
would give it to the person in charge at the time, so if it happens to be the manager is the senior most
person. He would get it. The business owner is ultimately responsible for that fine and Attorney Bolton
could correct me if | am wrong, but a business owner is responsible for any penalties assessed. But
there’s not necessarily a $1,000.00 it is a summons to appear in court for the violation of the law and the
judge will hear the facts.
Alderman Clemons
Right, no and | understand that. | guess — here’s my concern and | hope that you have the discretion to
further investigate and | think you would. But my question is this, if you go there and one night you talk to
the owner let's say and the owner says, “No | am not going to ...” whatever, right? And even though you’ve
warned them and you again and when you go because you get a complaint again, there’s a manager there.
And the manager says to you, “Well look the Chief the reason is because I’m going to lose my job because
the owner told me don’t enforce the mask ordinance’. Who gets the fine?
Police Chief Carignan
So you need to think of it in terms of serving alcohol to minors. Let’s say Alderman Laws is working in
Penuchi’s and he’s serving alcohol to minors, he is accountable but the business is ultimately responsible
for that penalty and they could lose their liquor license based on the Liquor Commission. | mean there’s a
couple of different levels of this probably a little bit of an extreme example because he could also be
summonsed, but the business is ultimately responsible with the loss of that liquor license. And that’s where
the business owners if they have some accountability and they have some penalties that could be
assessed to them are just going to say, “Hey put a mask on, it’s not our policy, but the Police require it, |
can’tlose my license”. People get that and we are the bad guys all the time and I'm happy to be the bad
guy to enforce the Legislation if it is passed.
