NC alcohol commission head says local liquor boards show they feel entitled to public money

NC alcohol head decries ‘culture of entitlement’

RALEIGH, N.C. — Workers at some locally run liquor boards have developed a “culture of entitlement” that includes accepting lavish meals from distillers, taking six-figure salaries and traveling in luxury on the public tab, North Carolina’s alcohol commission chief said Wednesday.

The state Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission board has limited control over the 161 independently run county and municipal liquor agencies, but members recently appointed by Gov. Beverly Perdue were determined to vent outrage after news reports of excesses.

ABC commission chairman Jon Williams outlined a new revelation: the father-and-son duo who administered the Wilmington area’s locally run liquor stores flew first-class to a May conference in Phoenix, where they stayed in a $300-a-night resort hotel and rented a luxury car at more than $200 a day. The costs were apparently paid by taxpayers, Williams said.

Local liquor outlets last year sold more than $700 million worth of booze, and the taxes on each bottle generated $259 million for state and local governments, according to state ABC Commission data. But operating the stores costs $113 million a year, and some of that should have gone to taxpayers too, Williams said.

“Every dollar that comes into the ABC system in this state is a dollar that belongs to the public,” commission chairman Jon Williams said. “The public’s money is not what is left over at the end. It is public the moment it is handed over the counter.”

So while state ABC Commission runs the central warehouse where local stores buy their liquor, North Carolina is the only state where local ABC boards sell spirits to consumers. The state commission has little authority over local liquor boards that are appointed by and answer to their county commissioners or city council.

A budget reform panel assembled by Perdue on Thursday will examine whether the state needs to revise its patchwork liquor sales system.

The state ABC commission exercised some of its limited powers Wednesday by changing an exception to a long-standing ban on gifts.

The commission had allowed local liquor board employees to accept modest hospitality from sellers while attending a conference. The state commission voted to close that exemption, exposing vendors or local board workers to state or federal prosecution if they accept gifts in the future.

The commission also said it will develop a standard ethics policy it will urge local liquor boards to adopt.

The commission and Perdue have been forced to action after a series of revelations.

The same Wilmington-area father and son administrators together collected $400,000 a year in salary and bonuses. New Hanover County ABC administrator Billy Williams said Tuesday he will retire next month after 42 years with the local liquor board.

Alcohol Law Enforcement agents last week issued a report alleging that local liquor board officials in Charlotte, international distiller Diageo, and the company’s North Carolina marketing director violated laws on giving and accepting items of value. The report said several of the two dozen Mecklenburg ABC board employees and spouses attending the dinner said they assumed Diageo would pay the tab that included $1,000 for four bottles of 11-year-old Dom Perignon champagne. But local ABC board chairman Parks Helms assumed his board would pay for the meal, the report said.

“There is no way the public should be expected to foot the bill for select employees and family members to have a party of seemingly unlimited price and extravagance,” Jon Williams said.

Alcohol Law Enforcement agents are also investigating whether a nearly $300 lunch for Mecklenburg ABC board officials at Charlotte’s Ritz Carlton hotel paid by other liquor companies violated state law.