HELEN - A recent crackdown by Helen Police Department and the Georgia Department of Revenue yielded only one violation of underage sales.<br />
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City Manager Jerry Elkins made that announcement during this week's city commission meeting.<br />
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"That was Monday's [Pub] restaurant," Elkins said.<br />
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Helen Police Chief Jim Couch said the Georgia Department of Revenue has already set up the state's show cause hearing for Monday's.<br />
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The city set its own show cause hearing for the alcohol licensee at Monday's for 9 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 2.<br />
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"We have show causes with the licensees, with the bar owners themselves," City Attorney Carl Free told city commissioners. "Y'all would have the discretion as to what you want to do."<br />
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Additionally, Helen police checked server permits the night prior to the joint operation to ensure servers were displaying their permits as required by city ordinance.<br />
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Sgt. Brian Stephens of Helen Police Department coordinated the server permit operation. <br />
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"There were two in one establishment, and the rest were individuals," Stephens said. "We checked 36 establishments, and out of the 36 we got 17 violations."<br />
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Only three of the servers found to be in violation did not have a required server permit. <br />
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"Out of the 17, 14 had their permits - they just didn't have them displayed," Stephens said. "Out of the 14, one was three months expired. They just didn't bother to renew it. We had two that had changed employment and didn't register it with the city."<br />
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Commissioner Dona K. Burke asked if the 14 servers had their permits somewhere on their bodies at the time they were cited.<br />
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"No, ma'am," Stephens said. "We ran into that that night, to where we had to double check a couple of them because they would have it clipped to their shorts on the back side - which in itself is a violation of the ordinance, because it has to be displayed visibly."<br />
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The ones who had their permits on but not displayed in the proper location were not cited, Stephens said.<br />
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Commissioner Helen Wilkins asked Free about the consequences for the servers who failed to wear their city permits.<br />
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"If they go through the court system is it going to be an automatic fine?" Wilkins asked.<br />
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"That's going be up to the judge," Free said. "That's what the judge is there for is to set their fine."<br />
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Wilkins asked if the judge normally just reprimands violators.<br />
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"No, he typically fines them - unless they can find some kind of justifiable defense in their favor," Free said.<br />
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Free reminded commissioners there were reasons the city passed the server permit ordinance several years ago.<br />
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"The main reason was because every time we had an issue involving an alcohol violation it seemed that what happened was the bar owners were like 'I'm not sure who did that' and 'I'm not sure who that person was', and we've had some say, 'I don't even think they worked here'. That was the response we kept getting.<br />
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"We're not the only municipality in the state of Georgia that has this," Free said. "The reason that it has the requirement that the alcohol server wear the badge is if there is a problem that occurs we can identify the person and bring them to light." <br />
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In June 2013, seven Helen establishments were cited for alcohol sales violations.<br />
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Mayor Judy Holloway was pleased with the outcome of the joint operation into underage sales.<br />
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"We really need to commend our restaurants and bars to have only one underage drinking," Holloway said. "That shows us that they're monitoring better, and that is a great thing with the volume of people that we're having."<br />
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City Commissioner Jeff Ash also was pleased with the results of the underage sales sting.<br />
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"I was very proud of our restaurant owners and their employees for checking IDs properly because, in the course of one night, everybody was checked by the state and only one violation was written, which tells me that everyone is operating properly," Ash said. "That is quite an achievement with the crowds of people that we had in this community."
