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Regular City Council Meeting <br /> Monday,May 16,2011 <br /> Page 9 <br /> come forward with a proposal for a two-tiered penalty system for sale of alcoholic <br /> beverages to a minor, but that it had not received Council majority support. <br /> Councilmember Johnson noted that he did not hear, at that time, any compelling <br /> reasons or rationale for those penalties for off-sale establishments being treated <br /> more harshly than those on-sale establishments having other sources of income <br /> than alcohol sales. Councilmember Johnson cautioned that he wanted to clarify <br /> that there were three (3) components of the penalty structure: monetary fine, days <br /> suspended, and ultimate revocation; and he was only seeking to amend the num- <br /> ber of days for suspension and negative or disastrous impacts on off-sale estab- <br /> lishments. Since he had received a letter recently signed by ten (10) off-sale li- <br /> cense holders in Roseville, Councilmember Johnson sought to bring forth his two- <br /> tiered plan again, and under a different City Council makeup, based on his discus- <br /> sions to-date with new Councilmembers. <br /> Councilmember Johnson noted the changes proposed in amending the current or- <br /> dinance (Attachment B), with the exception of one error on page 2, where the <br /> suspension period for the first violation for sale of alcohol to an obviously intox- <br /> icated individual should be one (1) day, not zero (0) days as written. <br /> Mayor Roe questioned if an actual vote had been taken last year on Council- <br /> member Johnson's proposed two-tiered system. <br /> Councilmember Johnson responded that it had not, as there was not sufficient <br /> Councilmember support at that time; and noted that he had voted in support of the <br /> amendments as presented at that time to provide a unanimous and united front. <br /> Public Comment <br /> Deb Mosby <br /> As a licensed drug counselor and former juvenile parole officer, Ms. Mosby noted <br /> that the biggest detractor of youth health in her work with them, is definitely al- <br /> cohol, then other drugs. Ms. Mosby expressed her concern about decreasing pe- <br /> nalties for selling to youth; and asked that the City Council defer action on this <br /> item to allow other concerned citizens who may not have heard that this issue was <br /> being discussed tonight, to attend and make their comments known. <br /> Ms. Mosby presented several facts based on studies and the trends in alcohol use <br /> by teenagers and later in life, and provided several examples of alcohol sales to <br /> minors; in addition to economic costs for alcohol use in Minnesota, and to the <br /> City of Roseville in police response to underage drinking and all of its implica- <br /> tions and resulting crimes. <br /> Ms. Mosby opined that it was a privilege for license holders to sell alcoholic be- <br /> verages that they made huge profits from those sales and further opined that she <br /> felt strongly that if the City Council decreased those penalties, those license hold- <br /> ers may become lax in their diligence. While recognizing that historical statistics <br />