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Local Option Proposition Will Appear On October Municipal Ballot; Vote On Hard Liquor Ban Postponed

Bethel City Council member Leif Albertson [left] has proposed an ordinance to ban hard liquor sales in Bethel. Council member Mitchell Forbes [right] proposes that instead of banning hard liquor, to set a price floor of $40 per bottle.
Christine Trudeau
/
KYUK

It was a long Tuesday for Bethel City Council members. Many attended the nearly six-hour Alcoholic Beverage Control Board meeting and then launched into a multi-hour City Council meeting where discussions on alcohol continued. In the end, the council made no changes to current city alcohol regulation, but did pass an ordinance to put local option back on the ballot in October’s municipal elections, complying with a citizen petition. If the proposition passes, alcohol sales would once again become illegal.

Also at the meeting, the council introduced its first pass at the city’s budget for next year. They’re expecting leaner times ahead with no operating liquor store to tax.

“We’re going to be looking at a significant decrease in revenue. There’s just no two ways about it," said council member Mark Springer.

This past year the city collected $609,504 from the alcohol sales tax; now that revenue stream is effectively gone.

More alcohol discussion followed.

The Council voted to postpone its decision on whether to ban hard liquor sales in the city. Hard liquor, in this case, would be any beverage with an alcohol by volume content of 21 percent or higher. The proposed ordinance would also require vendors to label their merchandise with the store’s name and a health warning, and to notify the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board of customers who regularly order large quantities of alcohol. Council member Leif Albertson proposed the ordinance.

“There’s been a lot of talk on council; there hasn’t been a lot of action, and this is action," he told his fellow council members. "So if this is not something you like, then put something else out there.”

And council member Mitchell Forbes did. He proposed a series of amendments that, instead of banning hard liquor sales, would more tightly control them. Forbes proposed setting a price floor to make the price of a bottle of hard liquor begin at $40. He says that the change would make the cost more competitive with bootleggers.

“This is a Band-Aid," Forbes said of his proposed amendments. "This is not going to fix behavioral issues that are at the core of all our problems, but we cannot pour fuel on a fire that is our region’s issue with alcohol.”

Council member Raymond "Thor" Williams opposed the ordinance entirely, because it would go against the last local option vote.

“Why am I the watchdog of a community that’s determined to go wet by the vote of the people?" Williams asked. "And now we’re determining what liquor you can and cannot have when a community decides to go wet?”

Williams also worried about liquor store owners suing the city over price setting. City Attorney Patty Burley said that she could not find any case law barring price setting, but she did say if she were a business, she would challenge the city. Ultimately, the council voted to postpone the proposal until their next meeting. With the closure of AC Quickstop, no hard liquor is legally being sold in Bethel and council member Mark Springer wants more time to consider the matter.

“I have some questions that I’d like to talk to the attorney about, about unintended consequences of a price floor that makes me hesitant to vote,” Springer stated.

In other matters, the Council voted to postpone deciding whether to appoint Yup’ik elder Mary Nanuwak to the body. Nanuwak was the only person to apply for the vacant seat left by former council member Naim Shabani, who left his position after serving five months of his two-year term. Half of the council wanted to extend the application period to allow more people to apply for the position. The other half, including Leif Albertson, were adamant that Nanuwak was the only one to apply and was the only one who should be considered.

“At least in the time that I’ve been on council," Albertson explained, "once we’ve set the process, we’ve respected the process. So it makes me a little uncomfortable to supersede that when we do have someone who did what we said to do.”

Nanuwak was ill and unable to attend the meeting. The council voted to postpone the decision on her appointment until their special meeting on May 29 so that she can attend and answer questions.

Anna Rose MacArthur served as KYUK's News Director from 2015-2022.