Alcohol Sales to Minors Prompt New Bills

Several bills to combat widespread sales of alcohol to minors will come before the state Legislature next month.

The most comprehensive was inspired by a Times investigation showing a pattern of lax penalties for merchants caught selling to minors, said its author, Assemblywoman Valerie Brown (D-Kenwood Sonoma).

Published in December, The Times computer analysis of Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control records found that the average penalty for a retailer’s first violation was a 9.6-day suspension of alcohol sales and a $593 fine. The law now provides a maximum 15-day suspension but allows license holders to reduce the length of the suspension by paying a fine based on revenues.

The Assembly’s governmental organization committee, which reviews legislation pertaining to alcohol policy, is scheduled to consider five bills that would stiffen the minimum penalty both for merchants caught selling to minors and for minors who attempt to buy booze. One would also pump more funds into local law enforcement to police underage alcohol buying.

The chance of success for any of the bills remains unclear.

Joan Kiley, president of a statewide advocacy group, the Council on Alcohol Policy, said she will support Brown’s bill.

However, the powerful alcohol industry has yet to weigh in. Bruce Young, who represents the California Retailers Assn., said he distributed texts of the bills to the association’s members but has not received their responses.

Anne Kelly, a contract lobbyist for Anheuser-Busch, the giant brewery, said the company has not formed its position on the proposed legislation.

Brown’s bill (AB 783) would make a 15-day suspension mandatory and prohibit any payments to reduce it.

“You oughtn’t to be able to buy off that suspension,” said Brown, head of the governmental organization committee.

Her bill would also strengthen a 1995 law authorizing the ABC to revoke the license of any merchant caught selling to a minor three times within a three-year period. Brown’s bill would make the three-strikes revocation mandatory instead of leaving the decision to the ABC.

“The hope is that they [store operators] only have one 15-day suspension and they don’t get to the second or third offense,” Brown said.

Brown’s bill also responds to another finding of The Times analysis--that the policing of the law against selling to minors, which accounts for about 60% of all ABC cases against license holders, is largely conducted by local law enforcement rather than the agency’s decimated staff of about 200 investigators. The result is that enforcement varies greatly from community to community.

The bill would return the fines for all alcohol-related violations to the ABC for its programs to train police departments in alcohol law enforcement. Now, those fines go into the state general fund.

“I believe there is reason to have local agencies in charge,” Brown said. “They know the kids. They know the liquor stores in their areas. They know the activities. They’re probably in a better position.”

Most of the ABC’s minor-sales cases against merchants result from sting operations in which underage police Explorer Scouts try to make purchases. Despite written notice to store owners that the stings are being conducted in their area, many police departments have reported that the decoys succeed in buying alcohol about 30% of the time.

In her own community of Santa Rosa, Brown said, a study by a health agency found that 80% of high school juniors considered it easy to obtain alcohol.

To make her bill more palatable to the alcohol industry, which complains that the law is too soft on minors who try to buy alcohol, Brown wants to increase the penalty for teenage booze buyers.

The law now allows a fine of up to $100 for the first offense and a $250 fine and a sentence of up to 36 hours of community service for subsequent violations. Brown’s bill would provide up to 24 hours of community service for the first violation.

Another bill on the committee’s agenda, set for a hearing April 14, would deal even more harshly with minors who try to buy alcohol.

In his bill, Assemblyman Bruce Thompson (R-Fallbrook) would increase the fine for a first violation to $500 from $100 with up to 50 hours of community service and the fine for subsequent violations from $250 to $1,000. It would also add a fine of $250 and up to 32 hours of community service for possession of alcohol by a minor.

Thompson’s bill (AB 1002) would also increase the penalties on clerks who sell to minors, establishing a fine of $250 and up to 32 hours of community service.

Other bills that will also receive consideration are:

AB 849 by Assemblyman Mike Sweeney (D-Hayward) would indefinitely extend an expiring three-year moratorium on new beer and wine licenses in communities where they are in high concentrations.

AB 900 by Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar) would appropriate $5 million from the general fund to be distributed among community alcohol education programs and local law enforcement.

AB 1177 by Assemblyman Luis Caldera (D-Los Angeles) would authorize local governments to enact ordinances regulating the sale of alcohol to minors and to assess business fees for enforcement.

With so many bills on the docket, there probably will be an attempt to consolidate several into one committee bill, said George Wiley, a legislative aide to Brown.

“I do think we’re going to make progress on this issue this year, in large part due to the interest [The Times] report prompted,” Wiley said.