Every act or admission of whatsoever nature constituting a violation of any provision of this Article or of the Illinois Liquor Control Act by any officer, director, manager, or other agent or employee of the licensee shall be deemed to be the act of the licensee. The licensee shall be punishable in the same manner as if the act or admission had been done or admitted by the licensee personally.
SECTION 6.20: LIQUOR ADVISORY BOARD
A. Establishment. There is hereby established within the City of Mt. Vernon a Liquor Advisory Board which shall have the powers and functions set forth herein.
B. Members. The Board shall consist of three (3) voting members, one of whom shall be designated by the Board as Chairman and one as Secretary. All members shall be residents of the City of Mt. Vernon for at least one (1) year prior to appointment and during all periods of appointment. No member, nor any relative of a member, shall be employed by, own stock in, be a partner in, have an interest directly or indirectly in or own personally any business entity which has a license for the sale or distribution of liquor by retail or wholesale; Arelated@ means the following relationships by blood or marriage: spouse, parent, step-parent, grand-parent, step-grandparent, child, step-child,
grandchild, step-grandchild, brother, step-brother, sister, step-sister, uncle or aunt.
C. Asset Statement. All members of the Liquor Advisory Board shall be required to complete an Economic Disclosure in the form required by the City which shall be filed in the Office of the City Clerk and which shall consist of an affirmative statement that the affiant meets the requirements of subsection B above and that the affiant has no disqualifying interests or relationships as described within subsection B above.
D. Terms. All members shall be appointed by the Mayor with the advice and consent of the City Council. The original appointment shall have terms which are staggered and which terminate on May 1, 2002, May 1, 2003, and May 1, 2004; all subsequent terms shall be for three (3) year periods from said dates.
E. Powers and Duties of Board. The Board shall have the following powers and duties:
1. To review all applications for a new liquor license except applications for a Temporary License or a Temporary Sunday Sales Permit.
2. To review such applications for renewal of a liquor license as may be referred to the Advisory Board by the Local Liquor Control Commissioner.
3. To review all applications and requests for transfer of a liquor license to another premises.
4. To receive written complaints from citizens, to preliminarily and informally investigate said complaints, and to refer to the Liquor Control Commissioner complaints which the Board determines should be brought to the attention of the Commissioner.
5. To perform such other acts as may be directed by the Mayor of the City or by a majority of all members of the City Council.
6. To make recommendations to the Mayor and/or City Council from time to time concerning Article 6 of the Revised Code and the regulation of the sale of alcoholic liquor within the City.
F. Meetings. The Advisory Board shall meet on the fourth Monday of each month unless not less than forty-eight (48) hours prior to the regularly scheduled meeting date public notice shall be given of cancellation by the posting of a notice upon the public bulletin board at City Hall and at the location of the meeting if other that at City Hall. Minutes of each meeting shall be recorded by the Secretary in the manner required by law.
G. Procedure. The Advisory Board shall not be required to meet and consider any application unless the application, bond, licensing fee and other required information and a written request to be placed upon the agenda of the Advisory Board are filed with the City Clerk seven (7) days prior to the meeting date of the Advisory Board. If an application for a new license, an application for transfer of a license to a new location or an application for renewal of a license is scheduled upon the agenda for consideration by the Advisory Board, the applicant must attend in person to answer questions the Board may have concerning the application; failure to attend or failure to submit information shall result in denial of the application. The Advisory Board may, but is not required to make a recommendation upon the application at the first meeting and the Board may continue consideration and decision on the application until the next regularly scheduled meeting or special meeting of the Advisory Board. If the Board fails to make a recommendation within two (2) regularly scheduled meeting dates of the Advisory Board, then the application shall be forwarded to the Local Liquor Control Commissioner without a recommendation. Any recommendation of the Advisory Board shall be in writing and may consist either of a recommendation for approval or recommendation for denial or no recommendation.
The recommendation or non-recommendation of the Advisory Board shall be forwarded to the Local Liquor Control Commissioner who shall then preliminarily or tentatively grant or deny, in writing, the license or the renewal or the transfer without any hearing; provided that if the applicant, within ten (10) days from date of the notice of the preliminary or tentative decision of the Local Liquor Control Commissioner shall file a written request with the City Clerk for hearing upon the application, then a hearing de novo shall be conducted by the Local Liquor Control Commissioner within thirty (30) days from date of the written request, which hearing shall be conducted in accordance with the procedures set forth in Section 6.21 herein. The decision of the Local Liquor Control Commissioner shall be served by certified mail to the address stated within the application; the date of mailing the decision of the Local Liquor Control Commissioner in a properly addressed envelope shall be the date of the notice, regardless of whether the applicant actually receives the notice.