Legislature(2007 - 2008)BELTZ 211
02/07/2008 03:30 PM Senate COMMUNITY & REGIONAL AFFAIRS
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB161 | |
| SB235 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | SB 161 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| += | SB 235 | TELECONFERENCED | |
SB 235-ALCOHOL: LOCAL OPTION/LICENSING/MINORS
CHAIR OLSON announced the consideration of SB 235.
4:41:57 PM
ANNE CARPENETI, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division,
Department of Law, said there are three sources for SB 235:
recommendations from the Rural Justice Commission; a study by
the Department of Health and Social Services in conjunction with
federal guidelines to limit underage drinking; and an effort by
the administration to enforce bootlegging laws in communities
that have adopted local option.
4:42:45 PM
MS. CARPENETI said the holdover from the Rural Justice
Commission prohibits sending alcohol to a local option community
in plastic bottles. It is more difficult to detect alcohol in
plastic bottles. Sections 2, 3, 4, and 5 require the Alcohol
Beverage Control Board to impose civil penalties on liquor
licensees if their agents or employees in bars and package
stores are convicted of selling alcohol to a minor. This was a
recommendation by the study on underage drinking. It follows the
laws regarding tobacco sales, which have greatly reduced sales
of tobacco to minors because store owners are paying more
attention to employee behavior. By having civil penalties on
liquor licensees, it is hoped that they will emphasize the law
to employees. Currently, bootlegging is a Class A misdemeanor
for small amounts of liquor, and it is a Class C felony for
larger amounts. In support of local option, the bill makes it a
Class C if convicted for a third time of supplying smaller
amounts. There is a mandatory minimal penalty for bootleggers,
which is almost exactly like the one for drunk drivers, except
the look-back period will be 10 years. It will change the
manslaughter statute. A person who bootlegged alcohol to one of
these communities could be prosecuted for manslaughter if a
person who drank it died from alcohol poisoning. That is similar
to the methamphetamine law. The bill will also allow those
charged to be eligible for therapeutic courts.
4:46:08 PM
SENATOR WAGONER said he is from Washington where a person can't
buy liquor without a special identification card. "There wasn't
any under-aged purchase of alcoholic beverages from state liquor
stores in the state of Washington."
MS. CARPENETI said there is a bill being considered that
requires driver's licenses to be easier to read. That would be
similar to the Washington situation.
SENATOR WAGONER said not at all. In Washington, a driver's
license is not a recommended identification in a liquor store.
MS. CARPENETI said she will take that idea to DMV.
4:48:39 PM
SENATOR THOMAS expressed concern about the second paragraph and
holding people responsible for another person's actions. It
requires the ABC to levy fines and suspend licenses if a
bartender or clerk is convicted of furnishing alcohol to a
minor. So the owner will be punished for what the bartender
does. He acknowledged that there is a big problem, but trying to
hold one person responsible for another's action is difficult
for him to accept. It may impact a responsible bar owner.
4:50:12 PM
MS. CARPENETI said she understands, but the experience with
tobacco enforcement has been impressive in how these civil
penalties can affect the way an owner runs a business. It is the
owner who sets the tone of how important the laws are. The
penalties are graduated so that the first offense has a small
penalty. It has worked very, very well with tobacco enforcement.
SENATOR THOMAS asked if more distinct I.D.s. or marks on
driver's licenses for DUI offenders have been considered.
MS. CARPENETI said there was a several-year discussion on a
recently-passed bill on marking the driver's license. It was a
real struggle to pass it, and it doesn't require licensees to
check licenses, but it requires DMV to have the mark on the
license. That was a compromise.
4:52:25 PM
SENATOR THOMAS said someone with a fake I.D. is a different
circumstance than if someone was not asked to show one. If they
were required to ask, that would make a difference to him.
MS. CARPENETI said that was one of the problems; the licensees
didn't want to have to ask everyone.
CHAIR OLSON asked if a person traveling with alcohol in their
checked baggage has to have it in plastic containers as well.
MS. CARPENETI said the bill applies to licensees sending alcohol
to local option communities in response to a written order.
4:53:28 PM
CHAIR OLSON asked if homemade wine needs to be in plastic.
MS. CARPENETI said SB 235 refers to licensees who are sending
alcohol to a rural area.
DIANE CASTO, Manager, Prevention and Early Intervention
Services, Behavioral Health, Department of Health and Social
Services (DHSS), Juneau, said she supports SB 235. One of the
main issues she deals with is substance abuse. To stem the tide
of later alcohol abuse it is important to work with youth. She
will supply the committee with Alaska's Plan to Reduce and
Prevent Underage Drinking. The plan is now open to public
comment. The acting Surgeon General came to Alaska when the plan
was released. Alaska's plan is based on a national movement. In
2002, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research
Council put together a strategy called "Reducing Underage
Drinking, a Collective Responsibility." It helped Alaska develop
its plan. All of the research asserts that access to alcohol is
the main issue. Not all access comes through venders, but the
plan calls for higher penalties for retailers, which is a
critical component.
4:57:20 PM
MS. CASTO referred to the Biannual Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
It is a CDC survey that is done by the Department of Education
and DHSS. The 2007 results show a small decline in substance
abuse in Alaska. She said 73.6 percent of students in grades 9 -
12 reported having had at least one drink of alcohol one or more
days during their lifetime, and 20.4 percent of students had
their first drink -- other than a few sips -- before age 13.
Research shows that rates of lifetime dependence on alcohol
decline from more than 40 percent among individuals who start
drinking at age 14 or younger, to roughly 10 percent for those
who start drinking at age 20 or after. "So it is critical when
kids start drinking as to what their lifetime dependence will
be." She said 39.7 percent of students had at least one drink in
the last 30 days, and 25.8 percent of students reported having
five or more drinks in a row -- binge drinking -- on one or more
occasions. Over 9 percent reported driving and drinking at least
once in the past.
4:59:33 PM
MS. CASTO said it is a problem that over 70 percent of our
children have started drinking by high school. "We need to find
ways to curb that."
SENATOR WAGONER asked how it compares nationally.
MS. CASTO said Alaska is often high, but she doesn't have the
current national data. In 2005, Alaska is a little below the
national average, which is good. "Hopefully we're starting to
see some progress."
5:00:53 PM
SENATOR THOMAS asked the sources of alcohol for the kids.
MS. CASTO said that question is not asked in the survey. The
tobacco survey does ask. She referred to a chart. In 1995 27
percent of Alaska high school youth purchased tobacco at a
store, and in 2003 it dropped to 12 percent. "We changed our
laws related to penalties for selling tobacco to a minor in
2002." There was a significant drop in how many youth were
buying at the store. In 2007 only 3 percent were purchasing
tobacco from a store. She doesn't have the data for alcohol.
SENATOR THOMAS said it would be wise in figuring how to spend
resources.
MS. CASTO said it is a CDC survey. There is a process for adding
questions, and that question has been discussed.
5:03:20 PM
MS. CASTO said alcohol and youth is a lethal combination. The
highest suicide rates for Alaskans are for 15-24 year olds.
Nationally the age is much older. In Alaska 43.7 percent of all
suicides involve alcohol or drugs. "So we know that alcohol is
mixing with youth who are having a bad day and often times
ending up in suicide." Alcohol increases the natural impulsivity
of youth. Many are driving and drinking, creating critical
injuries and fatalities. The three things in SB 235 that will
impact under-aged drinking include the development of a
statewide system to track minor consuming citations. Data is
kept sporadically in the court system, but there is not one
source where a judge, a treatment facility, or a probation
officer can find out how many minor consuming offenses a youth
has had. A judge might think the youth has only had the current
offense, when he or she has actually had several. SB 235 will
provide a tracking system for these youth and make sure they are
getting the treatment they need. The bill will also reduce
access to alcohol from vendors by increasing penalties. Alaska
is proud of its stringent tobacco penalties. It has
significantly reduced the sale of tobacco to Alaska youth.
5:06:31 PM
MS. CASTO said that holding both the clerk and owner responsible
is the critical element. The other piece that has made the
tobacco law successful is the consistent and mandatory penalty.
Alcohol penalties are not now mandatory or consistent. Sometimes
there is no penalty at all. New laws have worked for tobacco.
The third impact of SB 235 is putting more emphasis and more
control in the damp and dry communities. The kids are getting
some of the alcohol coming into those communities.
SENATOR WAGONER asked why the proposed penalties for clerks are
greater than for the licensee and business owner.
5:08:37 PM
MS. CASTO said there are no proposed changes for the clerks in
this bill. It will make the owner part of the responsibility.
SENATOR WAGONER said the owner should have the primary
responsibility. It should be more stringent for the business
owner selling alcohol than the clerk. The clerks are getting
$8.00 an hour, and the first offense is $10,000 and a year in
jail. The penalties for the licensee are much smaller.
MS. CARPENETI said current law will not change for the clerks
and the agents. This bill will impose the only penalties on the
licensee and the owner of the business. Right now there are no
penalties. This would make it more rational.
SENATOR WAGONER said maybe we should make it more stringent.
MS. CASTO said the penalties are not mandatory now. The normal
penalty for a clerk is some community service hours or a
suspended penalty.
SENATOR WAGONER said his son owned a sport bar in Washington and
the laws were strict; if he had a violation of drugs on the
premises or serving tobacco or alcohol to a minor, he would lose
his license for good. Alaska is not stringent.
5:11:52 PM
SENATOR THOMAS asked how the tobacco data was confirmed.
MS. CASTO said the state is responsible to the federal
government because of a $4.6 million block grant. Alaska has to
do a Synar inspection, named after former U.S. Senator Mike
Synar. Three investigators work with student interns to do
compliance checks. There is a stratified sample across rural and
urban Alaska.
SENATOR THOMAS asked if the investigating interns use an I.D.
showing their ages.
MS. CASTO said they use their own I.D. Most of them are around
16 years old. There are strict requirements to keep from
tricking anyone. Boys can't have facial hair, for example. There
is an annual Synar Report.
5:15:11 PM
SENATOR STEVENS asked about waitpersons.
MS. CASTO said they're included, as is anyone who sells alcohol.
SUE MCLEAN, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division,
Department of Law, said she spent years as a prosecuting
attorney and wants to address the importation of alcohol into
communities that exercise local option. She worked in Kodiak,
Kenai, Bethel, and elsewhere. She was the District Attorney in
Bethel and then started a rural prosecution program to assist
attorneys in western Alaska. Crimes there are so much more
serious than elsewhere. The villages that have kept alcohol from
their communities have done it purposefully. The violent crime
in those places when alcohol turns up is much more violent.
Tragically, it is often directed at another family member or
friend. It is tragic all around; it isn't a drive-by shooting.
5:18:17 PM
MS. MCLEAN said of the few cases that she helped, two involved
young people who were intoxicated and threatened to shoot
themselves and ended up shooting their parents. One involved
chasing an unarmed peace officer with an ax. "I don't think
those things would have happened if it weren't for alcohol."
Alcohol plays a large part in almost every crime she has seen in
western Alaska. Yesterday she read a transcript of a taping of a
bootlegger who said he had R & R Whiskey, which he would get
$150.00 for each 1.5 pints. That is the going rate -- if not
more. The bootleggers are making a business decision, because
the first time they are caught the likelihood of serving any
time is nil. It is probably true for the second time they are
caught. The villagers are trying to keep the tragedy of alcohol
from their families. It is indescribable to stand in a courtroom
where a brother has killed another brother, or where a sister
tried to burn down a house with her brother and his children
inside. When she was brought into court the next morning, she
can't even believe she did that. There are so many conflicting
emotions. People don't remember what they have done. The
families love the victim and the offender. That they have chosen
to have the village dry, is something we should all support.
5:21:41 PM
MS. MCLEAN said one way to support those communities is to make
the bootlegger's business decision a little more expensive --
knowing that he will go to jail -- knowing that the third time
he gets caught, he will have a felony - knowing that if someone
drinks themselves to death, he will be held criminally
responsible. That puts the bootlegger in touch with the
consequences of what, for them, is simply a business. She
referred to the bootlegger who was selling the $10 whiskey for
$150. He had 76 bottles and would make $11,000. "There's no
reason that a person wouldn't bootleg if they know they're not
going to jail and they're going to get $11,000 for six cases of
alcohol."
5:22:51 PM
MATT FELIX, Director, National Council on Alcohol and Drug
Dependence, Juneau, said he is head of the legislative committee
for the State Directors Association. He is in the trenches with
the people who are addicted to or abusing alcohol. He has done
this for 36 years. He was once the state director of the
Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse. He assisted Senator Binkley
in developing and implementing local option. He supports the
local option section of this bill. "Any time you can tighten up
local option, then we certainly agree with it." It has been
effective in dramatic reductions in a variety of health and
social ills, as shown by studies. Barrow and Selawik were
perfect research spots because they switched from dry to wet and
back. He supports the enforcement section. He agrees with
Senator Wagoner on enforcement; Washington does it right and
Alaska doesn't. The licensee is the responsible person. They are
licensed to sell alcohol - a product that has potential harm. If
they don't follow the law, they should suffer the consequences.
"I think this bill is a little light on that area."
5:25:32 PM
MR. FELIX said enforcement is prevention. Title IV is a statute
that came into being with statehood, and it needs updating. The
bill does this well.
5:26:28 PM
PATRICIA LEEMAN, Deputy Directory, Operations, Division of
Juvenile Justice, DHSS, Bethel, spoke to the impact that alcohol
is having on rural Alaska and its kids. She has spent 18 years
as superintendent of the Bethel Youth Facility, which is a
juvenile detention and treatment facility. When youth drink,
their judgment is reduced, and the awareness of the consequences
of their actions becomes muddled. Between 50 and 80 percent of
all crime by juveniles involve alcohol in some way. The youth
may be intoxicated when committing an assault, or they may be
breaking into someone's house to find liquor. Drinking makes
young people easy targets for rape, assault, and sexual abuse
and vulnerable to suicide. It is not unusual to see girls who
have been so intoxicated when they were raped they don't even
know it happened. Families become devastated. When she came to
town 19 years ago, many youth who came to the attention of
juvenile justice could not identify a single sober member of
their family to be placed with. It remains true. The more
readily alcohol is available, the more crimes youth commit. The
more that access is limited, the more we can limit crimes.
5:29:37 PM
MS. LEEMAN said there were 521 minor consuming alcohol referrals
to the Bethel District Attorney's office from January 1, 2007 to
October 11, 2007. It represented 25 percent of all misdemeanor
referrals and 20 percent of total referrals during that time.
This bill does a lot of different things to keep alcohol out of
the hands of young people. Making alcohol less accessible in the
YK [Yukon-Kuskokwim] delta would make a big difference for all
the villages. For juvenile justice, the most useful part of SB
235 is establishing a tracking mechanism for minor consuming.
Currently, when someone is cited for underage drinking, there is
no indication as to the number of times that youth has been
cited before. There is lack of information on whether the person
has complied with the treatment requirements that had been set.
In 2006 some agencies convened a task force on minor consuming.
They found that youth were listed as first-time offenders
multiple times as there was no way to track their histories.
Police couldn't appropriately charge a young person for
consuming alcohol.
5:31:28 PM
MS. LEEMAN said the police could only contact a dispatch officer
and ask to look at a four-inch stack of prior convictions, so
the youth would often be charged as a first-time offender. The
task force learned that 52 percent of the youth that were in
court for the third time were convicted as first-time offenders.
One youth was on the sixth offense and was convicted of having a
first offense. Bethel now has a better tracking mechanism. This
bill lays the groundwork for a statewide system. Bethel youth
seem to be taking the charges more seriously now that they see
that the justice system is more serious and following up with
increased penalties for subsequent offenses and increased
treatment that they so desperately need.
5:33:28 PM
CHAIR OLSON obtained unanimous consent to redraft SB 235,
Version A, to conform to the drafting manual.
SENATOR THOMAS said he is concerned that owners of a license are
responsible for their agents. It seems to be no different than
holding the commissioner of public safety responsible for all of
the criminal actions of their personnel. There have been many
police officers charged, and that is "no different than holding
a bar owner responsible for their bartenders, when they may not
even be on the premises."
CHAIR OLSON said Senator Wagoner is on the other end of that,
but he has elected not to offer an amendment.
SENATOR THOMAS said part of the bill deals with problems in the
bush, and that is most serious. That doesn't mean there are no
problems in the urban areas. His concern is with licensees that
"make a good attempt to control something, but this is twice in
a five-year period of time." That's a long time to make sure
that every employee does not violate the law. A person may be
responsible for 30 or 40 employees. Senator Thomas said he is
not prepared to offer an amendment today.
5:37:39 PM
CHAIR OLSON said he can hold the bill.
SENATOR THOMAS said he would not want to be held responsible for
some of his employees' actions.
MS. CARPENETI said this is a civil penalty. A person is not
criminally responsible for the acts of another person. It occurs
only after a third offense in five years.
SENATOR THOMAS read the lines: levy fines, and for second or
subsequent offense in a five-year period -- suspend license.
MS. CARPENETI said, "It's a 7-day license suspension for second,
and it's a 30-day for third and subsequent … in a five-year
period."
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