ABC officials repay tab for $9,000 dinner

CHARLOTTE
Several Mecklenburg County commissioners Tuesday accused the head of the local Alcoholic Beverage Control Board and top staffers of bad judgment in letting a liquor supplier pick up a $9,000 tab for a holiday dinner at a SouthPark steakhouse.

"We would be tarred and feathered by the public if we engaged in this behavior," Republican commissioner Neil Cooksey wrote county officials. "This Board should not condone this type of behavior on a Board that we appoint."

The Charlotte Observer reported that ABC Board Chairman Parks Helms said Monday that he and top staffers have paid back the cost to an international liquor company that treated them last month at Del Frisco's steakhouse, where the cheapest steak is $32.95.

The payback comes as state officials are investigating the Nov. 18 dinner for 28 people paid for by London-based Diageo, which makes brands such as Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker Scotch. State ABC Commission officials said last month that they have authority to remove local board members and employees who violate state laws against accepting gifts.

"We shouldn't have done it," Helms, a former county commissioner, told the Observer. "We made a mistake."

Helms, who attended with his wife, was the only board member at the dinner. He's repaying $1,000. Board CEO Calvin McDougal, who went with his wife, is repaying $4,000. Both men are covering the tab for ABC employees for whom repayment would be a hardship. Others must repay $330 each.

In a statement Tuesday, the county ABC board said "no public funds" were used to repay the company, and it will revise its written policies "to ensure that in the future we have clear guidelines for defining acceptable practices."

The statement went on to say that the Mecklenburg ABC system "has no business relation with Diageo other than selling its products in ABC stores in Mecklenburg County."

The state ABC commission runs the central warehouse through which local stores buy their liquor and handles liquor law violation cases but has rarely exerted authority over liquor stores. Those are run by the local boards that are appointed by county commissioners and city councils.

State ABC Commission Chair Jonathan Williams, who ordered an investigation by the state Alcohol Law Enforcement Division, commended the board.

"I am pleased to learn the Mecklenburg ABC is taking steps to ensure that this situation is not repeated in the future," he said in a statement, "and also has taken action to address some of the specific questions surrounding the propriety of receiving a gift of this nature."

The Observer's news partner, WCNC-TV, first broke the story in November. Williams discussed the Nov. 18 dinner earlier this month with county commissioners' chairman Jennifer Roberts.

"We agreed that it did not appear to be keeping with ethics regulations and policies and the best thing to do would be for the ABC board to repay the cost," Roberts said Tuesday.

Roberts said she called Helms, a fellow Democrat, with questions about the dinner.

"I don't know enough about it to know whether it was a big issue or a lapse in judgment," Roberts said. "But clearly you want to be sure that there's no appearance of ethics transgressions."

A 1996 memo from the state ABC Commission prohibits manufacturers or vendors from giving local ABC boards money "or any other thing of value."

A 2003 memo on appropriate hospitality at statewide meetings cited the 1996 ban and said more extravagant entertaining led to perceptions that regulators were being "wined and dined" by the industry they regulate.

"Regardless of what the policy is, it really smacks of poor judgment, at the minimum," Republican county commissioner Karen Bentley said of the dinner.

Democrat Dan Murrey called it "the wrong thing to do."

"And I'm thankful that they've recognized that and have taken steps to pay back the company," he said. "And I'm hopeful they will take steps to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Helms said a steady stream of government scandal stories had caused an overreaction to news of the dinner.

"In the business world, you have meetings and dinners with the people whose products you sell," he said. The Mecklenburg board's statement also said that, in the past, the state commission exempted unsolicited meals from state laws prohibiting distillers from giving gifts to retailers.

In a recent interview with WCNC, Williams said: "In the sales and commercial world, wining and dining is part of how business is done ... but we're public servants."

Local board members from Mecklenburg and other jurisdictions have been criticized in the past for annual conferences where liquor companies and others who do business with the state provided drinks, subsidized golf and other freebies.

Organizers dropped the golf game from the schedule in 2007 after an Observer story about one of the conferences.

Three other directors of the local ABC board said they didn't even know about the November dinner party until after the fact.

Director Mary Richardson said she wouldn't have gone if she had known.

"We were told earlier about taking gifts from distributors," she said, "because they even took away the golfing we used to have."