AB 1971: Alcoholic beverages.

(1)The Alcoholic Beverage Control Act (act) authorizes the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (department) to conduct administrative hearings for, among other things, violations of the act by a licensee. Existing law allows a licensee to appeal specified decisions to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Appeals Board, authorizes a person to request a transcript of a hearing from the department for a case on appeal, and allows a party to an appeal to request the right to appear before the board for argument.

This bill would require an audio record to be kept as the official record of any administrative hearing conducted by the department, would require the department to provide an audio recording, when one has been made, of a hearing to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Appeals Board and each party in lieu of a transcript for a case on appeal, and would require an audio record to be kept of an argument before the board. The bill would prohibit the department from making the official record of any administrative hearing by videographic recording and would provide that this type of recording is inadmissible in any proceeding before the board.

(2)The act authorizes a licensee under an on-sale general license or an on-sale beer and wine license to apply to the department for an event permit that allows the sale of alcoholic beverages under that license for consumption on property adjacent to the licensed premises and owned or under the control of the licensee. The act also authorizes a licensed beer manufacturer to apply to the department for a brewery event permit that allows the sale of beer produced by that beer manufacturer for consumption on property contiguous and adjacent to the licensed premises of the manufacturer. Under the act, the fee for an event permit issued to an on-sale general licensee or an on-sale beer and wine licensee is $110 for permits issued during the 2004 calendar year and indexed for inflation thereafter, and the fee for a brewery event permit issued during the 2017 calendar year is $110 and indexed for inflation thereafter, as specified. Under the act, these and other fees collected pursuant to the act are deposited in the Alcohol Beverage Control Fund and are generally allocated to the department upon appropriation by the Legislature.

This bill would revise the fee for a brewery event permit to be identical to the fee for an event permit issued to an on-sale general licensee or an on-sale beer and wine licensee, as described above.