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Show Park Record Thursday, February 4, 1988 Page A7 ClubAlamo tossed to state by HEIDI WEST Record staff writer The city has formally requested In a Jan. 29 letter to director Kenneth Ken-neth F. Wynn that the State Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission Com-mission take over review of allegations allega-tions against The Club and the Alamo. "We're saying Ve think you should take a look'," said city attorney at-torney Jim Carter. "The city is not asking for any particular outcome." out-come." City officials announced last week they would be turning the in-vestigation in-vestigation of charges made against the two clubs over to the state for several reasons. Primarily, Primari-ly, it was "the likelihood of a court challenge" from the Club and Alamo's parent company, Liquid Assets, said Carter. . The city had initiated a disciplinary hearing against the two clubs after Summit County Assistant Attorney Terry Christiansen Chris-tiansen noted a majority of the 73 illegal drug deals successfully prosecuted pro-secuted after a March 1987 bust in Park City took place in them. Under the Park City business and liquor license ordinances, evidence of illegal activity in an establishment establish-ment is grounds for revoking either license. However, although the city did complete a "preliminary factual investigation" -Liquid Assets attorney, at-torney, Joe Tesch, challenged the city's right to proceed. Tesch said the ordinance was defective because it did not include a procedural pro-cedural due process clause, required re-quired as a result of a 1982 Utah Supreme Court Case. Although the city council considered con-sidered following the procedure for due process independent from the ordinance, Tesch claimed it had to be written into the ordinance for it to be valid. Although Carter disagreed, he did advise council Summit water district OK'd bv SENA TAYLOR w ? - - Record staff write!?-: The Summit County Commission approved the formation of a special improvement district for . Summit Park water system improvements Jan. 27, but placed conditions on the project which may make it difficult for it to become a reality. According to county general services ser-vices director, Stan Strebel, the commission indicated it would not support the issuance of a bond under the district if the assessment per lot exceeds $1,800. All services for the project, including legal, engineering and construction services, must also be bid out for the project. Under these conditions, the cost of improvements would have to sharply sharp-ly drop from the original estimate of $3.4 million. A group of Summit Park homeowners has been promoting the formation of an improvement district for several months, and had already employed legal and engineering services to develop cost and plan estimates for building a new water system or improving the present system! Under their estimates, the assessment per lot was in the neighborhood of $4,300 to be spread over 20 years a far cry from the commissioners' cap of $1,800. Marti Plaisier, a spokesperson for the homeowners, said she Remember Jupiter Peek for skiing and Tom Peek for all your real estate needs. $89,900 outrageously low bank subsidized financing members a court challenge was almost a certainty. "And litigation could take a year or longer," he noted. Before handing the case over, though, the city council tried to negotiate voluntary sanctions against the two bars. However, although the clubs would go along with measures to further prevent drug use or sales in their establishments, they would not agree to the punitive portion. Tesch noted it was the length of time each would remain closed which was at issue. Citing dissatisfaction with the outcome of sanction negotiations, and the time and expense involved in hiring an outside examiner to , conduct the necessary evidentiary hearing, the city relinquished jurisdiction and asked the state to take charge. "We're saying 'we think you should take a look The city is not asking for any particular outcome' "The state is set up for doing this kind of thing," noted Carter. And, according to Rick Golden, compliance com-pliance investigator for the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission, Com-mission, procedural due process is a part of any disciplinary action the state might take. In his letter to the ABCC, Carter noted an additional reason for turning tur-ning the case over to the state. The commission would have absolute jurisdiction over the case regardless of city action, be wrote. Wynn told the Record he had received Carter's letter Monday, and "has had no chance to discuss it with counsel, yet." He said such "It's hard to just pull $1,800 from a hat and not know where that figure came from." Homeowner Marti Plaisier understood the commission's desire to keep the costs low, but wondered where the commission came up with the $1,800 figure. "We need to get the real hard engineering numbers so ' we know what we're talking about," she said. "It's hard to just pull $1,800 out of a hat and not know where that figure came from." Plaisier said the homeowners favoring the district are willing to pay a higher assessment because of the need for water system improvements, im-provements, especially in the face of dropping property values. "Our property pro-perty is on the line here," she said. Meanwhile, Plaisier said the homeowners are looking at loan sources, and said they had recently met with the Safe Drinking Water Committee to discuss a loan. "The meeting went very well. Hopefully . the loan will go through," she said. The commission's formation of the district came two weeks after it . denied the request. At a Jan. 13 meeting, the commissioners balked at forming the district because they a discussion would be the next step "in determining what our options are" in reviewing the case. If the ABCC decides to review the case, it will be up to the prosecution pro-secution to prove the management or employees of either of the two bars was involved in at least one of the drug cases. According to Carter, Christiansen's Chris-tiansen's initial letter to the city, written Nov. 12, did "tend to implicate im-plicate the existing management of Liquid Assets, Inc." in the city council's view. "If substantiated, (the allegations) would suggest an evaluation of the degree of culpability of management with regard to the occurrence of the events alleged to have transpired there." Keith Bronstein, manager of both clubs, has consistently denied the charges and in fact says City attorney Jim Carter management has taken unusual measures against the use of drugs. "We've done everything we're legally and morally responsible to do and more," he says. Wynn could not put a timeline on when he expected the commission to decide whether to review the case or even when the agency's legal opinion on jurisdiction would be issued. He noted with the state legislature in session, it would be particularly tough to find the time to address the city's request. "It's hard to say when we're going to be able to get together with him (the attorney general assigned to the case)," he said. 2 I felt a number of lot owners would abandon their lots by not paying their property taxes, leaving the county to pay the $4,300 leins until the county sold the lots. Said commission chairman Tom Flinders at that meeting, "Probably something has to be done, but we're not sure it has to be $3.4 million worth. That's a lot of bucks and we've got several other things now we're guaranteeing. As we represent repre-sent the entire county, we don't want the entire county paving for the problem." pro-blem." By creating the district, the commission com-mission is not obligated to float a bond. And the message at the meeting was that if the two conditions condi-tions aren't met, they won't endorse a bond. There are about 837 lots in Summit Park, with 320 homes being connected con-nected to the water system presently being services by Summit Park Water Co. That equates to about 38 percent of the lots having homes and 62 percent being vacant. Foreclosures in Deer Valley Below market financing on Lakeside & Fawngrove Condos Park City Deer Valley Real Estate rii Expect thebesE 649-4400 V 649-0259 (home) 1750 Park Ave. Appearing this week at Social Club Thursday Feb. 4th F1V& 6 Friday Feb. 1 2th Wed. & Thurs. Feb. I7& 18 Fri & Sat Feb. 1 9 & 20 Thurs., Fri., Sat. Feb. 25-27 412 Main Street. Park City. Utah 84060 J) Thurs. 6C Fri. Feb. 4-5 John Bateman Sunday during Dinner Barbara Danielson Monday Feb. 8 Sean & Dorey JL Tues. SC Wed. Feb. 9-10 Mark Chaney Jazz Trio For more information call HM I III B ., ' 1 i Appearing in February DOUG HAMBLIN and IAN FANUCCI COMMANDER CODY DONOVAN SATTA FORMER DYNATONES Charlie "Alligator" Owens & Rick Weller HI TOPS For reservations 3SS-2S82 301 South West Temple MiletPs 649 - 8211 REGGAE |