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Show ATTACKS CITY'S LICENSE ACTION Ogden Commission in Error In Taking Away Business Busi-ness Permit, Claim Charging that the 'city is proceeding proceed-ing In a manner contrary to law when It revokes th.j license to conduct ;i soft drink resort on abrupt notice, I lohn O. Davis, counsel for Mike Gonlti. has sent a communication to the city commission protesting against the I methods employed. CJonls, he says, was found not guilty of h:ving liquor In his possession H-thinks H-thinks the elty aeted In an arbitrary and unlawful manner in depriving Gonifl of his license on the mere recommendation of the police chief. The communication: 'December 26. 1922. "Honoraplo Mayor and City Commission, Commis-sion, I gdf n t'ity. "(.J'-ntlemen : "Pursuant to your requtst when I appeared before you on December 19, ; 1922, in the Interests of Mr. Mike i "Jinls, who has a license from Ogden j City to conduct a billiard room In the building at 234 Twenty-fifth' street, i herewith respectfully submit :h" following: "Every man la presumed to bo a law-abiding ettlr.cn and presumed to be innocent of the- commission of crime. Mr. Gonis upon receiving his lilf-nf-c' Invested approximately $lr.nu to 52000 In his business He hus m ide use of his credit with houses that supply articles of merchandise neces-' sary In conducting his business. Under this condition the question that pre-; Bents Itself 13 this Is it lawful for; the commission, after giving the permit per-mit to establish a business in Ogden City, without notice, to instruct a! police officer to go to that placo of i business of the licensee and tell him to close his doors'.' "My purpose In appearing before the commission on the 19th was to protest such procedure and request the commission not to enter an order of i - vocation without notice to tho li ensee; by chance It was brought to my attention that the chief of po-; lice had made a recommendation for the entering of such an order. "My contention is that the power to revoke a license once given la a judicial ju-dicial function. I understand that the only document before the board is a communication from the chief of police po-lice requesting the commission to revoke re-voke the license, There i-- nothli g to show what the licensee has done,; how ho did it. "when he did It. or where he did It "It is not that I challenge the motives mo-tives of the chief of police nor that 1 I assume to know all that he might ' havq hod in mind in making the recommendation. It is simply to point out to the board that the procedure I adopted is arbitrary, ho fur cs any Information that is conveyed to the licensee, and it leaves the door open to capricious action In cases where that would be the only motive for making the recommendation. "My further contention Is that If the licensee is guilty of conduct that makes his place of business a public menace there Is an orderly and proper I procedure provided for under our form or government to handle the slt-! slt-! uation. T am aware that there ore de- mands made upon tho commission for the rigid enforcement of tha eighteenth amendment, and the laws made in pursuance thereof prohibiting prohibit-ing traffic in intoxicating llo.u-rs Ann that this commission and the police, rlepartment of Ogden City has adopted adopt-ed the present method of i evoking license, as a part of the campaign j for such enforcement. "I mak.- the contention that tho , best way for the officials to win re-spect re-spect for the law. Is to keep within the law in the discharge of their ! duties. 'There Is some differences of opln-. opln-. Ion as to whether or not a city com-! com-! mission can exercise the judicial funo- tions entailed in a hearing for revocation, revoca-tion, but I think there is no difference differ-ence in legal opinion on the question, that under a law similar to ours it is necessary to give notice as to the time and place of hearing and cause for revocation and afford nn opportunity oppor-tunity for the licensee to appear. Tn the Instant case the licensee Is of Greek birth. Our city has a eon-siderable eon-siderable population made up of his countrymen, and the place that he conducts is patronized entirely or nearly so hy theso people. I am Informed In-formed that he was arrested on the charge of having intoxicating lir1Uors on his premises, was tried in court and found not guilty. I think it is conceded that Intoxicating liquor, have never been found within the premises in question; I niak- this statement In case the commission should not see fit to adhere to mv suggestion a to the manner of conducting con-ducting a he.oing, n the hope that, they will re;iii7.,- that it is necessary for the different races, that make up, the population of our city, to have a place or place in which they can1 meet for legitimate social intercourse "1 believe it is better for tho differ-' ent classes of society to congregate in j placea that the city La permitted to! inspect, than for them to bo forced into clubs or private plu - s ovt which! the city does not have public control.' 'Under the record that the board now has. If the hoard nttemped to I enr.r an order of revocation theyj would be forced lo Indulge the presumption pre-sumption that the licensee is gulltv1 of an infraction of the law; I do not I contend that the commission or any of the officers of Ogden City want to! act arbitrarily, my oniv effort is to point out the possibilities of Injustice Injus-tice under the present method. j "In conclusion. I request that if the! commissioners fee that there has been un infraction of the law upon I the part of the licensee, that they reduce re-duce or cause to be reduced to writ-! ing their charges against him and: that he he permitted to mako his defense de-fense on the charges so presented before be-fore you enter on order w-hlch deprives de-prives him of liis dght to do l.u-dnese, In I gd n City In other words, I re-qt:e-a for him the opportunity to make his defense before Judgment is pronounced pro-nounced against him. "Respectfully submitted. "JOHN C. DAVIS, "Attorney for Alike Oonls. Licensee1 |