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Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission

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Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission
AbbreviationTABC
Formation1935
TypePublic safety organization
PurposeRegulation and taxation of alcoholic beverages
Headquarters5806 Mesa Drive #111
Austin, Texas 78731
Region served
State of Texas
Presiding Officer
Kevin Lilly[1]
Main organ
Governing board of three appointed commissioners
Websitewww.tabc.state.tx.us

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, or TABC (formerly the Texas Liquor Control Board), is a Texas public agency responsible for regulating, inspecting, and taxing the production, sale, and use of alcoholic beverages within the state. The agency was established in 1935 and is headquartered in Austin.

Responsibilities and powers

The TABC's organic law, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code, authorizes the agency to:[2]

  • Grant, refuse, suspend, or cancel permits and licenses in all phases of the alcoholic beverage industry
  • Supervise, inspect, and regulate the manufacturing, importation, exportation, transportation, sale, storage, distribution, and possession of alcoholic beverages
  • Assess and collect fees and taxes
  • Investigate for violations of the Alcoholic Beverage Code and assist in the prosecution of violators
  • Seize illicit beverages
  • Adopt standards of quality and approve labels and size of containers for all alcoholic beverages sold in Texas
  • Pass rules to assist the agency in all of the above, etc.

TABC agents are fully empowered state police officers with statewide criminal jurisdiction and may make arrests for any offense.[3]

History

In 1933 the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ended Prohibition and devolved responsibility for the regulation of alcoholic beverages to the states. Shortly thereafter, the Texas Legislature passed the Texas Liquor Control Act to govern alcohol in Texas, and on 16 November 1935 the Texas Liquor Control Board was established to administer the Act. The agency's name was changed to the Alcoholic Beverage Commission on 1 January 1970, and the Liquor Control Act was superseded by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code on 1 September 1977.[4]

Operation Last Call

The 5806 Mesa Drive building includes the headquarters of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission

In 2006, the Commission led Operation Last Call, in which persons in bars and other alcohol serving establishments were arrested for being intoxicated. Said Captain David Alexander, head of the Operation Last Call Task Force, "Going to a bar is not an opportunity to go get drunk...It's to have a good time, but not to get drunk."[5]

Rainbow Lounge incident

On June 28, 2009, TABC officers conducted a raid on the Rainbow Lounge, a gay bar in Fort Worth. Several customers were arrested for intoxication inside of the bar. One patron was hospitalized due to injuries he sustained during the arrest.[6] The incident occurred on the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, a 1969 New York riot seen as the start of the LGBT rights movement. Many Rainbow Lounge patrons were present to mark the anniversary. Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief said, "It might have been helpful if the owner of the lounge had informed [officers] this day was more than just another day of the week. But at the same time, they have a job to do no matter what day of the week it is, and that job is to protect the public from people who have consumed too much alcohol."

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) has completed the use of force report related to the incident at the Fort Worth Rainbow Lounge occurring on June 28, 2009. The 74-page report takes into account statements by eyewitnesses, expert witnesses, TABC employees, and Fort Worth police officers.

The TABC internal affairs investigation report included two allegations which were both unfounded:

1. Agents Chris Aller and Jason Chapman were accused of participating in a bar check operation with Fort Worth police officers on June 28, 2009, which targeted the Rainbow Lounge specifically because of the bar's gay and lesbian customer base. The allegation that the Rainbow Lounge was targeted for being a gay bar was unfounded.

2. Agents Aller and Chapman were accused of using force beyond what was necessary and reasonable during their contact with Jose Macias, George Armstrong and Chad Gibson when they were placed under arrest at the Rainbow Lounge. The allegation of excessive force was unfounded.

Spending Scandal[7][8][9][10]

On April 17, 2017 the Texas Governor's Office's stated that the Director of the TABC, Sherry Cook, was "resigning" her position on May 23, 2017 amid revelations that she spent state taxpayer money on expensive trips to conferences funded largely by liquor companies. The decision came a month after the Texas Tribune reported that Cook and other agency employees spent thousands of dollars in taxpayer money for trips to resorts in Florida and Hawaii, among other places, for meetings hosted by the National Conference of State Liquor Administrators, an industry trade group.

Cook was grilled during a Texas House General Investigating and Ethics Committee hearing about a flyer produced using state equipment that depicted Cook and other top agency officials holding or drinking Lone Star Beer as they rode on a plane on their way to a liquor administrators conference. Cook told lawmakers that the flyer was an "inappropriate use of our time" and agreed it was a misuse of state resources to exchange emails about creating it. Cook also failed to provide adequate answers for "missing" state vehicles and "unnecessary" peace officer certifications held by her and other managers.

State Representative Sarah Davis, R-West University Place, played griller-in-chief as chairwoman of the Texas House General Investigating and Ethics Committee that had pressed Cook for answers, said Monday she had not been briefed about the TABC director's future. But she welcomed a shakeup at the top of TABC — extending beyond Cook. "I agree with the governor's office that it is a good first step in restoring confidence in the agency," Davis said. "I think it was more than just the executive director that was traveling on taxpayer dollars to Hawaii. Based on the testimony from last Thursday, how can Texans have confidence in the TABC with the continued employment of any of the witnesses that were called?"

John Wittman, a spokesman for Gov. Greg Abbott — who appoints the commissioners who oversee the TABC — said that Cook's departure would help the agency get back on solid footing. "It became clear that action needed to be taken in order to restore trust in the agency," Wittman said. "And Ms. Cook's resignation is the first step in that process."

Also reacting to Cook's announcement, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a tweet: "It's time to clean house from regulators not spending taxpayer money wisely. This is a good start." [11]

Fallen officers

Since the establishment of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, two officers have died while on duty.[12]

References

  1. ^ https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor_abbott_appoints_lilly_to_texas_alcoholic_beverage_commission
  2. ^ "TABC The Organization". Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  3. ^ See Cortez v. State, 738 S.W.2d 760 (Tex. App.-Austin, 1987).
  4. ^ "TABC History". Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  5. ^ "Texas police look in bars for signs of drunkenness". The Washington Times. 29 March 2006. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  6. ^ http://www.tabc.state.tx.us/public_information/notices/2009/multipleArrests.asp
  7. ^ https://www.texastribune.org/2017/04/17/embattled-liquor-regulator-resign-sources
  8. ^ http://www.mystatesman.com/news/state.../tabc-chief.../vYmFX1WdGIOP2sxvbVYs9O
  9. ^ https://www.texastribune.org/2017/04/13/tabc-hot-seat-over-trips-and-spending-controversies/
  10. ^ https://www.texastribune.org/2017/04/12/top-liquor-administrator-got-hazardous-duty-pay-hawaii/
  11. ^ TEXAS TRIBUNE, AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN, TEXAS LEGISLATURE
  12. ^ "Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, Texas Fallen Officers". Odmp.org. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
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