[Durham INC] PAC2: Oct minutes

[TheOcean1 at aol.com]

Below and attached are the excellent minutes from our Oct meeting, thanks  
to our Volunteer Secretary Sherry Coulter. Certainly not an easy meeting to  
document. Please forward to your neighborhoods.
 
Bill  Anderson
PAC2   

 
 
MINUTES OF  THE OCTOBER PAC2  MEETING 
DURHAM PUBLIC SCHOOLS STAFF  DEVELOPMENT CENTER 
OCTOBER 11,  2010   
Facilitator:      Bill Anderson – _TheOcean1 at aol.com_ 
(mailto:TheOcean1 at aol.com)  
Cheryl Shiflett – scjdurham at aol.com 
The meeting was  called to order at 6:06 p.m. 
Self-introductions  followed. 
COMMUNITY  CONCERNS 
A question was  asked about the repaving project on Crest Street and 
Douglas Road.  The road is currently at the point of  having been scraped and the 
manhole covers raised.  Crest Street has a lot of manhole  covers, and 
people are swerving all over the road to try to avoid them.  Cynthia Mebane-Watts 
said that the  contractor raises all of the covers at the same time, then 
the paving crew comes  in to pave the street because it is cheaper to do it 
this way.  Cheryl noted that it is done this way  because moving heavy 
equipment is expensive. 
Someone asked  about zoning laws concerning a vendor selling refrigerators 
at the corner of  Duke and Newsom, which is a residential area. The vendor 
has been in this area  for several weeks selling brand new refrigerators, 
washers and dryers.  Karen Swope said she would  investigate. 
Another person  was concerned about a neighbor selling dogs.  Police had 
talked to the person three  times previously, but the person was now back and 
even closer to the residential  area, now off Maynard.  Police  talked to 
him this time for about 15 minutes, and he finally left after another  10 
minutes.  The person is  trespassing, because the property is owned by someone 
else.  Bill said he moved to the corner of Club  and Roxboro  Road.  Bill 
thinks that until we clamp down on this type of thing we are  inviting people 
to trespass and break other ordinances. 
Concern was also  expressed about a house at 2913  Banner Street being torn 
down by Brown Brothers  Plumbing.  Residents have said they  saw asbestos 
in the material being removed, and that the materials were still  sitting on 
site.  The house was  originally built in 1928, so would likely have both 
lead and asbestos in  it.  A neighbor had spoken to Rick  Hester and his 
department was to look at it today.  He had also said that a permit had not  been 
issued for the work.  It was  noted that the city could do a stop-work 
order to make sure the contractor got  all the hazards out.  The state  would 
then come in and set regulations and certify people to remove the  materials.  
The group was  reminded that yard sale regulations restrict sales to four 
times per year and  that they must be held at least three months apart for no 
more than two  consecutive days during daylight hours, and that items can’t 
be stored  outside. 
Bill said he  would try to get the websites for city and county codes 
posted onto the PAC2  website. 
Ms. Mebane-Watts  responded to Mr. Bridges’ concern from last month about 
storm water management,  stating that the project should be completed by 
October  27th. 
Someone noted  that there were people in their neighbor from the School of 
the Environment with  the Children’s Environmental Health Initiative going 
through the neighborhood  and putting house locations into a GPS, supposedly 
to study whether pregnant  women do better in different neighborhoods.  Ms. 
Mebane-Watts verified that these  people were legitimate, and that the 
handheld device captures pictures of any  concern they may be addressing. 
A resident  reported that the previous Friday night/Saturday morning there 
was a shooting on  Hillsborough  Road at the Destinee night club followed by 
a car  chase, with the car crashing in front of his house about 2:30 in the 
morning.  His daughter had seen men crawl out  of the car and run. He 
wanted to note that Officer Waddell had approached the  family and was very 
sympathetic and effectively allayed the family’s fears, and  he expressed his 
appreciation for this. 
Another resident  noted that residents at the house they had been 
discussing had been shooting a  pistol in the back yard between houses. 
DEPARTMENTAL  UPDATES 
Durham Parks and  Recreation:  Audrey Gill introduced  Walltown Community 
Center representatives Gary Mattocks and Pam Sellars, who  spoke about 
upcoming programs at the new Walltown center, including junior  cheerleading, 
various teen programs, afterschool programs, and basketball, as  well as adult 
programs including open gym, cake decorating, wellness, and yoga,  and mature 
adult programs such as bridge, open gym, and trips to the fruitcake  
factory, state fair and Tanglewood Festival of Lights.  Other upcoming programs 
include teen  college campus tours, a college fair, and an adult cooking 
workshop.  The center is at 1308 West Club  Blvd., and the walking track is free 
for community  members.  Ms. Gill added that there  were several upcoming 
trips for mature adults, including an overnight trip to  Williamsburg, a 
computer class for seniors, fall festivals at West Point on the  Eno and W.D. 
Hill Recreation Center and the last 3rd Friday.  She also announced that the 
Campus Hills  center will close after December 5th for approximately eight 
months  for renovations. 
Neighborhood  Improvement Services: Ms. Mebane-Watts announced that Durham 
had hosted its  fourth Project Homeless Connect event the previous Thursday. 
 481 people had registered for services,  which was an increase from last 
year.  This was the first year that they had  partnered with the Veterans’ 
Administration for project “Stand Down”.  Mr. Leonti from NIS had volunteered 
to  give haircuts, and the YMCA at American Tobacco let people take 
showers. Over  500 volunteers participated. 
Larry Revelle  from Durham Human Relations announced the annual City of 
Durham Seven Stars  basketball tournament between the police department and 
fire department, to be  held at Holton Career and Resource Center on October 
14th.  The tournament is a fundraiser for a  needy cause.   
Cheryl asked  people to raise their hand if they had cruise control in 
their car, and  announced that next month would be pace car program month.  She 
also said that there were still No  Soliciting signs available. 
Solid Waste:  Recycling coordinator Larrisha McGill  said that blue 
schedules were on the back table, along with stickers for the  carts of what can 
and cannot go in them and new brochures. She also said that  the shredding and 
 electronic  recycling event the previous Saturday was well-attended, and 
they had to turn  away people because the pallets were all filled early, with 
a continuous flow of  traffic all day.  Another event is  scheduled for the 
first of the year, but electronics can go to the household  hazardous waste 
facility during regular hours.  
PROGRAM 
Charlie Fuller  and John Ruth of the North Carolina ABC Commission 
Education and Training  Division spoke about alcoholic beverage permits.  Mr. Fuller’
s division provides training  to businesses which have a permit to sell 
alcohol on selling and serving alcohol  responsibly and on civil liability.  
They are in involved in initiatives which include providing alcohol  
education, health and awareness programming to elementary, middle and high  schools.  
 
Most of the  questions provided by the group concerned sales at off-premise 
businesses.  There are two types of businesses:  on-premise businesses such 
as restaurants and off- premise businesses such as  convenience stores.  
The permitting  process is overseen by the permitting division, pricing 
division and legal  division.  An administrator oversees  the day-to-day 
operations.  If there  is a violation at a business then Alcohol Law Enforcement 
(ALE) should be  contacted, along with police if there are illegal activities 
happening.  ALE will investigate the complaint, and  if the business is cited 
for a violation the legal department takes action,  determines a settlement 
and mails the document to the permitee, who can agree to  the settlement or 
ask for a hearing.  The settlement may be a fine or  suspension, though 
there have been past cases of revocation due to death when  selling to underage 
persons.  For  illegal activities occurring on the premises, notify both 
police and ALE, which  will initiate an investigation.  Once the violation has 
been substantiated by an ALE officer, the legal  department would take civil 
action against the permitee by entering a  settlement 
Another question  involved businesses that were selling drug paraphernalia. 
 Mr. Fuller said that first the business  would be notified that the items 
they are selling are creating criminal activity  in the community.  There 
was also a  question concerning public opinion.  A public opinion form is 
circulated as part of the permitting process,  and the designee in Durham will 
either approve or disapprove the  application.  If there is an  objection and 
the business wants to be heard, then they will.  But the designee serves as 
the community  voice.  A resident asked whether the  ABC board has to take 
into account the community voice, and Mr. Fuller answered  that there was a 
fifteen-day window and the person should contact their designee  to see what 
his process was and how her voice could be heard.   
Bill asked if  permit revocation every actually happened?  Mr. Fuller said 
he would need to discuss  that with the legal department, and that he does 
not know how many permits have  been denied.  Dan Read wanted to  know what 
recourse could be taken if the permitee is causing problems in the  
neighborhood.  Mr. Fuller said he  should contact ALE and lodge a complaint, and the 
complaint would be  investigated.  If they find there  are violations a 
citation would be written and would go through the legal  department, and the 
permitee would receive a notice of the settlement.  Public hearings are held 
once per month  in Raleigh at  3322 Garner  Road and can be found listed 
under Events on the ABC  website.  Mr. Ruth said that a good  starting place 
would be to contact Durham County ABC Chief Derrick McMillan on  Chapel Hill 
Blvd. Mr. Fuller also said that a quarterly report from the ABC  commission 
listing all of the permits issued in district 2 should be going to  the PAC2 
facilitators.  He also said  that the ABC website could be used to find 
information on every permit in the  county, and whether it was active, temporary, 
or no longer active, and to find  the disposition of hearings.  
Bill wanted to  know if a permit is ever revoked?  Mr. Fuller said that for 
an ABC violation  which is a first offense the permit would not be revoked. 
 If drugs were being sold on the premises  then that is a law enforcement 
issue and not an ABC violation.  If the permit holder over time due to  
violence and crime has caused a problem in the community then the history of  
violations will be looked at and the appropriate sanction will be entered.  
Sanctions will depend on the level of  offense, and can rise to the level of 
revocation.  Captain Smith noted that a certain  convenience store in district 
2 has had at least three violations, including the  brother of a person 
working there making a drug deal in the parking lot, with  police following the 
person into the store and finding drugs on him; the person  was subsequentl
y charged and convicted.  ABC also had an issue there and made some  
arrests.  Special operations found  illegal gambling machines and a weapon.  One of 
the persons working there who is related to the permitee is a  convicted 
felon.  Guns have been  found, and police have made several drug buys in the 
parking lot.  The police have sent a history of the  violations, and the 
chief has sent a letter.  The seriousness of violations here would  seem to 
warrant revocation, and he would like to know how long this process  should 
take, since he had sent the legal department representative an email  detailing 
the calls for service a month ago and had since heard nothing.  Mr. Fuller 
recommended that he contact  the legal department and find out when the case 
is scheduled to be heard, then  go to the hearing and explain the problems 
they are having in the community.  Mike Woodard asked if they could  put a 
notice for the hearing on the listserv so citizens can attend.   
Someone said that  she thinks there is a problem with the system if it 
takes this much work to get  a permit revoked, and wanted to know what could be  
done to repair the system.  Bill said he would like to recreate  something 
like the old court-watch system and coordinate with police to have  citizens 
attend these hearings, and asked for a volunteer.  Peter Katz wanted to 
know why a permit  could not be suspended while violations were investigated, 
such as in the case  of a store where other illegal activities were 
occurring. Mr. Fuller noted that  revoking an ABC permit would not close the 
business, so would not solve the  problem.  He said that the  Commission did want to 
know if a permitted business was detrimental to the  community and was not 
being responsible.  Mr. Katz questioned whether, given the evidence in the 
above example  being given to the Commission by Durham police, it was the 
store not being  responsible or the ABC Commission not being responsible.   
Mike Shiflett  wanted to know about the responsibility of the Commission 
and law enforcement.  Mr. Fuller said the permit granted  by the Commission 
was a civil permit.  The Commission has total authority concerning whether the 
permit is  granted.  If there are problems and  ABC violations on the 
permitted property, and they have been cited to the  Commission, they will 
respond to that ABC violation.  The ABC Commission has no authority  other than 
concerning the permit.  Mr.  Shiflett noted that  since ABC violations were 
considered civil violations, then a preponderance of  evidence should be 
sufficient for the Commission to take action.  Mr. Fuller again suggested that 
people  bring these issues up during the open hearing.  Mr. Ruth asked Bill if 
he had talked to  Fred Gregory; Bill said that he had tried to talk to him 
and he refused to come  to a meeting.  
Bill said he  thought the ABC Commission was a monopoly, noting that some 
of the evidence  already presented seemed to be sufficient to warrant a 
permit revocation, but  that none had yet occurred.  On  Guess  Road persons at 
an establishment had nearly beat up  an ABC officer and Durham police had to 
intervene. The  establishment in question was breaking ABC laws before they 
were granted a  permit, but still obtained a permit one month later.   
Wanda Boone  wanted to know if responsible alcohol training is required, to 
which Mr. Fuller  answered that it was prior to getting a permit.  Durham 
Together for Resilient Youth and  Drug-Free Coalition sent letters out to 
permit holders to let them know that  they will be conducting purchase surveys. 
 Due to the economic downturn, ALE is not  performing the number of 
compliance checks as before, so TRY will send notice to  ALE if a store does not 
ask for identification before selling alcohol, and copy  the Durham sheriff 
and Durham police. If the  store passes, then they will be thanked by 
Coalition members.  Research has shown that when these  surveys are performed crime 
around the areas is reduced and store owners will be  more responsible 
because residents will not shop at their store if they are  known to sell alcohol 
irresponsibly.  
Ms. Boone wanted  to know who would do training for stores which are found 
to be not in  compliance.  Mr. Fuller said that  was an ALE issue.  Mr. 
Fuller said  that the Commission provides training and workshops on responsible 
sales and  service if someone wants to organize the training, but North 
Carolina is not a  mandatory compliance state, so training is only mandatory 
when first applying  for a permit.  Once an organization  sets up training, it 
is advertised on the ABC website and anyone can attend, and  will receive a 
certificate of training and the business will receive a  certificate of good 
practice.  Someone recommended that since it is a  privilege to sell 
alcohol, once a violation has been committed that the permit  should be suspended 
until the hearing.  Mr. Fuller said the first recourse for  suspected 
violations is to call ALE, that the Commission is not an enforcement  agency.  He 
said he could not answer  the question of why permits have not been revoked, 
but that the hearings were  the best venue for addressing the problem.  
The Education and  Training Division which he represents tries to train 
businesses to sell  responsibly, especially not selling to intoxicated persons 
and underage persons.  He said he would take the information from the 
particular case mentioned and  share it with one of the attorneys in the legal 
department.  Another person questioned the  transparency of the process and 
wanted to know how the public could get  information on permit revocations if 
Mr. Fuller couldn’t get it, to which he  replied that he had not been able to 
get it because he could not make contact  with the correct person, and he 
was not sure if the information was tracked in  that manner.  Steve Hall 
asked how  long the training for violators was, and Mr. Fuller replied that it 
was two  hours.  He said that police can set  up that class, but that 
attendance was voluntary unless a violation settlement  made it mandatory. He then 
referred people to the ABC Commission website at _www.ncabc.com_ 
(http://www.ncabc.com/)  for  more information, or said that  they could call 
919-779-0700 and speak to Fred Gregory for legal questions, or  Ann Johnson for 
permitting.  
The meeting was  adjourned at 7:40p.m. 
Respectfully  submitted, 
Sherry  Coulter 
Secretary
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