The City Council has voted 3-2 to put Jiffy Stop's beer license on a six-month probation, after the store failed four of five police tests of selling alcohol to minors during the past year.
Located at 310 N. Main Street, the convenience store owned by Sinclair Oil Co. almost had its beer license suspended by the council at its Dec. 9 meeting.Councilman Garr Roundy initially proposed a seven-day license suspension. However, some new information revealed that the store's owners may not have been directly notified of some of their failures in the stings.
It was then that another motion was made and passed to put the store on probation.
Roundy and Councilwoman Diane Layton voted against the new motion made by Councilman Curt Oda, believing probation was not a severe enough penalty for the failures.
In fact, Layton said she felt a 30-day beer license suspension was justified.
Police Chief Morton Sparks brought the issue to the council.
"It was beyond my tolerance level," he said.
Four such failures of beer stings in a year is the most ever for a single store in Davis County.
Todd Cawley, representing Sinclair, said the store has instituted a more intensive training program for its cashiers.
He said wine coolers were the alcoholic product sold during most of the stings. They've been pulled off the shelf and will not be sold by the store until progress is made with some in-house stings.
Cawley said the packaging for wine coolers is very similar to that of some fruit juices.
"We're concerned. We understand our commitment to the community," Cawley said.
Davis County operates its sting program in six cities, with the cooperation of city police departments. Stores are tested quarterly.
"We're anxious for our businesses to succeed," Sparks said.
The county has not in the past sent an official letter to store managers about sting failures. It has only notified workers in the store itself immediately after a failed test.
Cawley said Sinclair was not aware the store had failed the first two stings. The county will now also consider notifying store managers in writing about failures. This will alleviate concerns that otherwise it's up to employees working in the store at the time of the failure to tell their manager or the store owner about the incident.
Roundy said the council will use a far more severe penalty, such as license suspension, if the store fails a future sting.
Cawley said the store has stickers throughout the store to remind employees to ask for I.D. on all sales of alcohol. Employees also now know that a sting failure will result in the offending cashier being fired. He said positive incentives for in-house stings include free dinners for employees who pass them.