SENATOR PROMISES TO TOUGHEN BILL ON ILLEGAL BOOZE SALES

SACRAMENTO -- Under fire from youth advocates, a state senator said
Thursday that she will sharply scale back a controversial bill that could
have given liquor retailers an extra chance to keep their license after
selling booze to a minor.

``We feel that we are trying to do the right thing. But with this kind of
controversy, we just think that this is probably better left for another
day,'' said Sen. Deirdre Alpert, D-San Diego, the author of the legislation.

Existing law allows the revocation of a retailer's license for three
illegal sales to a minor in a three-year period.

Alpert said her bill, which already had passed the state Senate, would have
given liquor retailers a one-time chance to clear one violation from their
record if they met certain conditions intended to prevent future problems.

She said those conditions would have included special training of the
retailer's employees, purchase of high-tech identification card readers, a
self-enforcement program and having no violations for a one-year probation
period.

``We felt that this was a carrot-and-stick approach, a fair way to try to
change behavior,'' Alpert said.

But critics, including anti-alcohol abuse groups, law enforcement officers
and youth advocates, had sharply criticized the bill. They said it would
have greatly undermined existing law, allowed bad liquor retailers to
remain open and sent a troubling message to youth that the state was not
serious about cracking down on illegal sales.

Some critics pointed to support of the bill from retailers and alcoholic
beverage industry interests. They noted that Alpert and other lawmakers had
in the past received campaign contributions from the beverage industry.

Alpert adamantly denied that her measure, SB 1696, was a liquor industry bill.

``I get very little (campaign) money from the liquor industry. This bill
came to me from constituents in my district who are restaurant owners and
bar owners,'' she said.

``A lot of the publicity has been very unfair . . . The liquor industry has
nothing to do with this bill at all,'' she added.

But after further discussions Thursday, Alpert said she would amend the
bill to remove the violation-clearing provision and all but two other parts
of the measure. One of the remaining provisions would allow retail
employees to temporarily seize the identification of people trying to buy
alcohol with either false IDs or IDs showing they were underage.

The bill had been scheduled for a hearing next week before an Assembly
policy committee, although Alpert said that hearing may now be postponed
because of the changes.

Checked-by: Richard Lake