The lottery to pick successful package liquor store applicants in Dayton, Tenn., has clogged up in court after a temporary restraining order was filed by one applicant when application deadline dates were changed.
City leaders waited until after the April 19 election in which voters passed the package store referendum to begin working on the process in case the referendum was rejected. Officials decided to limit the number of stores to three, to be chosen in an independently drawn lottery. More than a dozen potential store owners initially picked up application documents, city officials said in early July.
Applicants were required to complete a number of requirements to be considered for the lottery, among them publishing a notice of intent in a “newspaper of general circulation” for three consecutive editions by the original deadline of July 31, according to documents in Rhea County Chancery Court. Members of the public had until Sept. 15 to formally submit comments or objections about any applicants.
But one of the 12 applicants, John Richard Vaughn, on Sept. 12 filed for and was granted a restraining order against the city of Dayton to temporarily halt the lottery process, court records show. Vaughn asserts that “only a few of the 12 applicants complied with the ordinance and/or the rules and regulations promulgated by the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission regarding notice of intent to seek such applications.”
The city extended the deadline for the three published notices for some applicants, a move Vaughn maintains was not fair.