The Chattanooga Beer and Wrecker Board on Thursday rejected a tentative settlement agreement between the city and the Blue Light nightclub stemming from the club’s appeal of six Beer Board violations dating to the end of 2021.
The board handed out the citations during its regular monthly meetings on Nov. 4 and Nov. 18, weeks after the club opened in late August of 2021. The club immediately appealed, which sent the cases to Hamilton County Chancery Court. After two days of hearings last month, June 27-28, Judge Jeffrey Atherton set a third date for July 19 and urged the two parties to explore mediation, which they did on July 12 with attorney Sam Elliott serving as the mediator.
As required by law, City Attorney Phil Noblett presented the agreement to the Beer Board for approval Thursday morning, but the board voted 5-2 to reject it. Because the board rejected the proposed agreement, the case picks up where it left off with attorneys for the Blue Light presenting their proof in Chancery Court. No date has been set.
According to Noblett, details of the agreement called for considering only the two October violations for failure to report a disturbance and operating a disorderly place related to a disturbance that was alleged to have happened on Oct. 31, 2021. The other four violations from late 2021 as well as a new violation that reportedly involved the Blue Light on Jan. 22 of this year were not to be considered as part of the agreement.
Board members Cynthia Coleman and Vince Butler questioned why that was the case, and Noblett said it was part of the mediation agreement. In voting against the agreement, Butler said he took offense at Blue Light co-owner Brian Joyce’s “arrogance and attitude” displayed on several occasions toward the Beer Board, the city, the Beer Board’s city attorney at the time, Melinda Foster, and the Chattanooga Police Department.