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.
"I knew that [notices of intent] could be published in the Chattanooga paper, but the city attorney had told people that they couldn't," he said Tuesday. Local newspaper The Herald-News, published twice a week in Dayton, is the only other newspaper of general circulation in the city.
But when the deadline dates were changed, Vaughn handed over a letter stating his case during the Dayton City Council's September meeting.
"I also knew of a possible applicant that was turned away because the city permit clerk told him all ads must be in the Rhea Herald-News. So I went to city hall and spoke to the permit clerk and she told me that the city attorney, Susan Arnold, originally said it must be in The Herald-News, but has since changed it to allow all these applicants that would be rejected," Vaughn states in his letter in an account of the September meeting in The Herald-News.
Arnold responded to Vaughn's letter during that meeting.
"I did have extensive conversations with the attorney for the state Alcoholic Beverage [Commission] as well as the attorney for Municipal Technical Advisory Service and they said applicants could use either The Herald-News or the Times Free Press," the Dayton paper quotes Arnold as saying. "We are only to make sure the publication has taken place. That being said, some applicants used the wrong date and used the July 31 date instead of the Sept. 15 date."
Arnold said at the meeting that an attorney with ABC said applications with the incorrect date should be allowed to participate in the drawing, but they'd have to republish, according to the Dayton paper's account.
"He specifically asked me to contact those individuals directly and have those applicants republish using the Sept. 15 date," Arnold said, noting that the ABC rules supersede city ordinances.
On Tuesday, Vaughn said he just wanted all the applicants to be playing by the same rules.
Chancery Court officials said the city has not yet filed a response and that attorney Ron Wells will be taking over the case for the city. The case is now set for a hearing on Nov. 1.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton or at www.facebook.com/benbenton1.