The Fall River Licensing Board convened on Tuesday, September 13, 2022, at 12 p.m. noon. The meeting began with the reading of the Open Meeting Law and an opportunity for citizen input, though no one was present to speak. The board then addressed two Open Meeting Law complaints filed by Mr. Patrick Higgins. The first complaint, dated July 27, 2022, alleged that the Chairman required votes for managers not listed on the agenda for non-liquor license items and that a transferring party for a license was not publicly identified. The board acknowledged the procedural error regarding manager approvals and voted unanimously to refer this complaint to Corporation Council. The second complaint, dated August 25, 2022, alleged that the July complaints were improperly referred without public review. This complaint was also unanimously referred to Corporation Council after a brief discussion. Following the discussion of the complaints, the board voted unanimously to set November 30th, 2022, by 12 p.m. as the deadline for filing all 2023 license renewals. Board member Miss Cadero also announced that approved 2023 licenses would be available for pickup starting December 13th and must be collected by December 30th, 2022, at 12 p.m. The meeting concluded with a unanimous vote to adjourn.
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City Officials
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hi good afternoon i'd like to call this uh meeting of the four river licensing board to order it is tuesday september 13 2022 at 12 p.m noon i'll open with reading of the open meeting law pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any media attendees are therefore advised that such recordings
0:24or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible the city's charter section 918 mandates that all multiple member bodies develop and adopt rules or policy for public comment we have adopted such a policy policy which ensure provides for citizens input on licensing board specific matters at the beginning of the
0:47meeting there is a sign up sheet that is located at the back of the room moving to our agenda item number one and i we do not have anyone who has signed in but i will ask is there anyone here who would like to offer citizens input for the edification of of those watching we have no one in the auditorium at this time moving on to agenda item number two all business slash new business we will
1:15review the open meeting law complaints from mr patrick higgins from july 27 2022 and august 25th 2022 and offering a brief um offering a brief summary of the july 27 2022 open meeting complaint um the um complaint states that as chairman i was i required businesses to have a vote to approve managers when they were not listed as the posted agenda these particular establishments apparently in my era do not have to
2:00appoint a manager for non-liquor license related items a second allegation uh changed the manager of the our lady of light band and changing uh on an additional transfer of a license related to a package store the transferring party was not identified publicly at the meeting obviously the the transferring party is is typically identified on applications and whatnot so those are the um allegations
2:36uh alleged violating the open meeting law um in the in the um future we will uh correctively uh not ask for approving managers for non-liquor license item matters unless it is stated on the agenda or for some reason it is required in the future i can say that i had asked a local attorney if it was any sort of a violation if we did ask for a um a manager in those particular
3:10situations and it may have been my error i was told uh paraphrasing that um basically attorneys stated that it probably wouldn't hurt any matters or things of that nature but if it's something that's not on the agenda and should not have been taken to a vote where i should not have requested um then certainly we won't uh repeat this action at our uh at our public meetings so at this point i would um request a
3:44i would request a motion to refer the summarized violation to corporation council i'll make a motion uh to refer this matter to corporation council motion made by miss cadero seconded by myself all those in favor aye madam uh item moves forward uh madame clerk the second violation of uh dated for the august meeting again was that opening meeting laws are typically not simply referred to
4:20corporation council but they should at least be publicly summarized or discussed in the meeting so again these were referring to the july open meeting complaint where they were referred to the corporation council um i can state the the law as the complainant mr higgins has quoted here the body public may delegate this responsibility to an uh individual member of the public body its council or
4:50staff but only after the public body has reviewed the complaint so this is a i get again my words a procedural violation as opposed to what i would classify as as the complaint related to the july meeting so we improperly referred the matter without reviewing to corporation council and at this point again we're here to uh we've rectified the prior complaint and we would also the chairman would entertain a motion to
5:26refer the follow-up complaint of august 25th 2022 to corporation council i'll uh make a motion to refer the follow-up complaint to corporation counsel uh motion made by ms cadero seconded by myself all in favor and clerk's second complaint will be referred to corporation council and i trust if we have not met procedural requirements madam clerk please ask corporation council to advise us
6:05in writing after watching this public meeting if we did not handle the matter correctly okay and again staying with all business new business uh item two b uh a vote the board would need to take a vote on 2023 license renewal dates the board chairman would entertain a motion i'll make a motion to make the last day to file all licenses november 30th by 12 pm motion made by miss kaderos seconded by
6:40myself all in favor aye aye motion passes um any comment ms godero i'd like to state that after the december meeting on december 12th licenses may be picked up on december 13th and uh will need to be picked up by december 30th by 12 pm um i don't believe that a declarant statement needs a motion uh the public is uh is aware when they'll be able to pick up their approved licenses for the calendar year 2023
7:18madam clerk so at this point uh chair will entertain a motion to adjourn i'll make a motion to adjourn motion made by miss cadero seconded by myself all those in favor aye this meetings adjourned thank you