Home>Articles>Yuba County Sheriff Questions CA State Alcoholic Beverage Control Closing Down Bars in Newly Re-Opened Rural County

Sheriff Wendell Anderson. (Photo: Yuba County Sheriff)

Yuba County Sheriff Questions CA State Alcoholic Beverage Control Closing Down Bars in Newly Re-Opened Rural County

The State is sending in agents without notifying the local authorities?

By Katy Grimes, May 6, 2020 4:04 pm

California Globe was informed by several Facebook friends that in the rural counties which have reopened, the State is sending in agents from the California Department of State Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) to close down bars.

Tuesday, a women reported that she and her husband had been enjoying a beer in a bar in Yuba Sutter when ABC agents came in, booted the customers out and shut the bar down. Others reported similar incidents.

On Wednesday, we found out from our friends at the Territorial Dispatch that the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control was doing this without notifying the local authorities.

Enter Yuba County Sheriff Wendell Anderson, who penned a letter to the Citizens and Businesses in Yuba County.

Wednesday May 6th, 2020

It was brought to the attention of local law enforcement that yesterday, representatives from the California Department of State Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) were in the Yuba-Sutter area contacting businesses. We are working with local businesses to obtain more information about each specific contact and what information ABC provided. We recognize ABC has licensing authority over a business’ ability to serve alcoholic beverages. We are working with state and local officials to help mediate this issue moving forward. We encourage any business contacted by a state agency to ask for, and verify, proper identification and request a copy of any complaint that led to the business being contacted. Business owners should consider contacting their respective attorneys for legal guidance on any contacts from a state agency.

We support the decision to resume business and support the local order by our health officer. We would like to remind and urge local businesses to educate themselves on the specifics of the local order and to take steps to be in compliance.

Similar to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s apparent get-even beach closures in Orange County, it’s not difficult to believe the ABC agents were acting similarly with these rural counties which re-opened against the governor’s orders.

One woman wrote on Facebook that “the ABC is not allowing on site liquor sales in Yuba Sutter. But you can still order it to go. In your car. You can put it right there, right in your cup holder. That’s where you can drive with your booze. In the cup holder, handily placed in arms reach of your steering wheel. iTs fOr yOuR sAfEtY.”

She posted video of two California ABC agents, standing close together in the bar, sans glove or masks, ordering everyone else to properly socially distance. A patron asked the agents why they didn’t socially distance from each other or wear masks and gloves. “We’re working right now,” was the answer.

Ironically, on its website, the Alcoholic Beverage Control agency says, “We are aware that this pandemic has had very real and immediate impacts on businesses, community-based organizations, and local government agencies we serve and work with. Because the stakes are so high, we understand that we need to be as flexible as we can during this very difficult phase of confronting this virus.”

It’s not a stretch to see this as retribution to smarty-pants counties which have re-opened without marching in lockstep with the governor. And the state’s licensing authority over a business’ ability to do its job is a big threat.

But the message to the governor is that one size does not fit all of California’s 57 counties, 164,000 square miles of land, and 40 million residents.

California Department of State Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) website. (Photo: screen capture, abc.ca.gov)

 

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8 thoughts on “Yuba County Sheriff Questions CA State Alcoholic Beverage Control Closing Down Bars in Newly Re-Opened Rural County

  1. No doubt Newsom is at the helm playing gotcha with our county. Let us please evict him from wielding unnecessary swords at us.

  2. I applaud Yuba and Sutter counties for opening up as much business as possible, but it appears that Big Brother is going to intimidate our businesses with threats of shutdowns and fines, as well as loss of licenses of specific types of businesses , never forget, ours is government by the people. These decisions are been made politically, not based on accurate scientific facts. Yuba and Sutter counties have ha d a total of 50 cases, yet we have been completely shut down.

  3. So is it the ABC that cites dui’s? HA! that bunch of idiots just said its okay to drink in your car. How stupid do you have to be work for this state?

    1. I don’t know why CA has ABC agents. Waste of money. This could be handled by the counties.

  4. Does any one know where the recall is for Newsom? We should get this guy out of office before he ruins more rural counties and businesses…

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