WESTFIELD – The License Commission voted Monday to approve the corporate reorganization of the Slovak Citizens Club to bring the club into compliance with state regulation, the first fraternal or social club to be fully in compliance with a new state regulation.
The state Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission (ABCC) initiated a program for fraternal and social clubs last summer to update the lists of corporate officers, which in some cases still listed former officers who had since passed away.
The ABCC sent a September 30, 2014 communication to the local license commission requiring the local boards to have accurate data for social and fraternal clubs which have a license to serve alcohol and to use the license renewal license “to ensure that all officers and directors are registered with your board and the ABCC,” Licensing Director Denise Carey said at the Oct. 6, 2014 License Commission meeting.
Carey said last fall that the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission is “respectfully recommending that you take this opportunity to ensure that all club licensees have current officers and directors identified in your license file and that said officers and directors have been approved by your board as well as this agency.”
Part of the problem is that historically social and fraternal clubs have been required to submit documents listing corporate officers and directors to the Secretary of State, not the ABCC, and often those documents were not changed to reflect election of new officers and directors.
The ABCC made the new regulation a requirement for renewing a liquor license earlier this year. Compliance with the ABCC regulation could be expensive for local clubs because both the city and state access a fee of $200 to change the listed officers and directors.
The issue is further complicated by the fact that the clubs all have different charters under which they operate, some with house committees, some with boards of directors, and others with trustees. Some of the clubs have two tiers of officers, one managing the licensed premises and the other managing the club building and property.
Attorney Raymond W. Zenkert Jr., said the Slovak Club used the city’s liquor license renewal form to present the list of officers and directors Monday night.
Carey said the Slovak Club is the first to bring its liquor license documents into full compliance with the ABCC requirement.
“It is the first club to come in to update it records to comply with the new ABCC regulation, and will have do this again in early January, 2016, because they will be installing new officers,” Carey said.
All liquor licenses are renewed on a calendar year cycle, while several of the clubs elect new officers annually, meaning that the club would have to pay $400 every year to change its license to reflect new officers.
