Source: Maui Time, Maui News, Best of Maui, Maui Activities

LC%20Watch
Good Times

by By Anthony Pignataro

November 30, 2006

Being a part of the Maui County Department of Liquor Control—be it a member of either the Liquor Commission or Board of Adjudication or part of the staff that actually runs the place—isn’t all reading license applications or complaints and accusations. LC guys get to go to workshops, conferences and training seminars, sometimes in exotic locales. According to the recently released LC Annual Report, commissioners, board members and staffers got to take six trips—most expenses paid—in fiscal year 2006.



First off was the 19th Annual National Liquor Law Enforcement Conference in Tysons Corner, Virginia. From Sept. 7-10, 2005, LC Supervising Investigator Richard Isaacs got the privilege to attend lectures on “Intelligence-led Liquor Enforcement: Using Data to Analyze and Solve Compliance Risks” and “Staying on the Road to Effective Alcohol Law Enforcement.”



The Annual State Liquor Investigator’s Workshop took place September 28 and 29, 2005 at the Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort & Spa. Eight LC Officers attended that one, and undoubtedly took a lot of notes during discussions ranging from “Best Practices” to “Ethics” to “Noise.”



Then there was, of course, the big state of Hawai`i conference in October 2005 at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel on the Big Island (see “The Royal Treatment,” Dec. 2, 2005 for more on which LC personnel attended and what they expensed). There they took part in such discussions as “Interstate Wine Sales” and “Stay Alive from Education.”



A month later, a smaller group flew to Santa Fe, New Mexico for the Central and Western Regional Conference of State Liquor Administrators. Included on the agenda: “the regulation of formats and packaging of new products from jellos to mists.”



Who could forget the magical National Liquor Law Enforcement Association Training Academy, held in Salt Lake City, Utah in May of this year? Rookie LC Investigators Chad Gardanier and Gene Silva attended this one, in where they learned to “address concerns and solve problems that may occur.”



And the 72nd Annual National Conference of State Liquor Administrators took place in June 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts. There LC Director Franklyn Silva and a few staffers got the very latest on “An Appropriate Legal Drinking Age,” “Liquor Hearings—Trials, Tribulations & Ethical Dilemmas” and “Toward Liquor Control—Revisited.”