Two significant issues for ONSA Members were before the Oregon Liquor Control Commission in recent months. The City of Portland had petitioned the OLCC to create the first Alcohol Impact Area (AIA) under an OLCC rule, which has yet to be tested. Also, a group of OLCC Agents petitioned the Commission to allow State Liquor Stores to sell beer and wine. ONSA was very involved in both issues, and submitted written and oral testimony to OLCC.

Regarding the petition for OLCC Agents to sell beer and wine, at the conclusion of the proponents' testimony, the Agent representative asked the Commissioners to provide “One good common-sense reason why Agents should not sell beer and wine”. Chris Girard, President of Plaid Pantries, Inc. and an ONSA Director, began his testimony by answering that question: “There are 2,600 good reasons for Agents not to sell beer and wine… it is unfair competition for the mostly family owned and operated smaller stores in Oregon which don't enjoy a monopoly on selling hard liquor”.

Only one citizen submitted written testimony against this initiative, and only one other person, a representative of the Beer and Wine Distributors, appeared at the hearing to testify against this rule change. Fortunately, after considering the testimony from ONSA and the Distributors, the Commissioners voted unanimously to deny the Agents' petition.

Regarding the Alcohol Impact Area initiative, after receiving advance copies of ONSA's written testimony, the City of Portland abruptly withdrew their petition only two days before the scheduled hearing in front of the Commissioners. The reason given for the withdrawal was to “rewrite portions of the petition and re-submit it in the very near future”.

ONSA continues to believe that there are very serious factual problems with the City's petition, which cannot be remedied by simply rearranging the narrative. The earliest the petition could be heard again by the Commissioners would be at their June 2 nd meeting. It is likely that the City of Portland will not be prepared in time for this date, and there is no Commission meeting in July, so we expect to see it again at the August 11, 2005 Commission meeting. ONSA will continue to follow this important issue, not only for our Members in North Portland , but more importantly, for the statewide implications for all other market areas.