Uh ladies, are y'all ready for me?

Yes, okay.

Good morning, everyone.

I'd like to call this meeting of the Chad Nigger Beer Board to order.

Uh welcome to everybody today for being here.

Uh all meeting attendees must sign in at the sign-in sheet at the podium then for sunshine law requirements, so if you haven't done so, please do that.

Uh at this time we ask you to uh mute or turn off your electronic devices so we don't interrupt the meeting.

Make sure I do I do that, okay.

And all individuals wishing to address the board must do so from the podium, and please state your name before making comments, and we do ask you to please step uh speak up also.

It's a little hard sometimes up here to see.

All right, there we go.

Good morning.

How you doing, buddy?

No, you're good.

It's traffic.

All right.

Okay.

First item on our agenda is approval of the minutes for the meeting of March nineteenth, twenty twenty-six.

Is there a motion to approve those minutes?

Make a motion to approve the meeting March 19th, 23.

All right.

Uh is there a second?

Second.

All right.

All in favor approving the minutes of March 19th, 2026.

Signify by saying aye.

All right.

Opposed.

None noted.

Okay.

At this time, our court reporter will swear in.

If you're coming to speak at the podium today, you'll need to be sworn in before we get started.

So Lori, I'll turn that over to you.

Anybody that's going to be speaking on anything on the agenda is handed this morning to find.

I do.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Sergeant Cowan, if you'll bring us up to date, please, sir.

Yes, sir.

The following are the applications that have already been approved.

Uh number one, the smart music project, springtime in Chattanooga.

Uh TE 117, Mr.

Robert Davis is the organizer.

Uh this was for two oh one Riverfront Parkway on April the 11th from 10 to 5.

Number two, Friends of the Festival, Riverfront Nights, Free Summer Music Series.

Mickey McCamish is the organizer for 100 Riverfront Parkway with uh multiple dates.

May the 23rd and May the 30th from 6 to 10.

Also TE 120.

Uh Riverfront Nights free summer music series with multiple dates on that one as well.

June the 6th, June the 13th, June the 20th, and June the 27th.

Number four, Friends of the Festival.

Uh continuing with the uh free summer music series.

July the 4th, July the 11th, July the 18th, and July the 25th.

T E 121.

120 TE 122, Friends of the Festival, Free Summer Music Series, August the 1st, August the 8th, August the 22nd, August the 29th, and Number 6, TE 123, Friends of the Festival as well for September the 5th.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Next item is new temporary beer permit applications.

We have one reflection writing.

Is it uh been approved or do we know yet?

It has it has been approved, yes.

All right, so E118.

TE 118 reflection writing has been approved.

Okay, beer applications passed from the last meeting.

The W Y sports bar.

Let's see.

He's here.

He's here.

Yes, sir.

All right.

I think we had a zoning issue the last time on this one.

That was corrected.

And um, how y'all doing?

I have Willie Cox.

My name is Willie Cox.

All right.

Before we get started, Mr.

Cox, has this been approved by zoning, or where are we on it?

So there was a no in the portal.

Let me see.

It's been approved by zoning.

Good.

It has.

Yes, that's correct.

Great.

All right.

So this is uh name change and ownership.

So you're becoming the new owner?

Yes.

Right.

So I'm just moving from uh three blocks down.

And so I had Bill License last year, and I had Bill License for 12 years.

So what I'm trying to just give you a I got an application on the new location.

Okay.

Great.

All right.

Now any questions from any members?

Yes.

Chair.

Uh I don't.

I'm trying to recall while he was speaking.

Did we take care of what legal had on record?

I know there was something that legal wanted to bring to the board.

Yeah, so in your background check, it shows that there is a charge for um possession of gambling device or record in gambling in 2021.

Well it had been uh dismissed.

I got paperwork on it.

It would dismiss the 2022.

Okay.

All right.

I just wanted to.

And they pulled in a sponge from record.

Well, just so that you know this showed up on your FBI background check.

Yeah.

So you may you may want to double check that exponentially.

I went up to get it disponible.

They told me it'd be uh seven weeks uh seven months before I can get it a sponge off of the record.

But they dismissed it.

I got to dismiss the paper where they dismissed it.

Okay.

Can we make a copy of this to put it in his wow?

All right.

Any questions from any of the board members?

There's Veronica.

All right.

And what's your hours?

Uh my hours from 12 to 9.

12 o'clock.

I have old older group people that come in, you know, retired, and so that you know, and they so I don't have nobody on over 35 and you know, under 35 come in, you know.

So from noon to nine.

Noon at night.

Yeah, so nine nine and um 12 o'clock to nine at night.

So and are you serving food also?

I'm not.

Just beer.

Are you doing alcohol?

Yes, beer.

Is it BYOB or yeah.

Yes, beer, no uh, no food, no, and you know, nothing else, just beer.

Okay.

Are you serving alcohol?

Or not are they bringing alcohol in?

No, I'm not.

Uh uh.

No, the question.

I didn't have no brown bag.

I know they unless they're brown bagging or something, you know.

So they are brown bagging or they're not.

They're not.

So what I'm hearing you say is there will be no alcohol in your building at all.

Oh, if they brought brown bag, yes, if he brown bag, and you know, if it didn't bag, you know, but I don't I'm not trying to get uh local license or nothing like that for that just brown bag.

So what I just heard you say is they're going to be able to be BYOB bring their own bottle.

Yes.

Okay.

There is a license, and that's why I want to go down this road with you.

There is a license that you need to apply for brown bags.

That is correct.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, then you probably need to do that before they start bringing them in.

Okay, because that that can lead up to a citation.

Okay, no problem.

Got it.

Okay.

All right.

Good point.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

All right.

Is there a motion to approve the application?

I make a motion that we approve W Sports Bar Beer 1387.

Okay.

Is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion to the motion?

Not all call the roll.

Betsy.

Yes.

Raginald?

Yes.

JW?

Yes.

Uh Gene?

Yes.

Veronica?

Yes.

Brooke?

Yes.

Christy?

Yes.

And the chair votes.

Yes.

So all right.

Good luck.

Thank you very much.

Yes.

Hopefully.

Yes, sir.

Still don't do it.

I have a question.

I was thinking it was Christie.

I didn't realize.

It's around a couple of boards.

Sorry.

Okay.

All right.

Make that correction.

All right.

Very good.

Glad we got that one squared away.

Okay.

Next item on our agenda is new beer applications.

Bertha, I'll let you uh read the read that place, ma'am.

Representing the Hatch Outfitters LLC doing business as the Hatch Outfitters.

Seth Fields.

I think he's here.

Is making application to engage in the sell of consumer beer at 3227 Branett Road?

Mr.

Fields has had a beer permit for this location.

The location is owned by John Conrad and his own C Cybody here for the for the uh hatch outfitters.

Okay, if not, then I guess I'll accept a motion to move it to our next meeting.

You still we still have some are we working on something on this legal-wise?

Uh they're missing their FBI back.

Okay, all right.

So I can't approve it, but I don't like it.

All right.

Okay, is there a motion to move it to our next meeting?

I make a motion that we move uh beer 1394 to our next meeting, which is April 16th, April 16th, thanks.

I'll second.

All right.

Any further discussion to the motion?

All in favor of proving moving the moving the uh application to the next meeting.

Signify by saying aye.

Aye opposed, none noted.

All right, thank you.

Bertha.

Next applicant representing Flatlands 2 LLC doing business as Champions Chicken.

Seth Seth Champion is making application to engage in the sale of consumer beer at 6925 Lee Highway.

Mr.

Champion has had a big treat for this location.

The location is owned by Jay Lee and his zone C C morning, Mr.

Chairman Board.

Uh Attorney Chuck Lawson here for Champions.

Um we have held a valid license for a decade there.

It lapsed.

Um we've reached out to the city.

Learned that the traditional early warning system, if you will, the 60-day notification for renewal did not occur.

Apparently, it it hit a lot of us.

Um our district manager who's present today, uh, Mr.

Aaron Murray realized it, self-reported, and immediately completed all the application protocols, background check, all the inspections, fire marshal, everything.

We understand from just this morning that everything is in and it's just waiting this step for approval.

And we have a little electronic confirmation of that.

I hope that's consistent with what you guys see on your end.

Yeah, I signed off on it.

Well, before we get started, I will say it's the best crawfish I've ever eaten.

Okay, now that we're now that that's over with.

Is there any questions for the applicant?

Yes.

Uh good morning.

Good morning.

I heard you say it lapse.

How long from the expiration date till now, I'm assuming.

21 days was yesterday, and no beer has been sold.

So in that 21-day interim, everything was completed because we had to do a new application as opposed to the renewal.

So, you know, fortunately, we were able to get in here, but it's been actually three weeks and one day to date from the lapse.

Oh, excuse me.

It lapsed at the beginning of the year.

Correct.

Okay.

But from when we self-reported, it's been three weeks because we didn't we didn't realize it.

And once we did, we reported it.

And you know, the mayor's office, Chris Anderson acknowledged we can see in our system we didn't send anything out, you know, emails, letters, any notices of the need to renew.

And so that's why we self-reported.

Right.

So I heard you say two things.

Uh so from January till now.

Till now.

Have Champions been selling beer?

Not once we realized it.

The day we saw it, which is when we self-reported, which was March 11, all beer sales were suspended.

Okay.

Okay.

And then you stated uh that you all didn't receive the notifications.

Correct, as acknowledged by the mayor's office that they look and so error on the city's bill.

Well, they it there I I'll I'll explain it this way in answer to that.

This Monday, the mayor himself issued an executive order granting a 90-day grace period to people who would had a valid beer license as late as January of 24 and had not renewed it.

If they once they complete their application for the new permit, they will be given 90 days to sell beer within that waiting period until we can get before the honorable board.

Okay, and there is a posting that will be provided that we can put in place of the permit so that and in that EO, the executive order, he recites that we didn't send the notice that we customarily and regularly do for bars and restaurants to renew.

Right, thank you, sir.

And I see uh Chris Anderson uh is here as well.

You want to address us?

Do we need to do the application?

Yeah, let's do the application.

I think he's speaking on their behalf.

Uh here's nine copies of the executive order.

It is germane to this discussion if you would allow me a minute.

There we go.

Take one down and pass the grant.

There we go.

I mean, I think I got another chairman Mayfield.

May I address the board just briefly?

I don't want to keep you here all morning.

Please, sir.

Uh, first of all, uh, Chris Anderson, mayor's office on behalf of Mayor Kelly.

Once again, thank you for being on one of the hardest working boards in the city of Chattanooga.

Most people don't have to meet twice a month like you guys do, and the meetings don't go quite as long for most of the other boards.

So thank you for your volunteer service here today.

Uh I just handed out a copy of Mayor Kelly's executive ordered uh 2026-03 that was issued this week.

Um we have an issue with notification.

I I would quibble just a little bit with no notification was sent out.

That's we don't believe that's correct.

What we believe is happening is notification is being sent to whoever applied for the permit last.

And you know, I've worked a lot of my career in restaurants.

Um, many of you up there have.

Do you have the same people 12 months after you apply for a permit?

No, it's it's a high turnover business, and our system does not reflect that.

Uh, soon you will see an ordinance uh before city council, and I will brief this body before it goes to city council that changes that permitting process to more comply with a change in state law that allows us to do it far less frequently as far as the permit renewals less frequently.

Right.

Uh but we did discover this, and the mayor issued the executive order to allow businesses to come into compliance without fear of coming forward to tell us that they're expired and we don't know it, and then they get hit with a penalty of okay.

Well, you can't sell beer for two or three months.

Thanks for being honest with us.

So this is an attempt to get everyone into compliance in the city.

If they've had this issue, countless others have had it too.

This is an effort to get compliance, which is our goal.

And I'll take any questions you have on it, share a board.

Chris, where do y'all see the uh where do you see the lack of how does it break down?

So the system that we use is open gov in the treasury office, and basically you don't we don't know how to contact every restaurant in town unless they self-identify their contact information to us.

Otherwise, that database doesn't exist.

So when someone applies, let's say they're the assistant general manager or whoever it is who's told to apply for the beer permit, they put in their email address.

Now they may be you know, name at name of restaurant.com, or it may be a Gmail address or maybe whatever.

And there are many times we had this issue last year too, and thought we had a solution to it then.

Turned out it didn't work, so we're gonna do something more radical.

Um, where people we do send out the notices, and the people in charge of the business simply do not receive them because the person has moved on and they don't live here anymore, or whatever the issue with hundreds and hundreds of restaurant permits in Chattanooga, this happens.

Okay, got it.

So let's go.

Is there uh any consideration being given to sending a written notice to the physical address of the restaurant?

We we considered a lot of options, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh that one is pretty cost prohibitive when you think about how many uh restaurants there are not only for the postage and the cost of printing, but also the staff hours that would go into mailing every single restaurant in Chattanooga.

Uh that's what I thought of first, uh, but it's it's too cumbersome.

So uh state law allows us to go to a much simpler form, uh, and we'll be doing that within the next couple of months.

I've already written a draft of the ordinance change, and uh attorney McDonald uh was in it yesterday making some edits that were very helpful.

Thank you.

Uh and we should have that any day now.

Okay, great.

Uh questions, yes.

Chris, were you all to bring this executive order out?

Were you all bombarded by uh customers or our suppliers just because what brought on the executive order?

We've had a couple of different restaurant groups that have come to us with hey, we would have complied if we had gotten the notification.

We want to, and they told us, because I'll tell you, we we don't necessarily know if somebody has expired unless we go look at every single permit.

So I applaud those restaurants that have told us, hey, we're not in compliance, we need to renew.

They've self-reported.

And if there are a couple of restaurant groups, there are others.

Right.

Chris, may I ask, excuse me, under scope of authorization, the duration.

Can you please clarify the statement there?

The state of Tennessee allows municipal mayors 15 days to issue emergency executive orders, which uh Mayor Kelly has done, as have uh most of his predecessors in the mayor of Chattanooga's office.

Um we can only issue it for a 15-day period.

You may remember a few years ago when we had the police presence down on Station Street due to an increase in in violent activity there.

I think it was three years ago that I spent every weekend down there over the summer.

Um we had about a four-month executive order period, but we had to reissue it every 15 days.

This one is issued for 15 days.

We may extend it to 30 with a second 15-day order, but the order actually gives the applicant 90 days from the moment they reapply.

It's not just, hey, we're expired, give us a permit.

It's hey, we're expired, and here is a new completed application, and while it's going through our bureaucratic process, it gives them a 90-day window to continue their service, provided they've been permitted either last year or the year before, legally with the city of Chattanooga.

No change in ownership more than 5%, no change in the name or the location of the business.

Okay, thank you.

And these will be trigger points for renewal in the new ordinance too, those exact items.

Yeah, okay.

I guess one more question, Chris.

Will we within 15 days?

Uh, because we just got this today.

Right.

So if there's another one, will this board be notified prior to the I will notify you now that if there is another one, it will look exactly like this, except instead of uh March 31st, it will say uh April 14th.

Okay, and uh it will be good for 15 days.

And I'll make sure to send to I guess I'll send to Bertha and it can go to y'all from there.

That'd be good.

Yeah, that'd be good.

But it'll be exactly like this with different dates.

Okay, thank you, sir.

Very good.

All right.

Any questions of Chris?

Chris, thank you for bringing us up to speed on that.

It sounds like y'all are trying to get a grip on the on the bear.

We are, and we actually moved pretty quickly this week.

This was lightning speed for for a government.

We're pretty proud that just a few days we resolved this, at least for a while.

Uh the ordinance change has been written uh and is already going through the proper channels to make this easier for small businesses, which is that's the last thing we want to hurt.

Right, got it.

Okay.

All right.

All right, thank you, Chris.

Thank you, Chairman.

All right, any questions of the applicant?

I just have one question.

I was curious about the other champions location.

Do they have a valid permit?

Um, all but the MLK location, which we also self-reported, and we're waiting on the fire marshal report, which is scheduled for this coming Monday.

And so um, obviously, we're not within the grace period, and he's right.

It they did mention in the EO that they had an out-of-date email system, but the fact remains that we got no notice.

Um, so I want to agree with Mr.

Anderson there.

Um so yes, we anticipate coming before this board on May 26th.

In fact, I believe we're on the docket because we're anticipating being fully compliant, having everything in but for your approval.

Got it.

Okay.

So with that being said, is MLK selling beer worth.

Oh gosh, no.

No.

Okay.

No, no.

Yeah.

So I have a question.

Just going off of what Chris said, did the email possibly went to uh a former person that may have filled out um the beer application.

That is possible, but that location opened in early 16.

And God only knows to be candid who might have applied on behalf of that restaurant at that time.

Uh I'm fairly certain there's not a single employee that is there today that was there back then.

So it it it it sounds like it just got lost in the ether because if that's how they determine the notification recipient is who applied for it initially, it could have been anybody.

Right, yeah.

So is it not the owner that usually applied for the beer presentation?

It is not, no ma'am.

Um typically uh the store manager, or you know, that was the second store, so there was already administrative staff that worked for ownership at you know, MLK was open in 09, and then the Lee Highway, which was the second restaurant, it was open in 16, and there were managers all over that were familiar with the beer permit process, and heck it could have been somebody from the Lee Highway location that assisted the ownership in that.

But it there, you know, uh back in those days the owner was still in the kitchen cooking chicken.

Um, you know, uh so it certainly would not have been had the ownership received notice, of course, that we wouldn't be in this pickle.

So there may be the issue.

Point of information.

Um for the smaller establishments, we often see the owners actually applying for the bear permits.

The bigger the establishment is, you either have like some sort of food and beverage director, district manager, someone of that nature actually applying for it.

So ideally the process is for the owner to do that, but the bigger the organization is the harder, I guess it is for that makes sense.

That's a good thing.

That's perfectly said.

Okay.

All right.

Is it in the code when it expires?

It's it's on the actual um permit on the permit.

On the permit that it expires on even if you weren't notified.

It is your responsibility to maintain.

Absolutely, 100%, which is why we self-reported.

And that was before there was a grace period without pocketing.

I don't get an email, and I I never default.

For the record, right?

All right.

Uh Betsy.

So I raised my hand a long time ago, but I do have another.

Yeah, I'm sorry, don't forget to put your button, please.

Could there not be an additional person?

So if there is a larger entity that you're so to avoid this in the future, could there not be a secondary contact in instances like this?

Maybe the owner also has to have their email on record so that we can avoid that would be Chris Sands.

You know, I I can speak to Treasury about this because they're the ones that you know can add and subtract to the application, and that might be an option.

I'd have to see if the system actually allows a secondary contact.

Okay.

That sounds like a great idea.

We much prefer that.

Yeah.

Okay.

Further questions of the applicant.

You know, I have a question for Mr.

Anderson.

Since I've been on a board, this is actually the second order that the mayor has had to put out.

Yes.

Correct.

Yes, that's correct.

But the same thing.

So does these notices come from the treasurer's office?

So what are they supposed to come from?

Yes, all permit renewal notifications come from the city of Chattanooga's treasury office.

So right now, anybody that has an expired license, even though they know their license is expired and just haven't been in to do it, can comply to this same order.

Uh for this brief window of time, yes.

And we are let me be clearer about what I said earlier.

We are going away from this system of expiration for permits.

So we can I think we can add a second email address to open gov, but I think that will be a moot point in a couple of months when the new ordinance takes effect.

Okay.

All right.

Further questions.

We just made a lot of people happy.

What's that?

You just made a lot of people happy.

Well good.

We thought it's certainly we're talking a five or ten year renewal obligation.

That would be awesome.

Well yeah.

Mayor Kelly Kelly was very adamant this week when he told me how he wanted this to go and he wants us to protect and save small businesses and make it easier on them.

We should not be a burden or a bureaucratic weight on these businesses.

We should make it very clear and easy to be compliant with the law.

My last question to you, Chris.

Is there other models?

Have you seen this model somewhere else?

I'll have the mayor observe benchmark any other city doing what we're doing in these places.

Um do you mean what what I'm going to be proposing to city council or what or the current law?

Uh what we've proposed, what you're proposing.

Other cities in Tennessee do it that way.

There's a state law that kind of guides that that's been updated recently.

Okay.

Very good.

All right.

Is there a motion to approve the application?

I'll make a motion to approve.

All right.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

All right.

Discussion to the motion.

All right, I'll call the roll.

Uh Christy.

Yes.

Brooke?

Yes.

Veronica?

Yes.

Uh Gene?

Yes.

JW?

Yes.

Reginald?

Yes.

Betsy?

Yes.

And the chair votes are yes.

So we're good.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, board.

We appreciate it.

We're good.

All right.

Now is there any matters for discussion that the beer board would like to discuss at this point?

I will say, just for point of uh discussion, uh, for all the small businesses that watching that we have yet a penalty two for serving even before they call it, and that we did not adjust that issue.

We'll probably get uh some feedback on that exists.

Yes I do want to resolve it.

All right.

Um here for a public comment.

Anybody that wishes to address the board at this time.

If that's the case, then we have no more business.

Catherine, is there anything else that you need to bring us up to date on?

Okay, good.

All right.

So is there a motion to adjourn?

Motion to adjourn.

Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor of adjourning, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, that being that could go by.

Oh