MZ Grocery License Renewal Update By Mary Beth Galbreath
On Wednesday, September 12, 2007, concerned neighbors met at the State Office for Administrative Appeals to protest the renewal of a liquor license for the MZ Grocery on the corner of Worth and Carroll Streets.
In addition to about a dozen neighbors, DISD representative Adam Medrano, East Dallas Community Prosecutor Adam McGough, and TABC lawyers and investigators attended the hearing and were prepared to testify and / or speak. PAHA was especially fortunate to have the services of Walker Duke, a PAHA resident and attorney, who jumped in and represented the protestors in front of the judge.
Unfortunately, the official hearing notice, submitted and prepared by the TABC to the licensee, did not include all of the details that the judge wanted to see. The hearing notice only referred to one element of the TABC Code—the "health, safety, welfare, morals, peace" portion. However, neighbors were also submitting factual data such as falsification of information on the licensee’s application, etc, as well as contesting the renewal on other parts of TABC code. The judge said that if we wanted to argue this information and present these facts in the case, it had to be on the official hearing notice. Therefore, the hearing has been rescheduled to October 9th. Now, the TABC has the action to resubmit a more detailed hearing notice, so that the licensee knows what he is being accused of and therefore can defend himself on all points.
What might have initially looked like a setback for protestors of the license renewal now provides more time to pull new crime statistics and any TABC violation statistics. In addition, protestants need to identify witnesses who will speak at the hearing. All of these things must be submitted to the judge in advance. Where the judge could have dismissed the case on a paperwork technicality, he instead moved the date to give all parties time to prepare adequately for the hearing.
PAHA thanks all the neighbors who took valuable time off work and other commitments to appear at the protest and asks that anyone who is able to attend the hearing on Tuesday, October 9th at 10:30 am contact Elizabeth Nelson at 2vp@peaksaddition.org.