A liquor company also bought Mecklenburg County ABC Board members 14 ounce lobsters, 22 ounce ribeyes, $599 worth of high-end Don Julio tequila and $1,080 of red wine.
State agents released a 39-page document today as part of an investigation that found the board and liquor company Diageo broke state alcohol laws at a November dinner.
Click here to read the report. (To see the dinner tab, go to page 35)
The agents' report also details several other dinners and lunches for Mecklenburg board members or employees that were paid for by liquor companies. Board Chair Parks Helms and CEO Calvin McDougal went to lunch at the Ritz Carlton the day before the Nov. 18 dinner at Del Frisco's steakhouse.
- Mark Johnson, Doug Miller
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
19 comments:
Get the government OUT of the liquor bidness NOW! Its NOT a FUNCTION of NC government, never has been, never will be.
STOP the democrackkk oppression in NC! DONT EVER vote for another criminal democrackkk in NC!!!
If you are going to allow the government to exclusively control liquor sales, it's going to be corrupted. Hopefully, this scandal will be a spark to get politicians out of the middle.
The common taxpayer is lucky to afford McDonald's these days while the elite politician enjoys Dom and lobster. Must be nice.
There was a revolution in France for similiar actions. Has Parks ever heard the phrase, "let them eat cake"??
That money will feed alot of homeless and out of work people here in Charlotte area..
You know we are quick to jump on the government but as I have read and been reading it, it was not the governments money. If you take government out of the liquor business then there will be lots of small liquor salesmen gouging prices and also taking these dinners.
We look at Frugal’s as the answer because of the low liquor prices but they are the exception. If you travel further in you will find that the private owners gouge the prices because they can. Be thankful that government regulates liquor so that u can get it at the reasonable price that you get it.
I mean these people had dinner. If the liquor distiller didn’t spend the money on dinner then it would have been used for their own enjoyment so leave feeding the homeless out of it. And for the people that can only afford McDonalds. If that is the case then you need to be upset with everyone that can afford more than McDonalds. What we are all missing here is that it was a gift and not something that the government used taxpayers money to pay for. And lets be real about it if we were all given the opportunity to go to a dinner of that magnitude we would not turn it down.
ANALYZE BEFORE YOU CRITICIZE!!!!!!!!!
John, you need to analyze before you criticize. I dare you to find a bottle of booze in SC that costs more than one in an ABC run store.
NC regulates prices to keep shop keepers from gouging prices? You have got to be kidding...
NY, a leader in regulation has no such control. They allow many many many independent dealers. Competition (you remember the American dream...) keeps prices down.
Get a life and get out of the ABC business.
Anonymous 9:22 AM - if you are that worried about the homeless contribute your own money as opposed to telling others how to spend theirs!
Anonymous 8:37 AM - I eat at Del Friscos and enjoy it. Just because you can't afford finer restaurants doesn't everyone can't. There will always be people that have more than you so get over it. Higher end restaurants are generally pretty crowded so obviously many people don't have a problem affording them.
Please keep the current system in place so Parks Helms doesn't have to buy a case of Boone's Farm to get his drunk on.
For you anonymous. I am not in the ABC business lets get that straight to begin with. I have been to Columbia, Rock Hill, Georgetown, Myrtle Beach, and other places that liquor has cost me more than it does in NC. I only speak from experience not jealousy or just opinionated because I hate govt.
There's just one more piece of documentation I would like to have seen in the report: The canceled check for the supposed "reimbursement" for the meal and drinks.
Could be a little nod-nod, wink-wink going on while the check lanquishes in a drawer somewhere.
Is now a good time to give up the revenue stream provided by the state owned ABC sotres?
What tax will rise to replace the annual local revenue distribution (read taxes):
http://www.ncabc.com/boards/annual.aspx?y=2009&b=0
Mecklenburg County ABC Board - 62
2009 Mecklenburg County
Statutory Distributions
Law Enforcement: $1,483,994
Alcohol Education: $3,196,962
Local: $7,447,369
Total Distributions: $12,128,325
Perhaps those given the charge of virtuous local government should well remember the fate of past despots who wronged their constituancy. Surely there are still left enough sturdy oaks to string them up by their boots for a good old fashioned tar and feathering.
John: Analyze b4 u critize?? With those comments, you must have went to their dinner.
Reports have been made that some of those sorry, G.D. ALE officers were also there boozing it up, all in the name of CHRISTMAS!.....on my damn dime! I hope those ALE rot in hell for their one sided enforcement. All of that trash should be banished from government. All ALE is is a bunch of cowboys running around because one bar called on another and they got the cash pay off. Then, you see them out drinking like a son of a whore. Very damn nice. I spit at the feet of the ALE and ABC. Privatize alcohol sales now. This G.D. state is so far behind it's pathetic.
anony-moose...guess you don`t want people to know who you are. Democrat, republican, liberal, conservative, tree-hugger, corporate fat-cat...who cares
not important. This is about the ABC board and liquor sales people lobbying for their support...moron
Most of the pathetic human beings dining at places like Del Frisco, Ruth Chris, and the like are all nothing but south charlotte/ballantye eletists that could care less about anything except their right wing agenda and being greedy with their money. These people should be taxed like hell. Thank God they are no longer protected by George Bush and now the underdogs can be helped and should deserve a taste of the good life just like anybody elese. Those people eating high on the dollar and the women driving their damned SUVs all over Ballantyne should have to pay and pay!
If liquor sales were not run by the government, don't you think the same dinners would go to the owners of the liquor stores?
When CEOs of companies get together to talk business, do you think they don't have dinners like this or play golf at fancy places? How do the shareholders of those corporations feel?
And this is how the Govt. wants to run our healthcare. Just like liquor sales, gov run healthcare will be more corrupt than privet ever thought about.
Post a Comment