Carson City Save Marts, FoodMaxx barred from selling liquor through end of July
Submitted by Kelsey Penrose on Thu, 07/20/2023 - 12:20pm
Carson City Supervisors voted Thursday to bar Carson City Save Marts from selling liquor at their locations after it was determined that the corporation, which operates three stores including FoodMaxx within the capital city, has been operating without a valid liquor manager for the past 15 months.
John Norman, a Save Mart representative from California who manages over 80 stores, applied to become the liquor manager for all three stores, but according to supervisors, he did not apply in a timely manner while knowingly continuing to sell liquor at the stores.
“We didn’t do what we were supposed to do,” Norman said. “There were a lot of people involved in the delay, but I accept responsibility for that on behalf of the company. I did not realize the urgency behind getting that taken care of. I didn’t know I had to be here by a certain date. Not knowing is not an excuse. I take responsibility for the delay and we take this seriously.”
However, according to Carson City Mayor Lori Bagwell, the city told Norman multiple times that their liquor license, which was still active through June 2023, would not be renewed if a suitable liquor manager was not put in place.
According to city staff, the Save Mart company was acquired by Kingswood Capital Management in 2022, and a new Save Mart LLC was formed on March 22, 2022. However, an updated liquor license application was not submitted to the business license division until March 31, 2023.
In April 2023, the Carson city Sheriff’s Office began the background investigation and requested Norman to come to the Sheriff’s Office for fingerprinting multiple times.
On June 13, 2023, CCSO issued a memorandum informing the Business License Division that they do not recommend approval for the liquor license due to Norman’s failure to comply with the fingerprinting requirement.
Shortly after, Norman arrived in Carson City and submitted to fingerprinting.
Supervisors discussed the fact that if Norman was approved now as the liquor manager, there would be no repercussions for ignoring the law.
“If I were to award this today, there would be absolutely no penalty for violating the rules,” Bagwell said. “I’m just not comfortable doing that.”
Supervisor Stacey Giomi said that he was concerned both by the fact that Save Mart ignored multiple requests, as well as the fact that they slipped through the cracks and could continue to operate without a liquor manager.
“We need to take liquor licenses seriously, and I’m concerned that we didn’t, and I’m concerned that they didn’t,” Giomi said.
Norman said that, on behalf of the company, they would be willing to pay a fine to compensate.
Supervisor Maurice White said that he would not be supporting the item based on the fact that Norman and Save Mart had not been acting in good faith.
“What we have here, in my mind, is this corporation generally and most specifically Mr. Norman has not shown a willingness to operate under any reasonable expectation,” White said. “I don’t buy your story, and today, you will not get my support under any circumstance. I’m a big fat no.”
Supervisors originally sought to deny the application, but later amended it to approve the application with the caveat that the three Save Mart stores are not to sell any liquor until July 31, to give Norman time to prove that he is “suitable” as liquor manager.
“The reason we’re doing the July 31 date is to prove that suitability,” Bagwell said. “At this point you haven’t demonstrated that suitability. You ignored requests, you didn’t do it for 15 months, but we want to give you a chance to prove (it) to us.”
Supervisors voted to require Save Mart to stop selling liquor through the end of the month 5-1 with White voting against.
