ATC leaders address businesses on how to keep their licenses

Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control representatives addressed businesses from the surrounding area this past Thursday, to help local business owners learn new ways to keep from finding themselves in danger of losing their ATC licenses.
The government entity is responsible for issuing tobacco and liquor licenses to businesses if they meet all of the qualifications.
Louisiana ATC Commissioner Troy Hebert first addressed the group, which had assembled at Nick’s on Main. Hebert said, “We are here to show you different things that you, as business owners, can do to try an stay in good standing with ATC. We also want to show you things that we are also doing to try and make things easier on business owners as far as when it comes to maintaining good standing”
He then turned things over to ATC Special Agent Bruce Alsandor, who then informed the room of simple ways to be able to more quickly and accurately identify if a buyer is old enough to purchase liquor and tobacco items. Alsandor said, “If you are 21 and over then your driver’s license in the state of Louisiana will be horizontal, so if someone tries to buy alcohol and hands you a vertical license you don’t even need to take the time to look at it. Just hand it back to the person.”
While this will work most of the time, Alsandor pointed out that this is not necessarily 100 percent bullet proof. Alsandor said, “Sometimes there will be instances where maybe someone has not renewed their driver’s license so they still have a vertical license but are over 21. However, if that is the case that person will probably hand you their license back and tell you they are over 21 and then you can check the birth date that is on the license.”
Other ways to make sure you will not find yourself ticketed for not following ATC regulations according to Alsandor is to make sure all of your employees get their license to sell liquor before the 45-day limit.
Alsandor said, “If possible try to get employees on the same schedule for when their license needs to be renewed. I know that can be difficult because you hire people at different time but if you can do that, then you should. It will make it easier to keep up with when your employees need to renew their license.”
When it comes to also making sure your employees want to do their job properly, Alsandor suggest that maybe some rewards or incentives might help. “If a business passes the compliance check we will send you a certificate award in the mail. We suggest to business owners that this could be a good system to also implement into their work environment. Reward your employees for doing a good job, and have some form of punishment for those who are doing a bad job.”
While business owners are working to maintain a work environment that is able to pass an ATC compliance check, the ATC will be working to make things easier for you on their end as well.
Alsandor said, “In the past, the application process for a license was long. After submitting your application, it would take 35 days for the permits to even get to business owners, which then slows your business down. Come January 1, 2016, you will now receive your permits in three days or you get the permit free.”
The ATC has also started a complaint line for businesses to file a complaint if, for example, they know another business has not been paying their taxes.
Alsandor said, “How can you compete with the business across the street that is keeping more money than you because they are maybe not paying taxes on cash? You can’t. That’s why we started the anonymous complaint line, so that people who know this going on can file a complaint on our website.”
To end their meeting, Alsandor shared some other things the ATC is doing.
Alsandor said, “We have also started having more involvement in schools. The ATC is now taking a more proactive approach to build good relationships with schools so that we can make an effort to keep your children safe. That is what we want to help do for business owners as well. To help keep all of you from becoming in danger of losing your ATC permits.”
Commissioner Hebert closed things out by reminding business owners that ATC licenses “are not a right promised to you,” instead Hebert said, “they are a privilege that can be taken away, but we don’t want you to lose them.”