An Alabama lawmaker said he would lift his hold on dozens of state contracts after the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board approved a regulatory change sought by businesses that sell alcohol.
The ABC Board today approved the rule requested by the Alabama Restaurant and Hospitality Association that will make it more convenient for employees to receive responsible vendor training.
Mindy Hanan, president and CEO of the Restaurant and Hospitality Association, said the new rule will allow employees to receive training on demand, rather than in-person or through a scheduled online program such as a Zoom class.
“Restaurant servers work different hours,” Hanan said. “They often don’t work between 8 to 5. They work 5 to 10. They work at night, on the weekends and different times.
“And so, having to send somebody to a class or schedule a class online that was via Zoom was not really something that worked for restaurants or hotels. We needed something that when they get hired, the next day they can sit down on a computer and take a class so that they can be trained as soon as possible.”
Hanan wrote the petition suggesting the rule change. Hanan said it put ABC Board regulations in line with a bill passed by the Legislature last year.
Last week, Sen. Chris Elliott, a Republican from Baldwin County, who sponsored that bill, said the ABC Board had been slow to update its rules to reflect the law. To put pressure on the agency, Elliott temporarily delayed 60 state agency contracts with a total cost of about $80 million last week.
Elliott said the rule passed today addressed his concerns.
“I’m just very appreciative that the ABC Board was able to dig into this and get this done,” Elliott said. “I think this is good for responsible liquor sales in Alabama. It’s good for small businesses to be able to readily and fairly easily access responsible vendor training.”
Elliott had the authority to hold up the contracts as a member of the Legislature’s contract review committee. Any member can hold contracts for up to 45 days, but cannot permanently block or kill them.
The new ABC Board rule does not go into effect immediately but will be subject to a public comment period. But Hanan and Elliott said today’s approval by the ABC Board was the key step.
The ABC Board had previously postponed action on the rule, asking its staff for more research. At today’s meeting, Board General Counsel David Peacock reported on regulations in other states and other information. The board then passed the rule change.
ABC Board Administrator Curtis Stewart said the board generally agreed with the proposal from the Restaurant and Hospitality Association. But he said the rule change was not a matter of urgency because the board had allowed online responsible vendor training since the end of the COVID pandemic.
“We’ve been looking at how we could modify what we do since then but it wasn’t that we weren’t allowing online training,” Stewart said. “And therefore there was no urgency to jump out there and do something when that legislation passed.”
The old rule said responsible vendor training had to include “face-to-face“ instruction. Peacock said the ABC Board considered Zoom or Team classes ”face-to-face.”
Certification as a responsible vendor is voluntary for businesses. It carries benefits for those that participate.
It means their employees who are 18-20 years old can serve alcohol, which can help address a workforce shortage, Hanan said. Responsible vendor certification can lower costs for liquor liability insurance rates, she said.
Certification can also mitigate penalties if a vendor commits a violation, such as a sale to a minor.
“It will be very beneficial to our members, and to the public,” Hanan said. “Because it’s our goal to have as many as possible trained in the responsible service and sales of alcohol.
“And it doesn’t just affect us. It affects the grocers. And the convenience stores. And anybody that serves alcohol.”
Stewart said the ABC Board’s goal is to make compliance as reasonably easy as possible.
“We want it to be as widespread as possible,” Stewart said. “Because we want all the licensees that sell product to the public to be educating their people, training their people, making sure their training stays up to date.”
