New guidelines sought for businesses nabbed selling alcohol to minors

City supervisors are seeking tougher restrictions on businesses that sell alcohol to minors after several Carson City clerks were cited for violating liquor laws in the past few weeks.

"We have done sting operations and cited clerks," said Sheriff Kenny Furlong. "What we haven't done is held businesses responsible."

Furlong was given approval by the liquor board, made up of the Board of Supervisors and Furlong, to begin investigating businesses whose clerks have recently been cited for selling alcohol to underage decoys.

The clerk who must pay the $620 fine the citation carries. A business owner's license can be revoked if he or she is brought before the Liquor Board.

"Our goal here is to keep our kids from buying alcohol in this county," he said.

Mayor Ray Masayko agreed.

" The bottom line is, the liquor license holder is responsible for the actions of their employees," he said.

In a series of sting operations in which minors attempted to buy alcohol, investigators had a 25 percent success rate.

"In essence, what we want is a procedure that will help license holders understand what the thresholds of inappropriate behavior are," Masayko said. "We don't want to interfere with people's rights to conduct a legitimate business, but at the same token we want to keep liquor out of the hand of underage individuals."

Masayko said by outlining how many offenses result in a license holder coming before the board and what the repercussions of those offenses will be -- from probation to suspension to license revocation -- the city and businesses will be clear on what actions to take.

"We're looking for consistent accountability," he said.