One hundred eighty-two days. Four thousand, three hundred, sixty-eight hours. Two hundred sixty-two thousand, eighty minutes. Fifteen million, seven hundred twenty-four thousand, eight hundred seconds. That’s how much time elapsed between the December 4, 2008 meeting of the LC’s Adjudication Board and the most recent meeting, held June 4.
Why are we telling you this? Well, at the December ’08 meeting, the final get-together of the year, two establishments—Lahaina Store Grille and Zack’s Deli in Kihei—came before the board on charges of selling to already intoxicated individuals.
The cases themselves weren’t particularly noteworthy, except in hindsight. Because for the next six months, the Adjudication Board wouldn’t consider another case involving anything other than a minor decoy sting operation. None. Zero. Zilch. (As a harbinger of this trend, the December 4 meeting also had three minor decoy busts on the docket, including one at Zack’s Deli.)
That means without the minor decoy program, the Maui County Department of Liquor Control’s punitive arm would have been idle from Christmas to Memorial Day and beyond. That’s a long vacation.
Fittingly, the case that finally broke this DiMaggio-esque streak was not typical. Many board members seemed surprised by it, and some were a tad perturbed. It required several points of clarification from Director Frank Silva, while Chairman Donald Fujii called it “unusual.”
Tune in next week for details.
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