Where’s That Meeting Tape?

Recently I wrote about pitching the City Council on keeping the audiotapes that are recorded at each City Council meeting. Note the clever wording on each Agenda:

“The proceedings of the City Council meeting are being audio-recorded only to aid in the preparations of the Minutes and are not retained as part of the permanent records of the City.”

Now, of course, they could be retained, but they are not. Currently, a Petition is circulating in Woodstock to request the City Council to change its position and to retain the audiotapes. Any Council member could request this but, so far, they seem to be standing behind the Mayor’s opinion and position on the tapes.

It didn’t take long for a Councilman to raise an issue that could have easily been resolved by listening to a tape of a previous meeting.

Councilman Ralph Webster said the City was sold a bill of goods, when it approved a liquor license for what was to be a convenience store on the northwest corner of Route 47 and McConnell Road. Ralph believes this is not a convenience store that sells liquor, but a liquor store that sells liquor.

Mayor Sager was ready with a response. First, the business is willing to change its name, which currently indicates, apparently, that the store is associated with its supplier. Secondly, that more than 50% of its sales are (Where’s that tape? What word did he use?) grocery products. He saved everyone a lot of time by already knowing the response to the issue raised by Ralph.

Obviously, if the audiotape still existed, it would take about five minutes to determine just exactly what was said to the City Council by the petitioners for that store’s liquor license.

What will happen now? The Woodstock Liquor Commission will convene and examine the gross receipts of that business and determine what percentage of it is from liquor sales. Care to venture a guess? Bottles of liquor cost more than bottles of water or soda. Do they sell enough cigarettes and junk food (errr, convenience store grocery products) to top the gross sales of liquor?

Time will tell…