CLAUDIA LAUER
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Legislators were miffed Wednesday to learn that a set of 22 rule changes dealing with alcohol sales and distribution before the Arkansas Legislative Council had already gone into effect.
The rules tighten regulations on avoiding the sale of alcohol to minors or overserving patrons as well as relieving some of the red tape that restaurants and other establishments go through to get alcohol permits.
But legislators noted during a meeting of the council’s Administrative Rules and Regulations Committee on Wednesday that the Alcoholic Beverage Control agency of the Department of Finance and Administration had jumped the gun on putting the rules in place.
“If it’s a statutory matter, then it’s in the law. But if it asks you to implement a rule, then those rules shouldn’t go into effect until this council has had a chance to review them,” said Rep. Kelley Linck, R-Yellville, chairman of the committee. “I don’t know if you’re creating issues, but you’re certainly sidestepping the process.”
Michael Langley, the director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Administration Division, said the agency came before the House and Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs committees in February for a review of the rules and mistook that meeting for the last step before the rules could be implemented. During that meeting, the committees reviewed 22 of 27 rules and held the other five for further clarification.
“When I met with them, I asked if I needed to come back here. And apparently it was our misunderstanding,” Langley told the board.
He said the laws governing the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board’s rule-making ability make the role of the Legislature unclear.
“The statute says that once the ABC Board passes it, that’s when the rules are filed, it doesn’t include this process as part of this,” Langley said. “We thought we were done.”
Langley said he had met with at least one representative who had raised concerns about one of the five delayed rules and reached a consensus that allowed it to be implemented. He said he wasn’t sure which of the other held rule proposals were put in place.
Linck, who raised the most concerns about the rules process, noted that it was a good example of why the Legislature proposed a constitutional amendment that passed as Issue 1 on the November ballot to increase lawmakers’ role in rule-making.
The measure allows the Legislature to create laws this session to give legislative committees veto authority over proposed state agency administrative rules.
The council currently reviews state agency rules, but the Arkansas Supreme Court has said legislators cannot block new rules. Voting to approve or disapprove state agency rules would violate the state constitution’s requirement for separation of powers among the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government, the courts have ruled previously.
State Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, who proposed Issue 1, has previously said the amendment will give more control to lawmakers to ensure that rules and regulations adopted by state agencies follow the intent of laws approved by the Legislature. Dismang filed Senate Bill 2 on Monday, a shell bill that will outline the new process for legislative committees to veto or approve proposed agency rules.