Server-training bill not decided
By Paul Tash
Montana Tavern Times
A still-evolving bill to create a mandatory statewide training
program for servers and sellers of alcohol has passed the Montana
Legislature.
However, at press time the measure still was not out of the woods.
Gov. Brian Schweitzer had amendatorily vetoed the bill to keep the
Department of Revenue involved in training, a provision the House had
stripped from the bill.
Senate Bill 29, sponsored by Sen. Lynda Moss, D-Billings, requires
that all sellers and servers of alcohol be trained within 60 days of
hire and every three years thereafter.
The proposal accepts all approved training programs, including the
Department of Revenue program, TIPS, TAMS, SERV-SAFE, and even approved
in-house programs.
The measure would not apply to volunteers or community events.
“It would be a shame if the whole thing went down,” Montana Tavern Association counsel Mark Staples told the Montana Tavern Times.
“Then we'd have a miserable hodgepodge of local ordinances all across
the state with no cohesion from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.”
Some Montana communities have already developed a program.
The bill passed the full House in April. It narrowly passed the
Senate in February. Testimony throughout the legislative process has
been nearly unanimous in support of the measure.
Sen. Moss has said the proposal is the result of a “partnership”
between the Department of Labor, the Department of Revenue, state
convenience stores, restaurants, and taverns – all of whom worked
together to devise a workable plan.
She also said the Law and Justice Interim Committee, in requesting
the bill last fall, decided mandatory server training “is one of the
strategies that we can employ” to combat underage serving and
over-serving.
Staples has testified that although “a sincere effort” has been
made already by alcohol-serving businesses that have voluntarily
“trained thousands,” the proposed program would definitely increase the
number trained.
Tavern owners have gone through “great pains,” Staples said, to
stop underage drinking, including such options as using ID swipers,
installing cameras, and providing rewards for servers.
Under the proposal, which would take effect Oct. 1, a licensee
found as a result of a routine check to be out of compliance with the
server training law will pay a $50 fine for a first offense, a $200
penalty for a second offense, and a $350 penalty for a third offense in
a 3-year period.
However,
the measure calls for mitigating circumstances to be considered before
taking an action against a licensee, including the licensee's prior
violation history; the licensee's good-faith effort to prevent a
violation; the existence of written policies governing employee
conduct; and whether the evidence of a violation was based solely on
the investigating authority creating an opportunity for the violation
rather than on complaints received or observed misconduct.