news-record.com

An expensive dinner with a big bar bill in Charlotte produced a throbbing headache for the N.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission.

It will take more than an ice pack or aspirin to ease the pain. The commission needs to find a cure that corrects the behavior that led to the hangover.

To its credit, it has launched a statewide investigation into practices that might violate state laws or ABC regulations and will discuss an ethics policy at its monthly meeting Wednesday.

The Charlotte bash was heard across the state. On Nov. 18, the liquor company Diageo hosted a dinner for 28 Mecklenburg County ABC Board members, employees and guests at a cost of $12,700. The bar tab was $4,900, The Charlotte Observer reported. When word got out, board members reimbursed the company. Accepting gifts from industry representatives is prohibited by state law.

A Diageo marketing director told investigators he also bought meals for ABC employees in several other cities. That claim is being examined.

One of the cities named was Greensboro. Katie Alley, the Greensboro ABC general manager, said Monday it is not true. She did say that, on rare occasions, liquor company sales representatives "take us to lunch. Sometimes they pay, sometimes I pay."

A lunch is permitted, Alley said.

The state ABC Commission, however, has issued advisories over the years that suggest it's not a good idea.

"In the past, the receipt of unsolicited meals has been deemed an accepted business practice and excluded from the definition of 'gifts,'" a 1996 memo from state ABC Administrator Michael Herring to local boards noted. But, Herring added, "it is never inappropriate, and frequently prudent, to decline any gift offered by an industry member."

Unfortunately, that language was less than explicit, and specific rules were left to local ABC boards. Another advisory issued in 2003 addressed the impression that some ABC officials could be "wined and dined" by the industry, stating "that is a perception that must be corrected."

Some recipients of that memo apparently didn't take it seriously.

Now the state ABC Commission has to try again. It should adopt an ethics policy that applies uniformly to systems all across the state, so that if it's wrong for ABC employees in Asheville to let liquor salesmen buy them lunch, it's wrong for ABC employees in Wilmington to do the same.

A December 2008 report by the Program Evaluation Division of the N.C. General Assembly said state laws prevent the state ABC commission from effectively and efficiently managing the system. It isn't a matter of money. North Carolina ranks sixth in the nation in liquor revenue but only 48th in per-capita consumption. That shows efficiency. It's a matter of consistent personnel policies. If the commission wants to avoid more headaches and queasy stomachs, it should set clear ethical standards and make sure everyone meets them.