PLCB: Sunbury bar owner can run for mayor

By Rob Scott
The Daily Item

February 27, 2009 07:27 am

— SUNBURY — State law prohibits law enforcement officials from holding a liquor license, but does not keep a mayor — who is responsible for oversight of a police department — from having one.
Regardless of the law, McGuigan’s Public House owner Scott Johnson, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for city mayor in the May 19 primary, said he would remove his name from the establishment’s liquor license if he were elected to avoid even the appearance of a conflict.
“I would have to take less of an active role in the business so I could devote more time to being mayor,” Johnson said. “My associates would assume more of the role (of running the business).”
The license is in Johnson’s name, along with Laurie Johnson and Robert Johnson, who are listed as vice president and secretary, respectively, of the business.
According to the Pennsylvania liquor code, anyone involved in enforcing the law is prohibited from holding or obtaining a liquor license.
The office of Sunbury mayor carries with it the responsibility of overseeing the police department, but as long as the position is strictly administrative in nature, there wouldn’t be a conflict, according to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board.
William Cure, owner of the Coal Miners Inn in Forest City, wrote the board in 2004 asking if one of his employees at the bar could run for mayor.
In their response, the board wrote that as long as the mayor’s role in relation to the police department is “solely administrative in nature,” it would be allowable for a person with an interest in a liquor license to hold the office.
The Pennsylvania liquor code also would not prohibit someone from seeking or holding a seat on City Council, such as former Councilman Bob Snyder, owner of the Peppermint Lounge, which was damaged by a massive fire last week.
-- E-mail comments to rscott@dailyitem.com.

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