State officials have issued a written reprimand of three Randolph selectmen for providing the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission with false information on an application to renew the Randolph Country Club's liquor license.
"Such action is not only bad public policy, but also misleads a licensee to believe that it can subvert the law, even a law that is designed to protect the public safety," said the ABCC in its written decision Tuesday.
At issue was the selectmen's signature on the country club's license application to the state, indicating the club had a valid safety certificate, signed by the town's fire safety chief and its building inspector. It did not.
Randolph Fire Chief Charles Foley and Mary McNeil, the building commissioner, say they refused to sign the safety certificate because they feared the Randolph Country Club building was not safe.
State officials closed the club after a hearing on its license last Thursday. At that session, Foley and McNeil testified that they had told selectmen at a public meeting in mid-December that they would not sign the Certificate of Fire Safety, because the country club had not installed an automatic sprinkler system required by law. The Certificate of Fire Safety must be signed by both the building and fire departments, by law, for a liquor license to be renewed by the state.
Selectmen James Burgess and Paul Connors and Selectwoman Maureen Kenney nevertheless voted in favor of renewing the country club's license. The three then signed an application to the ABCC attesting that selectmen had the required safety certificate in their possession.
That attestation, the ABCC noted in its decision, was "not based upon the truth."
When asked by the Globe why he had signed the application knowing the necessary safety certificate was lacking, Connors, the chairman of the selectmen, said he had to "go through all the paperwork" before he could comment.
William Kelley, general counsel for the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, would not comment on the selectmen's actions, other than to say "the decision speaks for itself."
In its written decision, the ABCC went a step further. As sanction for operating in violation of state law, the ABCC revoked the license of the Randolph Country Club, but delayed the effective date of the revocation until May 1.
