DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Amid a newly-filed federal lawsuit alleging city officials target black-owned business, a fresh batch of Buford Highway establishments are facing liquor license violations. They are accompanied by new, $100,000 fees.
On April 18, the city of Brookhaven sent violation letters to eight establishments, accusing them of fraudulently representing themselves as restaurants, rather than nightclubs. The letters point out the business owners failed to acknowledge their “Entertainment Venue” statuses by omitting information about DJs, dance floors and stages during a routine safety inspection conducted earlier this month.
All of the businesses are located within a 2.5-mile stretch of Buford Highway.
In accordance with the city’s new liquor license code, the businesses are now subject to $100,000 annual liquor license fees required of nightclubs, versus the $5,000 fees they paid as restaurants. The code went into effect in October of 2017, several months after a deep study examined violent crime along the corridor. The incidents were associated with patrons of alcohol-selling establishments that stayed open late.
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“The crimes have been anywhere from DUI without an accident to DUI with an accident to aggravated assault and in some cases even murder,” said city spokesman Burke Brennan.
Hours were shifted, and annual fees skyrocketed into the six-figure range. Brennan noted he study showed the offenders were not city residents. The liquor license costs will cover public safety needs, he said.
“This cost of policing, (so) this activity doesn’t fall on the taxpayers of Brookhaven,” Brennan said.
On Monday afternoon, Pedro Cordova was preparing for a meeting with other Buford Highway business owners. Cordova owns the La Casa Mexican Restaurant and Lounge, and was hit with the violation letter last week.
“Did you consider it a nightclub before?” asked Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Nicole Carr.
“Not like a discotheque,” said Cordova. “Like a sports bar, restaurant. If people wanna dance they dance. If they don’t want to, they don’t, it’s the way we set up.”
Cordova said he forgot to include DJ information on his liquor license application, and will find it hard to pay the six-figure annual fee. He told Carr he can’t help what happens along the corridor once patrons leave his restaurant.
“I don’t know how they thinkin’ we’re responsible for that,” Cordova said.
“You can’t control that?” asked Carr.
“Outside-no,” answered Cordova. “Inside my business, yeah, we can control that, but outside we can’t control. "
FEDERAL LAWSUIT ALLEGES RACIAL TARGETING
The new batch of violations follows another batch issued to other Buford Highway establishments earlier in the year. Those businesses lost their appeals, and a handful, including Josephine’s, Medusa Restaurant and Lounge and XS Restaurant and Lounge, joined a federal lawsuit filed on April 13.
The complaint alleges black businesses along Buford Highway were targeted by the new code. The latest businesses hit with the violations were largely Hispanic-owned and operated, while one strip club, the Pink Pony, is white-owned and subject to a $225,000 annual liquor license fee.
Brennan said he could not comment in detail about the federal suit, but maintained discrimination was not a factor in the police department issuing the code violations.
“Brookhaven police do not engage in racial profiling of any sort,” Brennan told Carr, noting the department’s success in minority-community outreach.
A call to Cary Wiggins, the plaintiffs’ attorney, was not immediately returned Monday afternoon, but he represents Sheba Ethiopian Restaurant in a separate, similar suit against DeKalb County fire and county officials. It alleges racial profiling in a code enforcement case that led to the restaurant being shut down late last year.
Cox Media Group
