Please call the City Council office at 816-513-6501 ASAP and ask them to keep criminal background checks for bartenders and waiters in bars and clubs to protect their customers from sexual predators and to vote against Ordinance 180716.

1. The Necessity of Employee
Liquor Permits
Jim Ready
Manager
Regulated Industries Division
City of Kansas City, MO
1

2. Who is required to have an
employee liquor permit?
 Any person who directly participates in
the retail sale, delivery or dispensation
of alcoholic beverages which includes
delivering, taking orders for, accepting
payment for, mixing, serving or
assisting in mixing or serving alcoholic
beverages. This includes but is not
limited to a bar manager, bartender,
waiter, waitress, cashier, sales clerk,
or doorman, or other person checking
identification cards to determine age.
2

3. Is anyone 21 and over eligible to
receive an employee liquor
permit?
 No. An employee liquor permit will
never be issued to any person who:
◦ Is a dangerous offender, persistent sexual
offender or predatory sexual offender or has
been found guilty of, pleaded guilty to, or been
convicted of a felony for murder, voluntary
manslaughter, forcible rape, forcible sodomy,
kidnapping, false imprisonment, first degree
child molestation, second degree child
molestation, sexual abuse or an attempt to
commit any of the preceding crimes or an
offense of a similar nature.
◦ Is otherwise disqualified by state statutes or by
the Code of State Regulations for employment
on the licensed premises of an alcoholic
beverage establishment. 3

4. Are there other employee liquor
permit restrictions?
 Yes. An employee liquor permit will not be
issued to any person who:
◦ Within five years of the date of application has been
found guilty of, pleaded guilty to, or been convicted of a
felony or has been released from confinement for a
felony conviction involving a crime against a person or
an offense of a similar nature. These types of crimes
include aggravated assault and robbery.
◦ Within three years of the date of application has been
found guilty of, pleaded guilty to, or been convicted of a
felony or has been released from confinement for a
felony conviction, whichever is latest, involving the sale
of controlled substances or illegal drugs or narcotics or
intent to distribute controlled substances or illegal drugs
or narcotics or an offense of a similar nature.
◦ Has been issued an alcoholic beverage license or permit
from this or any other city or state that is currently
suspended, or that has been revoked within two years
immediately preceding the application. 4

5. What are the primary public safety
concerns regarding alcoholic
beverages?
 Regulated Industries Division identified
three primary public safety concerns with
regard to selling and serving alcoholic
beverages:
◦ Server responsibility
 Alcohol not being served to minors
 Alcohol not being served to people who appear to
be intoxicated or under the influence of alcoholic
beverages
◦ Identification checks
◦ Inappropriate conduct / abuse 5

6. Responsible selling and serving of
alcoholic beverages
 Priorities of an employee who
sells/serves alcoholic beverages include:
◦ Asking for state identification to prevent a
minor from purchasing or consuming
alcoholic beverages.
◦ Correctly reading state identification to ensure
alcoholic beverages are not sold/served to
minors.
◦ Being able to recognize when a person is
clearly intoxicated and not selling alcoholic
beverages – In 2008, a person died of alcohol
poisoning in a KCMO bar; their blood alcohol
concentration was .55. 6

7. Inappropriate conduct / abuse
 There are documented cases that have
occurred locally, nationally &
internationally involving business
owners and employees of liquor
licensed businesses who have
assaulted or raped customers that were
under the influence of alcoholic
beverages at the time the incident
occurred.
7

8. Do you want to read one of these
headlines in your local newspaper?
 Woman claims she was raped by Club NRG
employees – KCMO 2009
 Rape alleged inside downtown Kansas
City bar – KCMO 2015
 Bartender Accused Of 2 Rapes, Possibly
More
 'I think my boss drugged me,' bartender texted,
according to Longwood police
 Electric Cowboy Bouncer Charged With Rape;
Underage Girl Said He Told Her She Owed Favor
For Getting Her Drinking Bracelet
 Downtown Fort Worth bar owner
accused of raping passed-out
8

9. Newspaper Headlines
Continued
 Lawsuit filed after teen girl was raped at TGI
Friday's in Webster
 Former Blue Martini employee arrested in
rape of Boca Raton teen
 FBI expert testifies in bartender’s rape trial
 Former Long Island Bar Owner
Sentenced To 60 Years In Prison For Sex
Trafficking, Forced Labor And
Immigration Crimes On Long Island
 Suit claims woman drugged, sexually
assaulted by bartender at Naperville-Lisle
hotel
 Carnival cruise ship bartender charged with
raping girl, 14, during cruise with her parents
9

10. Newspaper Headlines
Continued
 Bartender charged with 2nd sexual assault
 Jail for bouncer who raped woman in Leeds
nightclub
 victim raped by bouncer could have 'closed legs', says
lawyer
 Accused of Drugging and Raping Employee,
A Put-In-Bay Bar Manager Is Finally Indicted
 Bartender Accused Of Rape Held
For Court
 Bartender faces charges in sex assault investigation
 Pennsylvania Bartender Raped
Unconscious Customer
10

11. Newspaper Headlines
Continued
 Penn Yan bar owner charged with
attempted rape on Christmas Eve
 Bar manager charged after alleged 2016 sexual
battery
 Lawsuit Accuses Employees at The
Abbey of Drugging, Raping Female
Customers
 South Dakota bar owner charged with
raping 3 girls
 Former Fort Collins bartender facing rape
charges arrested in domestic violence
incident
 Orlando Bartenders Accused Of Drugging
Patrons
11

12. Seattle, WA: August 10, 2018
 Seattle police: Foundation Nightclub
management was aware of internal
dealing of date-rape drug
◦ 12 people were arrested after an undercover
narcotics investigation
◦ Police said they learned Foundation Nightclub
had several in-house drug dealers, who were
allowed to bypass club security and sell inside
the venue
◦ Management (of Foundation Nightclub) was
aware of the drug dealing,” Seattle police said
◦ A drug dealer coached undercover Seattle
police officers on how to dose women with 12

13. How does Regulated Industries
assure prohibited felons do not
receive employee liquor permits?
 By collecting and verifying the personal
identifiers from all applicants in person in
conjunction with the completed application
(valid state issued i.d., social security card
without employment restriction, other id’s if
necessary).
 By sending all applications to a vendor who
completes a thorough background investigation
which includes completing a social security
number validation check, a federal criminal
check within all 50 states, and a criminal
background check in all of the states in which13

14. Is there a need to conduct background
checks to enforce the Ordinance?
 Regulated Industries staff has found:
◦ It is typically a daily occurrence to turn away
someone who intended to apply for an employee
liquor permit who does not qualify to receive one
due to a felony conviction.
◦ It is typically a weekly occurrence to deny a
person an employee liquor permit due to a felony
conviction.
 On an annual basis our vendor finds an
average of 15 applicants to be prohibited
felons which means they will never qualify to
receive an employee liquor permit – This
means the employee did not disclose the
felony conviction on their employee liquor
permit application. 14

15. What Happens when the Industry
Regulates Themselves?
 Chicago reaches $10.4M settlement with ride-
share companies over background checks –
Chicago Tribune, August 24, 2018
 San Francisco: Uber settles driver lawsuit over
background checks, to pay $7.5 million – June
15, 2016
 State of California: Uber will pay $10 million to
settle lawsuit over driver background checks –
April 7, 2016
 State of Massachusetts: Thousands of current
Uber, Lyft drivers fail new background checks –
April 5, 2017
◦ More than 8,000 drivers for ride-hailing companies
such as Uber and Lyft have been pulled off
Massachusetts roads after failing a new state
background check, for infractions that range from 15

16. Eliminating Employee Liquor
Permits Comes at the Cost of Public
Safety
 On Friday, June 1, 2018, CNN published an
article titled “Thousands of criminals were cleared
to be Uber drivers. Here's how rideshare
companies fought stronger checks”. This article
stated:
◦ “A CNN investigation in April revealed more than 100
Uber drivers had been accused of sexually assaulting
or abusing passengers in the past four years”
◦ “Rideshare companies Uber and Lyft have approved
thousands of people who should have been
disqualified because of criminal records, according to
state agencies and lawsuits examined by CNN”
◦ “The sufficiency of Uber and Lyft's background checks
have been challenged by dozens of civil lawsuits”
◦ “Among the shady drivers who cleared Uber's
screening process: A man convicted of attempted 16

17. I heard at a neighborhood meeting Friday and have confirmed personally
that Ordinance 180716 was introduced Thursday to abolish mandatory
criminal background checks and employee liquor permits in Kansas City,
Mo., that are now required for bartenders, waiters and anyone directly
mixing, serving or selling alcoholic beverages.
I looked it up, and right now the city allows almost all ex-offenders to get
employee liquor permits, but it does have a lifetime ban on murderers,
kidnappers, forcible rapists, child molesters and persistent or predatory
sexual offenders from getting them.
I’m for giving offenders a second chance, but allowing rapists and
persistent or predatory sexual offenders to serve as bartenders or waiters
in clubs and bars where they could easily slip something in the drink of
one of their targets or just overserve them to make them more vulnerable
seems just nuts.
If other city residents share my thoughts, they should call the City Council
office at 816-513-6501 ASAP and ask them to keep criminal background
checks for bartenders and waiters in bars and clubs to protect their
customers from sexual predators and to vote against Ordinance 180716.
17
Please call City Council office at 816-513-6501 AS