One of the more popular events we highlighted a few days was an Oktoberfest in Warren that was to be put on by the City of Warren, the Warren Kiwanis Club, and three breweries – Falling Down, Dragonmead and Kuhnhenn.
It has been canceled. But why?
According to a post from the Warren Parks and Recreation Department, the Michigan Liquor Control Commission (MLCC) denied licensing to the Warren Kiwanis Club for the event.
In a Facebook comment on that thread, the Warren Parks and Recreation Department says that the MLCC denied the event because they “couldn’t find the payment.”
The MLCC denies this in a statement to Daily Detroit, saying payment was never sent and the application was filed late.
The application for the event wasn’t filed until six days business days before the event from the Kiwanis Club of Warren, when the application says that it must be filed 10 business days before the event or it may be denied. The application was also missing the the $25 license fee, according to the MLCC.
According to the MLCC:
MLCC staff reviewed the application on Monday, Sept. 25, 2017 and emailed a Notice of Deficiency letter to the applicant requesting the missing $25.00 license fee and a correction to the application form. The email was sent at 9:39 AM on Sept. 25, 2017 to the two contacts listed on the application form: David Richards and Henry Bowman.
MLCC received the correction to the application form on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017. MLCC staff called the first contact on the application form, David Richards, on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017 to remind the applicant that MLCC had not received payment and we needed it before the MLCC meeting scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017. Mr. Richards indicated that he would send payment.
MLCC staff checked with the cashier’s office before the meeting on Thursday morning but no payment had been received. After the Commission recessed its meeting for lunch, the MLCC staff checked again for payment before the meeting restarted in the afternoon. Unfortunately, no payment had been received so the Commission was required to deny the request.
“The Michigan Liquor Control Commission considers and approves more than 7,000 of these applications every year. This year is on pace to be a few thousand more than that. The vast majority of non-profit groups apply with plenty of time for preparation and consideration, and get their applications completed properly,” said MLCC Chairman Andy Deloney. “If they are deficient, staff promptly notifies them, as happened here. We are here to help Michigan’s non-profit groups and wish them nothing but success in their events and raising the needed funds for their organizations.”
Henry Bowman, who was one of the people on the application from the City of Warren, says that he was in touch with the MLCC, calling them on Wednesday and Thursday, speaking to a “Kimberly” that everything was alright and that he sent the payment twice.
“I think we did everything correctly, the Warren Kiwanis Club did everything correctly,” said Henry Bowman, Director of Warren Parks & Recreation. “The MLCC is great to work with, I just want to want to work with them to hopefully put together events in the future.”
The end result, regardless of how it went down? No Oktoberfest this year. The event was to be held at Halmich Park on Saturday.