VFW post fights to keep liquor license

Albert Young figures he's got a right to be angry about the way Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10057 has been treated.

After all, he did what needed to be done to turn a bar that was a magnet for disorderly conduct and violence into a place that had one police call in a two-month period.

He jumped through all the hoops to be certified as canteen manager. He obtained Las Vegas' blessing to operate without the need for regular reviews.

But on Jan. 16, the Las Vegas City Council will consider disciplining the post, located in a gritty neighborhood on H Street near Lake Mead Boulevard just west of Interstate 15. The council could yank the liquor license the post has held since 1968.

In doing so, the city has brought up a lengthy dossier of offenses dating to 2005 that includes everything from work card violations and underage drinking to drug dealing and robbery.

That has Young crying foul. After a probationary period, the post got full license approval in May. He said only allegations since then -- of which there are several -- should be considered. The post is getting a lawyer, and he's confident the city can't prove its case.

What there's proof of, according to the city, is that VFW Post 10057 is a "public nuisance" with a "lawless environment" where business "has been conducted in an unlawful, illegal and impermissible manner."

Translated from bureaucratese, that means, "We're serious now, and we're seriously thinking about shutting you down."

Young, a retiree who spent 24 years with the Metropolitan Police Department, started managing the VFW post in 2005.

That same year, the Police Department's Bolden Area Command decided that the post presented a "major problem."

Young didn't disagree.

"Back in 2005, the place was running wild," Young said. "They expect me, alone, to clean it up. They must be out of their damn minds."

That's not the case, said Councilman Ricki Barlow, who represents the area that includes the VFW post. City and police officials are frustrated that the same problems keep popping up.

"It is a matter of taking responsibility," Barlow said. "The last couple of council persons addressed the issues, and now I'm addressing the same issues."

City officials, police and VFW post members have become very familiar with each other over the last two years.

Scrutiny started in April 2005, according to city documents, when a Las Vegas police detective reported that the club stayed open after hours and sold liquor to underage customers, a charge the post members dispute.

People also regularly drank alcohol in the club's parking lot, even though the liquor license limits consumption to inside the building. The club didn't maintain adequate sign-in logs, and employees didn't have the needed work cards.

Police started meeting with post officials in May 2005 and pushed, unsuccessfully, for changes to be made by June of that year. The City Council began regularly reviewing the club's compliance with liquor law requirements.

The post showed progress, and went from March to May 2 with only one police call during business hours. Previously, they'd averaged five to six calls a month.

Citing the post's "significant improvement," council members in May gave the post a clean bill of health, allowing the club to operate with no more required checkups by the council.

In July, though, trouble flared once again.

Las Vegas police investigated a 20-person brawl in the parking lot July 19. A few days later, a man was arrested for selling cocaine in the parking lot. (He was arrested for cocaine dealing at the post again in September.)

Police came to another fight in September, that one involving nine people, one of whom was reportedly high on PCP.

In October, two brawling women who were kicked out of the club kept up the melee in the parking lot, and one cut the other with a box cutter.

And last month, a family dispute escalated into a robbery in the post parking lot when a man was relieved of his money, his jewelry and his clothes, then sent home naked.

Employees also got dinged for not being able to provide membership lists, employee lists and the proper work cards when inspectors came calling, despite having been cited for those kinds of infractions many times.

Post 10057 doesn't get any favors from its location in a rough, high-crime area.

For instance, Las Vegas police records list 103 calls for violent or drug offenses within a half-mile of the post from Oct. 13 to Dec. 11, including 18 reported assaults with a gun or a deadly weapon, 15 fights and 15 drug-related reports.

Compare that to the radius around Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue, one of the busiest parts of the hard-partying Strip. In that same time period, police recorded 115 calls, including just five assaults with a deadly weapon and six narcotics calls.

Post members complain that incidents in the neighborhood get pinned unfairly on the post since it's a recognizable location. There's also a pay phone on the street in front of the club that's often used to dial 911, Young said, even if the crime is blocks away.

The city's complaint against the post, however, lists incidents that were reported as happening inside the club or in the parking lot.

Post members -- there are about 140 of them, mostly elderly -- find the inspections and negative reports irritating, even insulting, given their service to their country.

And to the community, too. The VFW hosts holiday parties for children, hands out food baskets at Christmas, feeds senior citizens at Thanksgiving, works with local ROTC programs, helps homeless veterans and provides meeting space for the American Legion and the Fordyce Club.

The liquor license makes all that possible, said post commander Lloyd Payne. Without that revenue, "it would be very hard. We'd close."

That would be a shame, said Thomas Vick, District 5 commander for the Nevada VFW. "If they lose their liquor license, they lose their ability to do any good in the community."

Still, Vick said, he was troubled by reports that the post isn't maintaining a register of guests, something VFW higher-ups promised the club would do.

"They are supposed to maintain a logbook for nonmembers to sign in," Vick said. "If they're not doing that, they're in violation of the law."

City records from the last two years document frustration with repeated unrest and regulatory shortfalls at the post.

"We're kind of at our wit's end," Detective Stacy Rodd told the City Council last year. "The police department is trying to offer up solutions to some of these problems.

"We've gotten commitments. Commitments have gone unfulfilled."

Barlow compared the VFW post to a speeder who's been repeatedly warned to obey the rules of the road.

"They've been exceeding the speed limit, and have received multiple warnings," he said. "At what point does the policeman say, 'I'm going to give you a ticket, because the warnings aren't working?' "

Barlow said he doesn't know if the council will take action against the post or issue another warning.

"When I put everything together on the 16th, we're going to have a lively conversation," Barlow said.

VFW post member Robert Swift said he's confident in his group's ability to fight City Hall. "All of these allegations that are brought upon us have to be proven. They have no proof."

Fellow post member John Shelton wasn't so sure.

"The business they're in, they don't need that much proof," he said. "They think they're the proof people."

Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or (702) 229-6435.