Alcohol vote losers sue town, mayor; claim wet-dry election violated the state Constitution

By Scott Wright | August 20, 2003 | The Post | Cherokee County, AL

CEDAR BLUFF - After fighting for years for permission to use the democratic process to allow residents a voice in the town's future, Cedar Bluff Mayor Bob Davis and the Town Council may now have to sit by as a judge decides it instead.

Almost 650 of the 888 registered voters in the town who took part in the Aug. 12 wet-dry referendum voted to allow the town to issue liquor licenses to convenience store and restaurant owners inside the town limits. But a group led by some of the 239 people who voted against the measure is suing the town and Davis, claiming it was unconstitutional for the town to hold the election to begin with.

Carl Green, a deacon at the Cedar Bluff First Baptist Church and chairman of a group called Citizens Caring for Children, filed a lawsuit the Friday before the election in Cherokee County Circuit Court to try to prevent it from being held. The complaint included language to challenge the results of the election in the case of a win for the town.

Green contends that the state Legislature passed a local law which conflicts with state law, and that the results of what his group considers an illegal election should be declared invalid.

"This would be bad for our children," he told The Gadsden Times for a story in its Sept. 14 edition. "I will fight this with the last breath in my body."

Davis and the five-member town council requested a vote from the county's legislative delegation earlier this year asking for a local bill to allow voters to decide the issue for themselves.

Long lines at the voting site on Old Highway 9 were the order of the day, thanks in large part to the voter I.D. bill which recently passed in the Alabama Legislature. All voters were required to show some form of identification before receiving a ballot. Polls were open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

When results of the election were made official at 9:30 p.m., the large crowd gathered in a driving rain cheered the announcement. WEIS-AM radio reported on its Web site last Wednesday that over 30 of those ballots were contested by opponents of the referendum.

The three-page bill allowing Cedar Bluff to hold the referendum claimed the Supreme Court interpreted language in Section 104 of the state constitution too narrowly on April 9, 2002 when it ruled that a previous bill proposed by Sen. Gerald Dial calling for a local option election in Cedar Bluff was unconstitutional because the section in question only permits laws dealing with "regulating or prohibiting" the sale of alcohol.

Town Manager Rickey Steele told The Post in April that the new bill answered all the questions posed by the Supreme Court a year ago.

"We asked Sen. Larry Means to have the Legislative Reference Service (LRS) in Montgomery write a bill that was constitutional," he said. "We believe the LRS addressed every concern that the Supreme Court expressed."

Town officials on Friday declined to comment on the details of the lawsuit.

Mike Cole, an attorney with the Huntsville law firm of Wilmer and Lee, confirmed to The Post on Thursday that his firm is handling the case for Cedar Bluff. He said he and his associates will file a response to the complaint within the 30-day time period allowed by state law.

The Post learned Wednesday that Circuit Judge David A. Rains has scheduled a hearing for Sept. 25. According to a source at the Cherokee County Courthouse who spoke on condition of anonymity, both sides will be allowed to file briefs at the hearing, explaining their positions.

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