I feel bad for all those poor businesses forced to deal with an outdated and apparently over-zealous OLCC. I understand that the OLCC has laws to uphold, even if some of them are as archaic as prohibition itself.
Several years ago, when we had a shop downtown, we participated in the Winterfest Wine Hop and were paired up with a nice winery from Washington state. The winery guy packed up his own car with cases of wine: a generous amount for this free tasting event (no wine for sale). We geared up with extra staff, food, supplies, etc. Right in the middle of the event, with a packed crowd, an OLCC agent marched in and shut us down because of a permit technicality (apparently you cannot drive wine across state lines without the right paperwork). There was a big show of confiscating the wine and stopping our event. We later heard that the OLCC guy had been looking for cars with out-of-state plates, and shining a flashlight inside to look for winery cases. If someone has to protect the good citizens of Bend from enjoying a free wine tasting, so be it. But what I found really disturbing and arrogant was that the OLCC agent chose to park his vehicle (which he filled with the confiscated wine) right in front of downtown's most centrally-located fire hydrant, and left it there for more than two hours. I called the police, but ticketing an official vehicle was low priority that night.
So, is the OLCC above the law?
J. Brockway
