Smyrna City Council to Tackle Alcohol Permit Issues Tuesday

The Smyrna City Council will spend a large portion of their Tuesday evening meeting discussing alcohol server’s permits, including a vote on a possible amendment to the city’s code on such permits.

If the council approves the amendment, alcohol servers who are denied permission to acquire a city-mandated photo identification due to criminal history would be able to ask for an exemption from the city’s License and Variance Board before appealing to the city council.

Under the current ordinance, the city council is the first and only body potential alcohol servers can appeal to.

Two such appeals will be heard by the city council on Tuesday evening. Nabil Muzemil and Universe Winston will both participate in show cause hearings and are seeking exemptions from the city’s requirements so they can legally serve alcohol in Smyrna. Muzemil’s documentation only includes an official notice of appeal.

Winston’s denial was due to a pending felony charge of financial transaction card fraud in February of this year. Winston’s permit application was denied on Aug. 1 due to the pending charges, but she had a court date on Aug. 7 and asked the city council for a review of her permit on Aug. 13.

The meeting of the Smyrna City Council will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Smyrna City Hall. The meeting will also be broadcast on Charter Cable Channel 19. If you are unable to make the meeting in person or watch it on television, Smyrna-Vinings Patch will provide a link to the city’s live stream of the meeting when it begins.