Clubs' licenses called into question

The goal of business license ordinances in the city of Beaufort and in Beaufort County is to bring businesses into compliance — not shut them down for operating illegally, city and county officials said this week.

As area law enforcement, and state and local regulating agencies target area nightclubs that have hosted some of Beaufort's recent rash of gun violence — two of which were found to be operating illegally — the ordinances by which those businesses are regulated have come into question.

Adopted in 1999, Beaufort County's business license ordinance fines business owners for not having a license and contains language that gives code enforcement inspectors the power to take non-compliant business owners to court for unpaid license fees.

The maximum fine that a business owner can receive in court for not having a business license is $1,092.50, according to Beaufort Code Enforcement Division. The ordinance also requires that a business owner pay 5 percent of his unpaid license fee for each month that the fee is late. The license fee is different for every business, as its based on the business' gross income and the type of business that it is.

Weston Newton, Beaufort County Council chairman, said there has been no talk of strengthening the ordinance to allow swifter action be taken against businesses operating illegally in the county.

"I've certainly not received any suggestions that a fine in excess of a $1,000 be assessed," he said. "Ultimately, the goal of the business license ordinance is to bring about compliance, not just to punish businesses."

Business owners illegally operating in the city face fines of $500 per day, 30 days in jail or both, according to the city's business license department. The amount of time given to a business owner to come in compliance with the ordinance short, said Gail Weickhardt,city finance manager.

"It's a pretty small window," she said. "It's taken on a case-by-case basis, but it's usually no more than five business days or the end of the week. If someone continues to ignore our warnings, then we issue a court summons."

Most of the issues that the city has with business owners operating without a license are out-of-town building contractors unaware of the city's ordinances, Weickhardt said.

The site of two of the 15 reported shootings in Beaufort County since July 5, Johnny Blue's club in Sheldon and Studio Seven nightclub in Burton were found by the Beaufort County Code Enforcement Division to be operating without business licenses. Johnny Blue's was also operating without a state liquor license, according to the S.C. Department of Revenue.

Studio Seven recently renewed its business license for 2008, and Johnny Blue's is on its way to becoming a registered business with the county, said Audrey Antonacci, Beaufort County Code Enforcement Supervisor.

With three people keeping tabs on all the businesses in northern Beaufort County, Antonacci said the department relies heavily on residents and Beaufort County Sheriff's deputies to help them identify underground businesses.

"Most of these clubs are doing business in the middle of the night when we're not at work," she said. "A lot of these places just look like houses, so we rely a lot on residents' complaints."

Code enforcement and the Sheriff's Office will soon begin working very closely to crack down on nightclubs that may be operating illegally and generating a high volume of calls for service.

Sheriff P.J. Tanner said the S.C. Department of Revenue soon would provide a list of businesses in northern Beaufort County that have state liquor licenses. Tanner said that list would be cross-referenced by area law enforcement for calls for service, as well as by the code enforcement division to check on business licenses at each of those locations.

"We have to look at all of these locations separately because all of these clubs aren't bad," he said.

Having a business license does not protect a club from facing regulatory action from the county.

The county ordinance contains language that allows the county to suspend or revoke a business license if the business owner has "been convicted of ... a crime involving moral turpitude, or an unlawful sale of merchandise or prohibited goods."

The county can also deny the issuance of a business license to a business on the grounds that "the activity for which a license is sought is unlawful or constitutes a public nuisance."

Tanner said that if a location is found to be a hot spot for violent crime and other illegal activity, he will seek to have the club's business license pulled.

"That's not something that our office can do, but I will absolutely make that recommendation if we feel that it's warranted," he said.

Antonacci said the action taken by county code enforcement will depend on the level of non-compliance.

"It's really going to vary," she said. "A business owner might be able to come into compliance and everything will be fine. Could it come to us shutting down a business? Sure, it could."