Weiss forced to break two tie votes that leave beer applications pending

Dickson Mayor Don Weiss Jr. was forced to break two tie votes that eventually wound up deferring action on a controversial beer permit application for the Crazy Bull Saloon on Lewis Hollow Road. In October, the council denied a permit application from Kanakkumar Patel because he has pending felony drug charges involving the sale of synthetic marijuana. In November, the council changed that denial to a deferral but also postponed a decision on a new beer application from Harshad Patel, who is Kanakkumar Patel’s father and now a 20 percent owner in the corporation. At Monday night’s Beer Board meeting, Councilman Bird Armstrong called the second application from Harshad Patel an “evident manipulation of the system” by trying to use a “loophole” to obtain a permit. Kanakkumar Patel has been operating Crazy Bull under former owner Shannon Capps’ beer permit, but Capps turned it back into the city last month. Patel has an on-premise liquor license from the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Armstrong said he is concerned that an applicant who tries to work around the rules to get a permit might also violate them in the future and made a motion to deny Harshad Patel’s application with a second from Councilman Mike Legg. After much discussion on how such a denial would impact Kanakkumar Patel’s deferred application, Councilman Scott England made a motion to amend Armstrong’s motion to defer the second application pending the resolution of the criminal charges against Kanakkumar Patel, because he is still 80 percent owner of the corporation. The vote on the amendment ended in a 4-4 tie with Armstrong, Legg, Betty Lou Alsobrooks and Horace Perkins voting against changing to a deferral. After a brief conference with city attorney Jerry Smith, Weiss said he has the right to abstain from the vote but has never not voted to break a tie and cast the deciding vote in favor of the amendment. The vote on the amended original motion ended with the same 4-4 result and Weiss again broke the tie by voting in favor of deferring the request. Kanakkumar Patel said his next court date is Feb. 11. Weiss asked police Chief Rick Chandler to make sure beer is not being sold at Crazy Bull since it currently has no beer permit and said the city will begin to research possible changes to its ordinances to close “loopholes” in the application process.