Computer glitch caused delay in license payment

WOONSOCKET – The operators of the new Brick House Pub are blaming a massive computer malfunction for bring unable to convey a $1,000 payment for its city liquor license.

City Clerk Christina Duarte said she’d been urging the operators to make good on the debt since she learned of the snafu from the treasury division several weeks ago. The operators of Brick House said they squared up with the city yesterday afternoon, following inquiries about the situation from a reporter. City officials later confirmed the payment.

The fee had been unpaid since March 31, when the license was issued, according to Duarte.

“Honestly it was an oversight,” said Scott Morris, a managing partner in Brick House, located at 2120 Diamond Hill Road. “We do have a legitimate excuse for what happened.”

A faulty computer system that was used to process customer receipts was the root cause of the problem, said Morris. The system was supposed to be converting customer credit card payments to cash on a daily basis, but there was a short- fall of some $47,000 on the books before the operators of Brick House realized the system wasn’t working properly.

Ultimately, the restaurant replaced the system at an additional cost of $24,000.

“The problem is you’re supposed to get the credit card money each day or the next day,” said Morris. “I was writing checks out as if we were supposed to get the money and we never got the money.”

The fledgling business, which opened amid much fanfare and support from city officials, was nearly crushed by the unexpected glitch, said Morris, but the problem has been taken care of and Brick House is in the process of satisfying its creditors. The business opened in the former Plaza Mexico, which had been vacant for some time. In addition to live music and a clubby atmosphere, the restaurant boasts gourmetlevel dining with meals prepared by an award-winning chef.

Morris said the restaurant poured thousands into entertainment and promotions to make Brick House’s first steps solid, but “we easily lost 30 to 40 percent of our opening month because of that computer system.”

“It nearly buried us,” he said. “Seventy-one thousand dollars is a big hit in the first month.”

Despite the payment, City Council President Daniel Gendron said it’s too late for the business to avoid a show cause hearing before the city’s Board of License Commissioners – a hearing that could result in some type of sanction against the license.

Such a hearing has already been scheduled, in fact, for June 26.

“They may pay, but there’s still going to be a show cause hearing,” said Gendron.

The situation caught Gendron and most other members of the council off guard when it came to light during a meeting in Harris Hall on Monday. About the only member of the panel who wasn’t surprised was Councilman Richard Fagnant, who learned of it earlier while making an unrelated inquiry at City Hall about the status of another individual’s accounts, according to Duarte.

Sometime prior to the meeting, Duarte said she advised Fagnant that a woman who had been billed $370 for use of city property to hold a health and wellness expo in 2015 still hadn’t paid. That individual had subsequently been approved for an additional permit for an event next month, and is seeking another for an unrelated event.

When Duarte told him about the woman, Fagnant asked her whether any other licensees’ accounts were in arrears, and she told him about Brick House.

Fagnant disclosed the status of Brick House’s fee for its full-privilege, BV liquor

permit, during the council meeting. At one point, Fagnant suggested invoking a cease and desist order to prevent the city’s newest nightspot from continuing to serve alcohol.

City Solicitor John J. DeSimone, however, advised members of the council that such an action would represent a violation of Brick House’s due process rights. The proper forum to issue any order affecting the restaurant’s privileges to sell alcohol would be a show cause hearing.

Such a hearing is essentially a type of disciplinary tribunal in which anyone who holds a liquor permit may be held to account for operating in a manner prohibited under the scope of the permit. Such hearings are commonplace for bars and restaurants that run afoul of their privileges in all sorts of ways, from selling alcohol after hours, selling to minor or allowing patrons to become unruly.

Typically, the Board of License Commissioners – the members are the same as those of the city council – will hand down nothing more than a warning for a first offense, but the panel has broad discretion to issue fines and suspend or revoke a liquor license, depending on individual circumstances.

Brick House’s two main partners are Bobby Vigeant and Morris, but Duarte said the restaurant’s license was issued to someone named Deborah Hutton.