Authorities say Greeley Stampede violated alcohol laws for more than a decade

GREELEY» Greeley Independence Stampede Inc. has for years flouted state liquor laws, according to authorities, potentially putting at risk the organization’s ability to serve alcohol at this year’s event.

The nonprofit organization puts on a rodeo and entertainment event that is more than a week long. The Stampede has been running for nearly 100 years.

Since at least 2006, the Stampede apparently has violated six state laws, regulations or municipal codes, according to the January 2018 summary of a Greeley Police Department investigation that began in late 2017.

The Stampede applied for a special events permit Wednesday. Because of the violations, it will face a more formal hearing process in June with the city’s Liquor Licensing Authority.

The investigation began with a late-November tip from two nonprofits that had worked with the Stampede — The Colorado Stampede Riders and The Wranglers Inc. — alleging the Stampede bought alcohol at wholesale cost and sold the alcohol at an inflated price to nonprofit organizations that agreed to work concession booths featuring alcohol, according to the summary.

The Riders and Wranglers showed invoices detailing the practice back to 2006, and Stampede officials admitted to police the practice had occurred for years.

Police found the Stampede had violated laws and rules, including selling alcohol wholesale without a liquor license.

Greeley Stampede General Manager Justin Watada said the Stampede didn’t know it was violating the law until it came up in late 2017, blaming volunteers and changing laws for the violations.

“We weren’t trying to break the law,” Watada said.

Greeley police requested a show cause hearing, but city officials stepped in to meet with Stampede officials instead.

Deputy City Clerk Cheryl Aragon, who works with the city’s liquor licensing authority, as well as City Attorney Doug Marek, met with Stampede officials, and those officials described a new, legal plan for selling alcohol.

The Stampede wasn’t fined or otherwise punished for the run of liquor law violations that spanned more than a decade.

Aragon said in a phone interview that city officials chose to host a meeting because the event had already ended, and there was no liquor license to revoke at that point.

The Stampede’s past violations, though, will come up during a formal hearing in mid-June, Aragon said.

“Typically, special event permits are reviewed by the (administrative review team) and then routed electronically to the hearing officer for review and approval,” Aragon said in an email. “But in light of the report by the (Greeley Police Department), we felt it important to get this on the record with the Liquor Authority, in a faceto-face fashion and then have a formal meeting at which the application would be heard.”

Watada is in his third year with the Stampede. He said his goal is to do everything properly — and legally. The 13-day event brings in about 200,000 people each year, according to the organization’s application with the city.

Watada said he’s confident the Stampede will be able to sell alcohol at this year’s event, saying officials already had made changes to the event’s beverage policy — before learning of violations — that would have technically brought them into compliance.

“We feel confident we’ve made our changes, and we wouldn’t violate anything,” Watada said. “It’s full-speed-ahead planning this year’s Stampede. It should not be an issue, hopefully.”