Skip to content

New raffle, poker run law on the books

Two months ago, Fayette County Board Chairman Jeff Beckman said he didn’t like that organizations and groups holding raffles and poker runs as benefits were required to turn over some the money raised to the county.
On Tuesday, the board put in place a new ordinance governing those fundraisers that Assistant State’s Attorney Brenda Mathis said is much less restrictive.
Beckman said that he met with members of the board’s rules and regulations committee on the issue, and that everyone at the meeting favored getting rid of the ordinance regulating “certain games of chance” and poker runs.
“The wish of the committee was that government didn’t have any of its tentacles in anybody’s fundraiser,” Beckman said.
“It was unanimous – we just wanted to stay out of it,” he said.
However, Beckman said, they were told by Mathis that state statute requires the county to have such an ordinance.
Board Vice Chairman Darrell Schaal said, “The initial thought of the committee was to do away with it if at all possible.
“Plan B was to have it be as minimally as invasive as possible, and I think we put that in the ordinance that’s in front of you,” Schaal told other board members.
Beckman explained that the old ordinance included higher fees and more restrictions, including approval by the county board, which meant a longer period that applicants had to wait to get approval.
Mathis told board members that the fee for raffles and poker runs was lowered from $50 to $10, and that the maximum raffle ticket price was raised from $100 to $500.
“We also took the county board out of it,” Mathis said. “So, now it goes to Vicky (Conder, county clerk and recorder).
The new ordinance states that the county clerk will review raffle and poker run applications within 10 days and approve or deny them within 30 days.
“We literally took it down to bare bones,” Mathis said. “Everything you see in the ordinance is pretty much statutory and that’s it,” she said.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting:
• The board approved the three- year reappointments of Clyde Austion to the Diveley Levee and Drainage District Board of Commissioners and David Wayne Petty as a trustee for the Tri-County Fire Protection District.
• The board accepted the high bid from Dustin Brewer for a 2004 Chevrolet Express G3500 van formerly used by the sheriff’s office.
Bryan Glidden, jail administrator, explained to the board that Brewer submitted a bid of $7,750, and that Brewer is being paid about $8,700 to take radios and other equipment out of older squad cars and installing them in new ones. In accepting the bid, the county agreed to pay $932 through the transaction.
• The board agreed to solicit bids for a 2011 Ford Crown Victoria that was formerly used as a sheriff’s office squad car and a John Deere riding mower. The county had previously put the lawn mower, which was seized by the sheriff’s office, up for bid, but no bids were received.
 

Leave a Comment