Litchfield City Council continues to struggle with tobacco license application

At that time, councilors expressed concern about the application from managing partner Fady Fauzi Qumseya of Coon Rapids, based on a background check by Litchfield Police Department. Some also questioned whether the city’s tobacco ordinance needed changes.

During Monday’s meeting Mayor Ron Dingmann told councilors that, “we gotta remember, when we determine this application, we need to consider our current ordinance (and) … we cannot base our decision on our own opinion of tobacco products.”

Dingmann reviewed areas of concern that were raised at the previous meeting, including a lack of local references, a social media post that included photos of the applicant holding a handgun and knife, a civil court judgment against the applicant in Hennepin County. In addition, some councilors had sought a review of the city’s tobacco ordinance.

While Dingmann said he agreed some of the concerns were legitimate, especially the Instagram post showing weapons, he thought they were irrelevant to the application.

Councilor Sara Miller said she still had “a lot of concerns” about the application and Dingmann’s review “doesn’t really take away from my concerns.”

To the admonishment that councilors should not let their own opinions regarding tobacco products affect their decision, Council Betty Allen said, “We’ve also heard opinions in the public.”

Prior to the City Council discussion, Scott and Stephanie Rech, who own the building in which Litchfield Tobacco and Vape hopes to locate, used a public comment period to encourage approval of the license.

“You’re not going to get a 1950s downtown again,” Scott Rech said of opposition to a downtown tobacco shop. “It’s going to be a little more colorful. You’re going to have other businesses that are going to go in there, and I don’t’ think anyone should be denied.”

As owner of four downtown buildings, Stephanie Rech said, she wanted the City Council to consider how their decision on the tobacco license might affect her business. Qumseya wants to bring “high-end cigars” to town and “isn’t going to cater to teenagers,” she said.

“I bought these (buildings), because in the last 17 years, downtown has pretty much died …,” she said. “A New business would help bring people and traffic into our city. In voting on this, you either are saying ‘yes’ to bringing revenue to our city, or you’re saying no.”

That message, as well as concerns about the applicant, the city’s application process, and about tobacco sales in general all seemed to leave councilors struggling, some voicing their conflict, while others sat silently during the discussion

City ordinance gives five reasons that the City Council can deny a tobacco license, City Attorney Rebecca Rue said during the meeting, including that the applicant is younger than 18, has been convicted of a felony within five years, has had a license to sell tobacco products suspended, is prohibited by federal or state law from getting a license, or has failed to provide information or provide false or misleading information in the license application.

“I have grave concerns,” councilor Darlene Kotelnicki said. “I have had people talk to me about it. I just have grave concerns.”

Kotelnicki said she had done her own internet search of the applicant’s name and found “conflicting information … under that name.” She asked whether a search of federal data bases was done as part of the applicant’s background check

“We searched local and state,” Kotelnicki said of the traditional background check by Litchfield Police, but if the check didn’t go further, “I think that’s a reason to table it.”

At-large councilor Malinda Larson, appointed to fill the open seat at the Feb. 6 meeting, tried to sum up her understanding of the debate over an update to the tobacco ordinance in 2019, which included discussion about restricting tobacco sales near youth facilities and the age of the employees at businesses selling tobacco.

“I don’t think it’s to stop business for sure in our downtown area,” Larson said of the tobacco license debate, “it has to do with the person applying.”

While he was referring specifically to the tobacco license application before the City Council, Dingmann said, “this is a tough one.” But that assessment could have applied to the larger issue of the city’s tobacco ordinance and its license application.

Both drew conversation two weeks earlier and came back to the council again Monday.

Kotelnicki asked that the tobacco ordinance be back on the agenda, and that the Council consider a moratorium on issuing new tobacco licenses.

When that discussion arrived, Kotelnicki suggested the city contact the Public Health Law Center at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, which has done work with municipal tobacco ordinances.

Even though the city’s current tobacco ordinance was approved in 2020 after months of debate — the original request for a new ordinance came in 2018, according to City Administrator Dave Cziok — things have changed in Litchfield’s downtown and in other areas, Kotelnicki said, “and maybe what we did in 2020 wasn’t right.”

Kotelnicki’s move to contact The Public Health Law Center received unanimous approval.

Meanwhile, Miller offered a motion to approve a new tobacco license application form, which councilors seemed to agree might be a better fit than what has been used.

Among the concerns about the current application form, as Dingmann said earlier in the meeting, is a requirement that the applicant provide three references who are residents of Meeker County. That requirement makes it difficult for an applicant who lives outside the county — such as Qumseya, who listed Coon Rapids as his residence — to qualify. Qumseya listed three references on his application, but none lived in Meeker County, the Litchfield Police Department background check found.

City staff provided a draft copy of a new Application for Tobacco License, which removed the references question, in the City Council agenda packet Monday. The City Council voted unanimously to approve its immediate use.