News

State ABC board OKs exemption for Waddell

By Bill Moss, Published: September 12, 2012

The North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Board on Wednesday granted Henderson County ABC Board chairman Beau Waddell an exemption from a financial conflict of interest restriction on board membership, provided the Hendersonville ABC Board also considers the request.

The state ABC board took up Waddell's case after Waddell noticed the conflict of interest section while studying the duties of ABC board members and notified the state. Waddell is vice president and general manager of Reaben Oil Co., which owns Triangle Stops, a chain of convenience stores that sell beer and wine. The Henderson County Board of Commissioners appointed Waddell to the board and also named him its chairman.
Waddell's father, Hall Waddell, "owns a number of convenience stores, including some in the county," the state ABC Commission said in a news release . "As a recently appointed member of the ABC board, Mr. Beau Waddell, an officer in the family business, would have a say in hiring or contracting for ABC law enforcement that would have jurisdiction over all ABC permitees in the county, including convenience stores with permits to sell alcohol."
The state board voted to allow the exemption providing Waddell recuses himself from ABC board "discussions and decisions about ABC law enforcement matters and providing that the Hendersonville ABC board puts the matter on their agenda as well."
Asked whether that meant the Hendersonville ABC board must also grant the exemption, Agnes Stevens, the state board's public affairs director, said the state commission "required that it be on the Hendersonville ABC Board agenda."
She said attorneys had not yet drafted the letter on the decision, which will go to Waddell. As for the Hendersonville ABC board's duties, "Our legal folks I'm sure will follow up with them."