Members of Coweta County’s Tax Rate Review and Appeals Committee voted 4-1 Wednesday to recommend to county commissioners that Starship Adult Novelties & Gifts be issued a business license to operate its Thomas Crossroads location. Commissioners are expected to take up the issue in June.

The end of the lengthy appeal process that began in mid-April came with comparatively few comments from county consultant attorney Scott Bergtholdt and Starship attorney Alan Begner.

Committee member Claude Vickers made the initial motion that was amended to include two other provisions. The final motion recommended that the county commission overturn staff’s recommendation and issue Starship a business license as a general retail business that would be in compliance with the ordinance as it stood on Jan. 26 prior to the adoption of the new sexually-oriented business and obscenity ordinances. The motion also included the stipulation that Starship conduct monthly audits during the first year of operation and quarterly audits if no problem is found. The motion also provided for unannounced visits to be conducted by county staff.

It was toward the end of approximately one hour of statements and questions that committee member Gary Arnold added a component to the matters before the committee that had not been stated in any of the previous Starship hearings. Addressing Business License Director Eva Wagner on her decision earlier this year to deny the business license, Arnold said he believed she had no other alternative but to decide against issuing it.

“Your job would have been in jeopardy,” Arnold said, referencing unnamed individuals in county leadership positions.

Arnold went further, questioning why Starship had been given the indication as late as Jan. 15 that everything was in order to receive its license, yet on Jan. 28 the walk-through by county staff did not occur. That was two days after the adoption of the county’s new sexually-oriented business and obscenity ordinances that were said to prohibit Starship from opening at Thomas Crossroads.

“We don’t have a good explanation why the Jan. 28 walk-through didn’t happen,” Arnold said, also referencing the county’s previous statements regarding Starship’s Jonesboro store as a contributing factor in denying the business license. “We should be evaluating his Coweta operation, not the one in Jonesboro. Has he been treated fairly, whether we like it morally or not, as a new applicant? We haven’t done the right thing by this applicant.”

When put to a vote minutes later, all but committee member Ronnie Clothfelter voted to recommended issuance of the business license.

Prior to the vote, committee Chairman Woodie Wood posed a question to Wagner regarding the Jan. 28 walk-through that never happened. His question centered on the 25 percent maximum of sexually-oriented items that were allowed under the previous ordinance in existence until Jan. 26.

“If you had gone on Jan. 28 and (Starship) passed and met the 25 percent, would you have given a business license under the old ordinance?” Wood asked.

“Honestly, I can’t say if I would or not,” Wagner responded, after conversing first with at least two of the four attorneys at her table representing the county.

After the meeting, Starship attorney Alan Begner said he appreciated the committee’s recommendation and looked forward to taking the issue back to the county commission.

“We appreciate the serious-mindedness of this committee, and the matter still goes before the commissioners. I believed all along, as did Mr. Arnold, that this was not Eva Wagoner’s decision, but the board of commissioners. We’ll see now what they do,” Begner said.

The Wednesday meeting was not the first by the committee to address the business license appeal. The proceedings in the nearly 5-hour appeal hearing April 13 revolved around the Feb. 6 denial of Starship’s business license by Wagner and Starship’s contention that the decision had been made by Jan. 20 when more than 300 residents packed the commission chambers, ready to demand that commissioners face litigation rather than give in to having Starship operate in the Thomas Crossroads area. It was at the beginning of the Jan. 20 meeting, and prior to public comments, that Commissioner Rodney Brooks read a prepared statement that altered the course of Rogers’ intentions to open his business.

“Based on what (county staff) have seen, and what they have been told, staff believes the proposed store is a sexually-oriented business and, therefore, cannot operate at the proposed location without rezoning,” Brooks said. “Our county staff has informed the board that they will be denying this business license application at this time.”

Before the Jan. 20 meeting ended, commissioners said they would deny the license because Starship had been determined to be a sexually-oriented business that is not permitted in the commercial area. Rogers said after the meeting he disagreed with the decision.

Begner at the April 13 appeal hearing contended that the decision to deny the license had been made no later than Jan. 20, even though he and Rogers met with Wagner Jan. 15 and were not told of any issues that might prevent the store’s opening. Starship has done everything Coweta County required and should be allowed a business license, Begner said repeatedly.

Central to the business license denial was the comparison by Bergthold that trips made to other Starship locations by private investigators Frank Copus and Jerry Brown and by Wagner and county attorney Jerry Ann Conner showed that those locations contained as much as 40 percent of inventory consisting of sexually-oriented items. Those percentages clearly exceeded the 25 percent maximum stipulated in the old and new Coweta ordinances, Bergthold said, adding that in some cases, Starship was violating the ordinances of the counties in which those stores were located.

Begner on a number of occasions took issue with that assertion, stating the one location operating under jurisdiction-specific ordinances could not be effectively compared to another, adding that Starship had already said it would comply with all Coweta codes.