The Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority laid off 25 employees at its headquarters in Hanover County on Tuesday in a reorganization aimed at changing how the state-owned liquor monopoly supplies its retail stores and serves its customers across the state.

The layoffs come three weeks before the authority becomes independent of direct control by the governor and General Assembly, while remaining a significant source of revenue for the state budget to pay for core services provided by state government.

Chief Executive Officer Dale Farino, a former alcoholic beverage distribution executive in Virginia Beach whom Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointed as CEO six weeks ago, said it’s not clear what independence will mean for the authority, created in 2015 as a semi-independent body after more than 80 years as a state agency.

But he promised to remain focused on the same bottom line as the governor’s office and assembly budget committees.

“My aim is to operate the authority as a business,” Farino said in an hourlong interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Tuesday. “This has been my marching orders from the governor and the leadership in both the House and Senate, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”

“In the end, it’s what does it do to generate more revenues for the state?” he said of the authority’s mission.

Among the changes, former interim CEO Tom Kirby was elevated to a new role as chief operations officer, while keeping his old job as chief law enforcement officer. His new job includes overseeing retail operations, logistics and the distribution center in Hanover that supplies all of ABC’s 403 stores across Virginia. Those responsibilities previously were held by Chief Retail Operations Officer Mark Dunham, who resigned on Friday.

John Singleton will move from his job as human resources director to become chief human resources officer, a new position that replaces the executive job previously held by Chief Information Officer Paul Williams, who was laid off last month. The reorganization also will create a new position of chief commercial officer, which ABC has not yet filled, to oversee marketing, merchandising and other business operations. All of the information technology functions will fall under Chief Financial Officer David Alfano.

The reorganization shrinks the number of previous executive level positions from eight to six. Four executives resigned from ABC last year, including CEO Travis Hill, as the authority came under pressure from the governor’s office to reduce expenses and increase the profits transferred to the state budget. The authority already had eliminated the jobs of chief transformation officer and chief digital and branding officer.

The layoffs did not directly affect ABC’s retail and other field employees, who account for about 3,000 of the 4,000 people whom the authority employs statewide.

The layoffs come after months of turmoil and a projected $110 million shortfall in profits for the next two-year state budget after a steep decline in Virginia liquor sales blew a hole in the budget that the Youngkin administration pushed ABC to adopt in August. The authority responded by leaving jobs unfilled and cutting other operating expenses to manage a projected $4.9 million profit shortfall in the fiscal year that will end on June 30.
Last week, a federal judge dismissed a $1 million federal lawsuit filed by its director of retail operations, Jennifer Burke, who resigned her job on June 3. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Payne dismissed the case after the parties reached a settlement. The terms of the settlement are not public.

Burke had alleged that ABC had placed her on paid administrative leave last year in retaliation for alleging $1.7 million in lost inventory in the transition of the central ABC distribution center from a more than 60-year-old warehouse in Richmond to a new facility next to the authority’s new headquarters in Atlee in 2022. ABC denied the allegations, asserting in court filings that Burke had been placed on paid leave during an investigation of thefts from stores under her supervision, but was then reinstated.

The authority said lost or stolen inventory, known in the alcohol distribution industry as “shrinkage,” amounted to about $1.1 million, or 0.094% of sales, well below the national average. The estimate was based on a physical count of bottles at the distribution center and retail stories on March 31, 2023.

Farino acknowledged that the authority had not properly accounted for the inventory during the warehouse transition, but he said, “All that has changed since they moved here.”

He said he intends to make more changes, focusing on the culture of the organization, its relationship with suppliers and retail customers, and its operating system to speed the time for delivering orders from 48 hours to overnight.

“Morale when I got here was not good,” Farino said. “There was no comradery. My aim is to restore the comradery.”

He said he wants to “empower” retail store managers and employees to improve how ABC stores serve customers and surrounding communities, instead of putting what he called “rigid guardrails” on how stores operate.

“I’m going to remove those guardrails and allow them to do what they’re being paid to do,” he said.

The son of a former U.S. Navy submariner who settled in Virginia Beach in the early 1960s, Farino spent nine years as an artillery officer in the U.S. Marines Corps. After he left the service, he worked for Coca-Cola and other beverage distributors before returning to Virginia Beach in 1993 to work for Associated Distributors LLC, which now operates as Breakthru Beverage Virginia.

He began as operations director at the company’s warehouse and rose through the ranks over the next 30 years to become its president, before retiring last year. Youngkin appointed him to the ABC Board of Directors as vice chairman earlier this year and then named him CEO on April 23.

​“I was enjoying retirement until I got a phone call from the governor’s office, when I was asked to come and help right a ship,” Farino said.

Enrollment is open for the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority’s (ABC) Youth Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Project (YADAPP).

YADAPP is a unique peer leadership opportunity fostering healthy communities and the prevention of substance use. The annual program begins with a kick-off conference July 22-26 at Christopher Newport University in Newport News. Participation requires the registration of a team including four high school student participants and one adult sponsor.

During the conference, students attend topical workshops facilitated by peer leaders, hear from well-known motivational speakers, learn peer leadership and prevention best practices and develop Strategies To Act Now (STAN) plans to address substance use among their peers. Teams compete for $250 mini grants to use as seed money for their STAN plan and the $500 Wheeler Award to sustain their continued prevention efforts.

Enrollment is open through June 1. A $600 per-team fee includes conference materials, lodging and meals, as well as year-long coaching and support for adult sponsors as they aid their team in implementing its STAN plan throughout the school year.

Adult sponsors participate in their own track throughout the opening conference. They receive resources and training on topics that will help them support their team. Adult sponsors are eligible for continuing education units and professional development hours. Law enforcement officers are eligible for partial in-service credits through the Department of Criminal Justice Services.

In addition to working on their prevention plans, students can expand their experience as peer leaders by applying for YADAPP youth staff positions and progressing through four levels of leadership with increasing responsibilities. These levels start with the youth leader role acting as a guide for conference participants and build to the top level of serving as conference interns. YADAPP interns are young adults who spend 10 months planning aspects of the program including curriculum development and youth staff training.

“Peer-led substance use prevention is a proven-effective path for young leaders to take a stand to create positive change and promote healthy behaviors among youth in the commonwealth,” explained Katie Crumble, Virginia ABC director of Community Health and Engagement. 

Since its inception in 1984, approximately 450 different high schools and community organizations and more than 12,000 students have participated in YADAPP. For more information and to enroll, visit the YADAPP website.

Published:  The Roanoke Times
April 7, 2024

The 1980s called. They want their alcohol policy back.
Dan Casey’s opinion piece [“Legal cocktails-to-go: Freedom or just dumb?” March 26] ignores the most recent research on alcohol laws and regulations completely. This is especially true when it comes to Virginia alcohol law, and more importantly, the recently adopted cocktails to-go law. The R Street Institute, where I work, is one of the only nonpartisan think tanks in the country that analyzes alcohol laws and regulations. I am confident that our work is more current and relevant than the sources Dan Casey cites.
The piece points out the many states — 26 states and the District of Columbia — that have made cocktails to-go permanent. That is where most of the facts related to this issue ends, and the conjecture begins. Mr. Casey points out that Maryland is notably absent from the list of states that have made cocktails to-go permanent because the state allowed its pandemic era law to expire because of “drive-thru bars” in a 1980s rural county.
The only facts he references are from a 1984 Washington Post article related to drinking and driving rates. A lot has changed in 40 years, including the passage of the Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, which pushed states to raise the legal drinking age to 21.
He conveniently overlooks the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority (VABC) report last year to the General Assembly which found compliance related underage drinking laws for restaurants was similar to that of VABC brick-and-mortar stores.
In fact, the R Street Institute has found that almost every state that permitted delivery and to-go alcohol during COVID-19 witnessed a decrease in underage drinking. Likewise, states that allowed alcohol delivery saw their overall drinking rates rise less than those that prohibited delivery. In terms of drunk driving, states that allowed alcohol delivery experienced lower increases in drunk driving deaths during the pandemic — which intuitively makes sense, given that home-delivery of alcohol allows consumers to avoid driving back from the bar after numerous drinks.
In the future, Mr. Casey may want to use more precise data than a Reagan-era Washington Post article on Maryland when discussing 21st century alcohol laws in Virginia.
Robert Melvin, Richmond

RADIO IQ | By Michael Pope
Published April 1, 2024 at 5:00 AM EDT

Governor Glenn Youngkin is putting his signature on a bill legalizing cocktails to go. 
The idea emerged during the pandemic – customers could help their favorite restaurants stay in business by ordering a margarita or an old fashioned as a takeout item.
Now, the governor is agreeing with lawmakers, allowing the temporary fix to become a permanent solution for restaurants. 
"In Virginia's restaurants, we really have fostered a culture of mixology and experimentation and sort of high-level bartending," says Tommy Herbert at the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association. "And I would recommend for all of the listeners to try something new from one of our great restaurants here in the Commonwealth. You might be very impressed with the mixology skills that you encounter."
The bill, which will become a new law this summer, allows restaurants to sell cocktails to go, although the jury is still out on third-party vendors like DoorDash and Uber Eats. Here's Delegate Holly Seibold, a Democrat from Vienna.
"So, I keep hearing that we’re working to become compliant, but what is the plan? Because I just have a hard time visualizing that we can regulate a delivery service of alcohol," Seibold says.
The new law will allow DoorDash and Uber Eats to deliver cocktails for two years, although lawmakers say if there are problems, they're willing to pull the plug for third-party vendors.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio,

WVEC-13
Author: Kathleen Lundy
Published: 2:32 PM EDT March 22, 2024
Updated: 2:32 PM EDT March 22, 2024

Many states also had similar laws allowing to-go cocktails during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when drinking inside crowded areas was a health risk.

RICHMOND, Va. — A bill permanently legalizing to-go cocktails and mixed wine was passed by the Virginia General Assembly and was approved by Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Wednesday.
Youngkin signed 36 bills into law and offered amendments to two bills. One of the pieces of legislation signed was House Bill 688, which permanently allows businesses to offer cocktails to-go, just in time for National Cocktail Day taking place this Sunday.
Many states also approved similar laws allowing to-go cocktails during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when drinking inside crowded areas like bars was discouraged and sometimes banned.
​

In Virginia, this was due to expire on July 1, 2024, but this bill makes the change a permanent fixture.


Senior Vice President and Head of State Public Policy at the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, Andy Deloney, praised Youngkin's decision on Thursday and explained that "During the pandemic, cocktails to-go were a critical source of revenue for many businesses, and now, the increased convenience and stability they offer is permanent. We applaud the Legislature and Governor Youngkin for supporting Virginia businesses and consumers by making cocktails to-go permanent.”
“Permanence for cocktails-to-go is a great win for Virginia’s ABC-licensed restaurants,” said Eric Terry, president and CEO of Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association.