Alcoholic beverages: licenses: emergency orders.

Existing law, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, which is administrated by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, regulates the application, issuance, and suspension of alcoholic beverage licenses. The act authorizes the department to investigate potential violations of the act, authorizes the Director of the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to bring an action to enjoin a violation or the threatened violation of the act, and provides for a hearing process held on a protest, accusation, or petition for a license. This bill would authorize the director, by emergency order, to temporarily suspend, limit, or condition any license that authorizes consumption of alcohol on the premises of the licensee, except as specified, prior to any hearing when, in the opinion of the department, the action is urgent and necessary to protect against an immediate threat to health or safety that is reasonably related to the operation of the licensed business. The bill would, among other things related to the issuance and application of an emergency order, authorize a licensee against whom the order has been issued to petition for relief by written argument. The bill, upon order of the department, would authorize the hearing to be conducted electronically. The bill would authorize a licensee to bring a cause of action seeking damages against a local civil authority, law enforcement, or another public official acting in his or her official capacity, if the licensee can establish that the direct evidence proffered to the department to support the existence of an immediate threat to health or safety was false and presented with malicious intent.