The Minot City Council directed its alcohol ordinance review committee to return to its task following an executive session Monday to discuss the city’s potential liability if liquor license caps are removed.

The council also released a memo from the Ohnstad Twichell law firm, which concluded the city can remove caps and successfully defend against a lawsuit alleging a wrongful taking or due process violation.

“Although courts have yet to consider the removal of a limitation on the number of liquor licenses, they have considered the removal of similar caps, and based on those cases, it is likely the city may legally remove the limitation,” the memo stated.

Council member Mike Blessum said it is important the public and alcohol license holders have access to the attorney memo and that the committee take it into account.

“But I think it’s equally important that the committee continue its work and now bring recommendations back to council so that we can move forward with where we need to get to with this,” Blessum said.

He said the committee can make its own decision about holding a public hearing on removing caps, but he advocated for the council to hold a hearing before acting on any proposal.

Contacted Tuesday, Sherry McGlaughlin, owner of The Spot, said the city’s committee should not have waited until now to talk to bar owners. She also questioned how much weight the opinions of the bar owners will have with the committee going forward.

Bar owners persuaded the city not to eliminate caps the last time the ordinance was reviewed, but bar owners are concerned their voices won’t carry the same weight this time.

“What happened this time is it got so far along that I don’t think we’re going to be able to stop it personally, but we will see,” McGlaughlin said. “I think we just have to be there and see what’s going on.”

Other bar owners also have indicated they will be closely following the meetings of the committee going forward.

City ordinance limits the number of retail liquor licenses in force in any one year to no more than one license for every 1,500 residents of the city.

Bar owners have opposed the removal of those caps because of the negative impact it would have on their investments. Because they are limited in number, the licenses have a value of up to hundreds of thousands of dollars on the open market. That value would drop if caps are lifted, bar owners argue.

The alcohol ordinance review committee had been investigating dropping caps until its work was put on hold last May. It had sought at that time to get a sense of the city council’s support before investing time into developing a recommendation.

“We don’t know which direction we should go because we don’t know if we should do something or if the council wants us to look at that. I think this just provides clarity that the council wants that committee to do its work with all the information possible,” said council member Paul Pitner, who chairs the alcohol ordinance rewrite committee.