As the Jason Evers tale unfolds, things are looking up for a good TNT prime time movie or maybe even an ABC mini series. Let me first tell you a bit about the OLCC and my personal experiences with Evers. If you are not from Oregon, there is no way I could ever explain the OLCC to you so that you could understand what it really means to work under their guise. The OLCC is the Oregon Liquor Control Commission and not only oversees and governs according to a 500-page book of laws written right after prohibition but also distributes all the alcohol in the State of Oregon. For the most part, it works pretty well – because we never see them. The biggest downfall for craft bartenders in Oregon is many small batch, new, or foreign spirits will never find a home in Oregon. Ever bottle sold in the state must be approved by a planning commission which charges a sum to have your products listed and available in the OLCC warehouse (so most little companies can’t afford to be listed).
Liquor stores are privately owned but all liquor is distributed by the state, which means that the price is universal no matter where you are in Oregon. Furthermore, all liquor is bought through the liquor stores and there is no real wholesale (5% off for restaurant and bar accounts – but then we pay a delivery charge, so it really doesn’t amount to much). It has it’s plus sides, like if you forgot to order something, you can go pick it up any time the liquor store is open. And you only have one “rep” in effect – the guy who owns the liquor store where you get your liquor.
Jason Evers was head of the Bend OLCC until the beginning of this year, when finally the community said, “enough is enough” and asked the governor to help us find a solution to having him stop his tirade on Bend’s bars and restaurants. At my establishment, he would have two or three of his goons going through all of our server permits, bar logs, looking for any discrepancies night after night. My old server permit said my height was 9’6” – obviously a typo. I never thought anything of it until one of Evers henchmen told me that if I didn’t have it fixed it could result in a $1500 fine. But it was their error?!?!?!? One day the OLCC changed our liquor license on a whim so that we couldn’t have children in the restaurant anymore, which was ridiculous as we are a restaurant. Their reasoning was that when you walked in you saw the bar and we didn’t have a velvet rope in accordance with OLCC law. Why not just tell us to put up a rope (as silly as that seems) rather than come in one day with all new signage. We had to cancel heaps of dinner reservations the next week while we all sweated as our lawyer made a case on Constitutional law (there is no OLCC court – if they give you a fine you have no way to fight it other than hiring a very expensive lawyer).
Other bars received exorbitant fines for nothing, in two cases it was proven with video that Evers was lying. He shut down a local hot spot for three and a half weeks because the owner poured himself a drink off the clock. After all of this, the OLCC did not demote him, but rather gave him a pay raise and promoted him to regional manager – where he ruled with an iron fist. Finally, enough was enough and the bar and restaurant owners came together to put an end to these injustices.
So it was mesmerizing two weeks ago when the entire community found out that Evers stole his identity from a murdered three-year-old in 1996. We really know very little about him, that he lived in Denver and worked at a window tinting company (where is was a beloved employee). That he got a GRE, a bachelors degree, and an on-line masters degree after he filed for a SS# when he lived in Denver. And that he came to Bend, he worked at a nightclub and then after took the job with the OLCC. He was even engaged to a local woman for five years, who never questioned that he wasn’t who he appeared to be. He spoke fluent street Spanish. He claimed to be orphaned and had a rich uncle who left him a heap of money upon his death. So that’s all we have to go on. We don’t know his real name. We don’t know where he is from. We don’t know where he got the money. We don’t know how he came across this ID. We don’t why he was so evil while in his position in the OLCC. And we certainly don’t know why he thought it a good idea to apply for a passport with a stolen Social Security number, but I’m glad he did. Because sometimes it feels like justice is served.
Link to most current newspaper story on Jason Evers.
- Columbine Quillen I am a mixologist bartender and this is my blog