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SAUGUS - The Board of Selectmen hit Jin Asian Restaurant with a triple-whammy Tuesday when it voted twice to suspend its alcohol, entertainment and common victualers licenses and just as a precaution to roll back its hours of operations.
Jin officials, who were no-shows at the hearing, will shut its doors still owing the town $257,183.83 in back taxes.
The board held two show-cause hearings on the troubled Route 1 north restaurant, one for defaulting on its taxes and another tied to a variety of violations that include two shootings, failure to get the town's approval for renovations, making renovations while its license is suspended and serving alcohol while its all-alcohol license was suspended.
The Alcohol Beverage Control Commission suspended Jin's license on Nov. 25 because of administrative wrong doings. Ira Zaleznik, special council to the board, suggested the selectmen move ahead with the show-cause hearings despite the ABCC's actions, essentially a back up.
Zaleznik said the appeal period on the ABCC's revocation has not run its course yet so theoretically if Jin official's got the appeal overturned in court then walked into Town Hall with a large check all before Dec. 31 then it could reopen.
If that happened, Zaleznik said the town would be in the same position its in now.
Selectman Michael Serino agreed the board should vote to revoke despite the fact that the ABCC beat them to the punch.
"History shows that establishments have run to court and get suspensions overturned. They did it a few weeks ago," he said referring to the fact that Jin had another license suspension overturned in early November.
During the second hearing Zaleznik again urged board members to vote regardless of the early votes and the ABCC rulings.
"Again its the nature of a backup to the backup," he said. "Even though it seems improbable they could get the license and put themselves back in business."
Serino said he would also like to take a vote to roll back the restaurant's hours on the basis that if the improbable did happen and it got its licenses back in court, the judge might at least uphold the roll back.
Town Meeting member Janet Leuci said she would support any action the board could take on behalf of the little guy who struggles to pay his taxes while Jin neglects theirs. She said she believed the restaurant brought irreparable harm to the town's reputation.
Stephen Sweezey, also a Town Meeting member, pointed out that the $250,000 is a lot of money that instead of being used for town expenses is "going into the pockets of a company that doesn't play by the rules."
The board voted 3-0 twice to revoke Jin's entertainment, all-alcohol and common victualers license and to roll its hours of operations back to midnight permanently.
Chairman Donald Wong sat out the hearing do to a conflict of interest and Selectman Michael Kelleher had a previous engagement.