In the May incident, the male sales clerk inadvertently transposed the buyers birth year of 1986 to read 1968 in the cash register which is programmed to verify the buyer is of legal age. He was cited by police, paid a $200 fine, was suspended a week without pay, had a reprimand put in his permanent personnel file and was demoted to a bagger for three months, Davis said. In the July incident, a female clerk ignored two warnings from the cash register and altered the information to allow the sale to proceed. Davis said the clerk apparently feared a confrontation with the buyer. She was also cited by police and Macey's fired her. Davis said her actions violated two levels of training provided by the store. Both clerks, who themselves were under the legal drinking age, had been through the training.

The suspension also carries the possibility of a financial penalty for the city, since a loss of sales revenue at Macey's could reduce sales tax revenue for the city, especially if customers opt to go out of town to make their beer and related purchases.

Macey's has operated in Spanish Fork for 22 years. Its only other citation for selling beer to a minor was 13 years ago. Summers noted the store has never had a tobacco sales violation.

Davis said store management is considering adding a script to the next version of the cash register software to instruct clerks on what to say when they are faced by an underage customer.

Councilman Chris Wadsworth, who was not at the meeting due to illness, participated by telephone, marking the first use of the city's electronic meeting ordinance that was passed in January.

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E-mail: rodger@desnews.com