Recently, I posted a blog about the unfortunate departure of Brett Clifford, longtime fine wine coordinator, from the Utah DABC.

A number of people responded, expressing sadness at Clifford's departure, gratitude for the stellar collection of wines he has selected and maintained for the state-owned stores.

Today I received a copy of Clifford's resignation letter, sent to DABC director Francine Gianni. I thought many of you would like to read it for yourselves. See below.

I can only say again that considering Utah's stake in the hospitality industry, the state should not be in the business of selling alcohol, mostly because it runs this business so poorly.

A Utah state store would go out of business in weeks in any other state.

Francine Giani

Executive Director

Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control

3 February 2012

Dear Francine,

This letter will serve to notify you of my resignation as the DABC fine wine coordinator effective at the end of business day Friday, february 3rd. The unfortunate direction your administration has taken the agency makes it untenable for me to continue in my position.

Your tenure as director has been negative in approach from the first day. You made it clear then to DABC staff that this agency has no support in the legislature or the governor's office, and that you did not want to be here. Following the ethically challenged Kellen administration we all stood ready to support a more honest and open leadership; sadly, this proved to be a missed opportunity on your part. Instead, you assumed us all guilty of corrupt practices. Contrary to your own claims of "opening the windows and letting in the fresh air" at DABC, what followed was a series of secret interrogations, closed meetings, forced retirements, layoffs, and firings. NO explanation was ever given to remaining staff; those who have been let go are told to never speak about their situation. For weeks we would come to work to see yet another missing employee, with no information about what happened or why. One department head was allowed to retire, only to be fired at the last minute, purely for political effect. Most egregiously, he and another supervisor were both fired by you with no notice to their staff, and no immediate provision made for their duties to be assumed by others. Your office is kept locked with closed blinds. No attempt is made to fraternize with other employees, and only one general staff meeting (in your first week) has ever been held. We have been discouraged from attending or listening to commission meetings. Indeed, your open contempt for the commissioners and their statutory authority is embarrassing. The end result of this punitive administration is the lowest level of employee morale I have ever witnessed in thirty-seven years.

To be fair, you are obviously following marching orders from legislative leadership and the governor's office. Stung by the public and media backlash last year over the 1.2 million DABC budget shortage and proposed store closures, I believe you have been instructed to quietly cut that same amount out of the DABC office staff and to fundamentally alter the culture and direction of the agency. Your current mantra is "we are leaner and more efficient"; a more accurate description would be inadequate, demoralized, and unprepared.

Tom Zdunich, your choice as acting deputy director, is equally discouraging. He is well-known to us, having been fast-tracked from the beginning of his DABC career by Dennis Kellen. As director of purchasing he was the Kellen/Freeman administration's greatest cheerleader...now he is their most vocal critic accusing Kellen of "monumental arrogance." This is a quality with which he himself is familiar. Rigid in personality, coldly impersonal, and volatile in temperament, he tends to manage through intimidation. Although he has an impeccable work ethic and sense of commitment, he simply has no clue on how to inspire the same qualaities in a management role. His employees are constantly reprimanded that personal conversations in the workplace whould never exceed two minutes. Lately, he is fond of saying to me "every employee in this agency should be afraid for their jobs...and that's a good thing!" He also recently admitted to me that your original intent was to get rid of me as I was only of limited value to the agency. It would be hard to find a more mean-spirited or more widely disliked individual.

For me, the most significant recent directive is the intended downgrading of the DABC's fine wine program, something I have spent my entire career developing. Without any prior discussion, Mr. Zdunich informed me that my assistant of twenty years was being immediately re-assigned, his position eliminated, and that the number of premium wines under my control would be reduced by two-thirds. His focus is strictly on statistical gross profit figures for products we sell, with no knowledge of the very nuanced and widely diverse wine market. Tom is determined to cut selection and move Utah state stores towards a grocery store model. Beyond a few selected prestige items, everything listed will have to meet volume and profit parameters. This will not work in a total alcohol monopoly like Utah. Unless consumers and licensees are offered legal alternative choices of supply (such as winery-direct or internet sales) our state's business and image will suffer. Utah's world class resorts, barely able to compete in their beverage programs under current laws, will lose a critical component for business growth.

I can no longer support or be a part of this regressive process at the Utah DABC.

Sincerely,

Brett A. Clifford

cc: Tom Zdunich, Tom Speery