The Seaside City Council has refused to recommend approval for a liquor license sought by a military veteran who wants to open a bar.

The council voted 6-0 to on May 13 not to recommend to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission that Alexander Menashe be allowed a license. City Councilor Tita Montero was absent.

Menashe, who said he had served in special operations with the U.S. Navy for eight years, told the council that he wants to open a bar called The Shooting Gallery in a building at 6 N. Columbia St. The building is owned by the Ter Har family.

Menashe said he had worked as the manager of a bar and restaurant owned by his mother in Ashland. He said his bar would serve locally distilled spirits and micro brews from the Northwest and the West Coast. Food also would be served.

However, Police Chief Bob Gross recommended that the council oppose the license because Menashe had been convicted of disorderly conduct in 2009 and unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon in 2008.

He also received citations for several traffic violations, including driving with a suspended drivers license. Menashe has spent the past 10 years paying off $15,000 in fines and restitution involving the citations.

In his presentation to the council, Menashe said the traffic citations and his license suspension were due, in part, to being deployed overseas and not receiving court notices or overdue bills.

The combination of my youth, inexperience and combat deployment schedule post Sept. 11 (2001) led to several situations from 2001 to 2008 where I received driving-while-suspended citations, Menashe said in a letter he sent to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. The letter was attached to the City Council agenda.

Menashe said he had since paid all fines and made restitution to all courts, government departments and collection agencies.

Last June, Menashe received two more citations one for failure to wear a helmet while operating a scooter and driving without a valid operators license. Menashe said he was testing out a scooter for his 16-year-old brother and wasnt aware that a valid drivers license was required to drive it.

None of the traffic violations, he noted, were of a criminal nature.

The unlawful firearm possession violation was due to an administrative and clerical misunderstanding between the Jackson County Sheriffs Office and I. He said he had been issued a concealed weapons permit in 2005, but when a letter sent to him by the Jackson County Sheriffs Office was returned by the post office, the sheriff suspended Menashes permit.

At the time, Menashe said, he was serving with the Navys Expeditionary Combat Command in South Korea. When he returned to Oregon, someone saw him with his weapon and reported him to the police. Menashe said the misunderstanding was cleared up and that the Jackson County district attorney cleared all charges.

Im a small arms expert, said Menashe, who added that he had had combat experience and had earned a Purple Heart.

I would never carry a weapon while working at a bar, he added.

When the council asked Gross why he recommended against the liquor license, he said he was concerned that, over the past 10 years, Menashe has paid $15,000 in fines and fees.

This says to me he has consistently violated the law. Although the criminal charges were reduced to violations, they represent a consistent violation of the law, Gross said.

In response, Menashe agreed that it might be a cause for concern, but he repeat that he didnt have any criminal convictions.

This is not an issue of me following a pattern, he said. I spent the majority of my life adhering to and upholding the laws of the land.

Menashe said that injuries he had suffered while in the service prevented him from re-enlisting or working at other civilian jobs.

City Councilor Dana Phillips told Menashe that she truly appreciated his service to the U.S., but that she felt she had to follow the police chiefs recommendation.

Your letter came across to me as you always have an excuse, Phillips said.

Although, he, too voted to recommend against the license, City Councilor Don Johnson, who also is a veteran, said he felt bad for Menashe.

I painfully vote no, Johnson said.

In other business, the council:

Recommended approval for two other liquor licenses. They were for the Crabby Oyster restaurant, 150 Broadway, and Undersea Coffee, 26 Avenue A.

Approved a fee of $8.84 per front foot for properties in the downtown maintenance district. The fee represents a 2.1 percent increase over last year.

Heard an update on Clatsop Community College by college President Larry Galizio. Galizio told the council that state support for community colleges has dropped 70 percent over the past five years. State funding provides only 10 percent of the colleges budget, while local property taxes, tuition, fees and other revenue sources developed by the college make up the rest, Galizio said.