The DeKalb Liquor Commission and Mayor Frank Van Buer have worked since February to create a deputy liquor commissioner. Their work may soon pay off.

“The position still has to be approved by the city council in order to add it to next year’s budget,” Van Buer said.

The deadline for adding it to the DeKalb 2007 fiscal budget is July 1.

So far, the deputy liquor commissioner will be a part-time position under the legal division in the city, said DeKalb City Attorney Norma Guess. He or she will do bar checks in the evening and monitor the excess paperwork.

The liquor commission did not discuss potential job responsibilities for the deputy liquor commissioner at its meeting Tuesday night.

The commission did vote in favor of supporting Van Buer’s decision to create the position.

“The liquor commission will take whatever role they want in this process,” Van Buer said. “But the community’s perspective is still important.”

The commission has been meeting for the last eight months to modify city liquor ordinances.

Guess is drawing up drafts of all the different changes for the commission to vote on during its next meeting.

“It might not all happen in one meeting,” Guess said.

Changes to be proposed will ban the purchase, sale of and use of the Alcohol Without Liquid device and widen the scope of consuming alcohol in any form in all liquor ordinances.

The commission will also propose to raise the minimum price of beer from four cents per ounce to 10 cents per ounce.

In coming months, the commission will try to determine a new classification system for bars and bottle store liquor licenses.

Commission member George Shur told the commission he wants to see DeKalb open up the liquor market.

“We say that a liquor license has no inherent value but that’s not the way things are going,” Shur said.

Businesses with Class A liquor licenses include the license in the value of the business and they should not, he said.