LINCOLN- Two of Nebraska’s three Liquor Control Commissioners resigned Monday after Gov. Jim Pillen called them and asked them to do so, the commission’s former chairman said, adding to a tumultuous period for the state agency after its former executive director was indicted last week.

Bruce Bailey, the former chairman who had served on the commission for more than a decade, and Commissioner Kim Lowe both resigned Monday morning after Pillen “personally called” each of them and sought their resignations, Bailey said Monday. Pillen also rejected a set of proposed liquor-control rule changes that were advanced under a former director of the state Liquor Control Commission—who now faces federal corruption charges tied to two Lincoln strip clubs. Among the changes Pillen nixed was language that would have removed prohibitions on customers touching employees at establishments that serve liquor, by no longer classifying such contact (e.g. kissing or touching breasts, buttocks, genitals) as a “disturbance."

The departures of the commissioners leaves the commission, which regulates the sale of alcohol in Nebraska and helps regulate the sale of medical cannabis, without a quorum and unable to function

The Medical Cannabis Commission will subsequently miss the October 1st licensing deadline in the wake of the resignations.

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