NORTH ADAMS — The city’s licensing board is weighing potential sanctions against Key West Lounge after police said the bar served alcohol to underage patrons — even after one was pulled from the bar by his mother.

North Adams Police were dispatched to the State Street bar around 11:30 p.m. Nov. 15, according to Police Chief Mark Bailey, after receiving a call from a woman who said her 20-year-old son and "at least five" other underage patrons were being served multiple drinks inside the bar.

The allegations were reviewed Tuesday by the Board of License Commissioners, which heard testimony related to underage drinking and overserving during the November incident.

“It is unfortunate that we are here because establishments like yours have good records with the city,” said Commissioner Rosemari Dickinson at the meeting. “We can’t stress enough to the owners that everyone needs to be carded, not just at the door but by servers.”

After some debate about how the commission should cite Key West, the commission decided it will resume the discussion at its next meeting on Feb. 10.

According to Bailey, the mother who called the police had already dragged her son out of Key West earlier that night, but he returned soon after for about an hour and 40 minutes.

When police arrived later, they found two underage patrons who were visibly intoxicated. Bailey said they told police they were allowed into the bar and not carded.

According to security footage, Bailey said it “looked like neither of these two individuals were carded as they walked in.”

“The mother of [one kid] went in and dragged him out,” said Bailey. “He was able to come back in and was not carded.”

Officers discovered 24 IDs had been scanned that day at the bar, but there appeared to be about 60 to 75 patrons inside.

Key West owner Michael Bloom, who was not present the night of the incident, was “very helpful” throughout the process of obtaining surveillance footage, Bailey said, and has historically been cooperative with police during incidents over the bar’s 40-year existence.

“I think it is a terrible incident,” said Bloom, who spoke at the meeting. “We bought the ID reader for this purpose, and that night, there were more than 24 people in there, and [workers] got complacent seeing the same faces and didn’t scan them.”

Bloom said there were two bartenders and two bouncers present the night of Nov. 15.

He also said that all employees sign an agreement of what is expected of them and employees are TIP certified.

The main concern, Bailey said, was that when officers arrived on the scene and questioned the bouncer at the door, he did not tell the truth.

The bouncer at the door told police that the kids must have had good fake IDs, but no fakes were found upon a search of both boys — just their actual Massachusetts licenses.

When the officers got inside, they saw the bouncer go directly to one of the underage boys and take a beer out of his hands.

“We want to work well with liquor establishments,” said Bailey. “We can’t waste our time and resources following up on blatant lies.”

When it came time to decide how to proceed, Commissioner Pete Breen said he wanted to ask the city solicitor whether it was possible for the individual bartender to be fined or punished instead of Bloom, arguing that the bar’s policies were in place but not followed.

Dickinson said she had never heard of a way their commission could cite someone besides the license owner — though there was “no question [Bloom's] employee broke the law that night” — but he was welcome to contact the city solicitor and confirm how to proceed.

“The license holder comes into the meetings, and they have to take whatever the license board gives him — because ultimately, he is responsible for his help,” said Dickinson. “It is up to him to fire his help, not for us to fine them.”

Bloom said that his bar had to “do better.”

“The team let me down,” he said of his employees. “Because I am here, and I don't want to be here for these types of things. It embarrasses the bar.”

Bloom said he began closing at midnight instead of later to avoid more problems. He said the two boys were banned for life from his bar.

“We do not want to serve anyone underage, we don't want them in there, and we don't want their money,” Bloom said.