A bubbly bid farewell to a Langley employee at City Hall this week may be remembered more as an embarrassing blunder than a warm goodbye.

The city council partook in a Champagne toast to Jeff Arango, Langley’s departing planning chief, during its regular meeting Monday, and in so doing violated both state law and city policy, according to Police Chief Dave Marks.

“I’m not sure who thought it would be a good idea to serve an alcoholic beverage at a council meeting, but it’s illegal to consume alcohol in public and, per city policy, staff are not allowed to consume alcohol on the job,” wrote Marks, in a Wednesday email to Mayor Fred McCarthy.

Incidentally, both the police chief and mayor were not present at Monday’s meeting. Mayor pro tem and Langley City Councilwoman Rene Neff was in charge.

“It was an honest mistake,” Neff said. “We had no idea this was going to happen. Someone brought it in and it all happened so fast.”

The Champagne was brought in by members of the Langley Main Street Association. The group worked with Arango over the years and association leaders wanted to express their gratitude and respect for his contributions to the city.

After a planned honoring of Arango by the city council — he was presented a glass orb in recognition of his work — Main Street officials broke out the booze and plastic cups were passed around the room.

Neff said she did have an internal moment of pause where she thought, “I wonder if this is appropriate,” but within moments the toast was being made and Arango celebrated.

“They were pouring and I just went with it,” she said.

“We were thinking of Jeff, not the act,” Neff added.

Along with Neff, Council members Jim Sundberg, Robin Black and Thomas Gill were in attendance. Councilman Bruce Allen was not present.

According to the revised code of Washington, RCW 66.44.100, “… no person shall open the package containing liquor or consume liquor in a public place. Every person who violates any provision of this section shall be guilty of a class 3 civil infraction.”

Marks said the penalty is a ticket and monetary fine, like one would receive “for speeding or running a stop sign.” Such infractions, however, are discretionary and officers have the right to issue warnings.

“That’s basically what we’re doing here and I think that’s enough,” Marks said. “We’re saying, ‘Come on guys, what were you doing? You should know better.’ ”

McCarthy sent out an email to the council after receiving the email from Marks. The mayor characterized the incident as an “expanded awareness opportunity for us all” and offered suggestions about how to handle such situations in the future.

“Next time someone comes spontaneously with Champagne, etc., we should thank them and tell them we deeply appreciate the gesture, but it will have to occur off site at an appropriate location after the work day… ,” McCarthy wrote.

He also recommended asking for non-alcoholic beverages as a substitute.

In a later interview with The Record, McCarthy said, like Marks, he plans to take no additional action. It shouldn’t have happened, he said, but it was an innocent mistake.

“I think you can use it as a learning experience, and I don’t see it happening again,” McCarthy said.