Liquor Board Agendas/Minutes/Recordings - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the May 11th, 2026 Liquor Board hearing. I ask Commissioner Glass to bring us to order and say the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you very much. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

Our first motion would be to adopt the meeting minutes. Let me try that again. The meeting minutes from April 13th and April 27th for any discussion about them.

Madam Chair, I move that the Board adopt the April 13th and April 27th, 2026 Ritter County Liquor Board hearing minutes.

Second.

All right.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

I unanimously passed 3-0. And as I said earlier, no violations. So we move straight on to new applications. Anyone with the corner store or corner shop, please join us up front at the table for application 262-646. Good morning.

Good morning.

Everyone who's prepared to give testimony to the Board of Licensed Commissioners, please raise your right hand and respond with I will, following the oath. In the matter of the corner shop application, do you solemnly declare and affirm under the penalties of perjury that the testimony you're about to give to the Board of Licensed Commissioners in the matter now pending will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? If so, state I will, followed by your name. Well, Colleen Larson. I will, Dawn Triggers.

Thank you. Donna, I'll turn to you. All right. What the board has before them this morning is a request for approval of a new application for the Corner Shop Class A Beer and Wine. The open items that we have is going to be the inspector report because the occupancy, he gave us his zoning permit this morning, so that will be checked off of your list that it is completed. The only thing that we have open is the inspector's report, which I'll turn that over to Mr. Harrison to give us that report.

All right. April 23rd, 2026, I performed a new license inspection at the corner shop located at 1020 Mill Pond Road, Frederick, Maryland. The licensees are applying for a Class A parent line license. The establishment is currently open and operating. The notice of public hearing sign was posted on the front window of the establishment on April 23rd, 2026, and recorded at section 20.1405. No re-inspection will be required for the license to be issued.

Thank you, Inspector Harrison. There is no background history as these applicants have never held a license before. This store is already open and operating. They're just adding this as a component to their store. I'll turn it over to the board to talk to the applicants. Any questions for staff or shall we turn it straight over?

All right. Join us and tell us why we should give you the honor of holding a Frederick County liquor license.

No, actually it's like a convenience store and we have like a lot of assisted living apartments over there, 100 plus. So in these three, four months, what I heard is like a lot of people are asking, can we have beer and wine and all. So from there, that idea came to my mind and definitely it will help the community. They need not to drive long. I mean, they can just walk in and get it. And plus it will help in the business also to get more revenue. So I feel it will be very convenient. Like, we have a lot of, you know, apartments and other houses nearby, so it will be convenient for them also.

Anything you'd like to add, Kong? I concur with what was said. I actually have been in the area for a very long time, and I was there when the prior corner shop was there and, you know, closed up. And I believe, you know, this liquor license will help. to stay in that store for a very long period of time.

And you both work at the store?

I do not.

Okay. Just on the license. Yes. Commissioners?

So I know the area really well because you've got, you know, Plaza Mexico, Ricci, and then the store there, and then the new, I guess, Indian restaurant, Andaz. And so you're right there in the community, right? The Wormans Mill. So yes, gotcha. And so adding this to the store, The previous store didn't have it, correct? That is correct. Okay, gotcha. And so, you know, how many employees do you plan on having at this location?

So like two to three more employees we will hire.

How many do you have now?

Currently, my wife and myself and sometimes my daughter helps, but she is underage. We learned like she cannot do. So we are in the process of hiring people. So we will hire and then we will conduct.

Okay. And are you all trained? Are they all alcohol trained?

Yes, yes, we did that training. They are, but any new employees would need to be. It's a very small.

Okay, gotcha. And, you know, I know the neighborhood well, and I know a lot of people do a lot of walking. I just also know that they have the, right across from there, that music on Friday nights. I'm assuming this would help, you know, I think I'm making sure, carting and things like that, because you do have people who come over there. So, you know, what are your plans for...

alcohol identification and parting do you have like your alcohol plans can you elaborate on the plans that you have yes so we will make sure like we check ids and in the in the pus system when we tag any any alcohol item so no employee can pass that without the verification of the id so they cannot like a manually do so it's like you have to put the date of birth And make sure you check the ID and all this. We will make sure we have that, you know, that plan in place so that we don't serve to any minors or we don't get tricked with anyone. Sometimes like people come and ask for waves and all. So we know that. So, I mean, my wife ran like for 10 years, like 7-Eleven in Tampa, Florida. So we are aware, like, so we'll make sure like we take, you know, IDs and we don't serve to any minors or any minors. We should not like to anyone who is already drunk and not in his senses. So we'll try to, you know, make sure we follow the law and avoid all these situations.

Excellent.

For the record, it's him and his wife who are certified.

Okay. And then you'll have one or two others. Just making sure you make sure you have at least 50%. Yes. Would encourage everyone to train regardless.

I think the training was very good. So I already told. So it was very focused. So normally people share PPTs and all that, but very energetic. So everything is here. And I think we learned a lot. I mean, we thought it's like, you know, just casual, but no, when we heard the consequences and all, but I really appreciate she put all this here in the mind and it's active now.

Oh, absolutely.

Very, very helping people. I think when I came, I don't know about this process, but I was, you know, guided very well. So really thanks to both of you.

You're definitely a place to ask questions. ask and reach out in advance you know don't you want to make sure and i know our staff is very good about making sure to any questions you have just reach out to them it's not like other places in the country we are very proactive so whatever i heard it was true i heard like it's very helping stuff but i was scared when i came first day i have no idea but i was guided very well and finally i'm here today so you intimidate me and scary

I told her she needs to be in a college or something. It will be very good.

May have some openings.

Her caliber is totally different. I mean, I've seen a lot of people, but I really like the way she handled the things and stressed out on the important things. Doesn't matter live or on the phone or a video call.

I have no further questions.

I just want to point this out, and I'm sure you know, you have no ownership, you have no responsibility, other than if there's a violation, you're equally responsible financially and legally.

Yes, ma'am. Okay. Just so you know, because I don't like 0% ownership.

Do we have any public comment for this case?

No.

Well, this seems pretty cut and dry. Any further discussion before we take it to a vote? Anything you want to add, Dawn or Jim? Okay. Make a motion.

Debbie? I move that the board grant approval to the corner shop is active immediately.

Second.

Alright, no further discussion. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye aye aye. And we welcome you to Frederick County and our new liquor license. Never hesitate to call here and ask a question. I don't care about your ownership. You're the license holder. You have equal right to our staff and any questions you need answered. And the biggest violation you could possibly have is underage serving. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. We're going to be here in the hearing for a little while, but we'll send an email to tell you when you can come by and pick up the license.

Thank you.

You're ready to take it down? Candy, we'll email you when you can come by the office this afternoon.

Thank you.

Thank you, guys.

All right, so that was my application now it's transfer with my agenda. Transfer application those with them on Liberty please join us up front application to 5, 7, 4, 3,

Everyone who's prepared to give testimony to the Board of Licensed Commissioners, please raise your right hand and respond with, I will, following the oath. In the matter of the Vermont Liberty application, do you solemnly declare and affirm under the penalties of perjury that the testimony you're about to give to the Board of Licensed Commissioners and the matter now pending will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. If so, state, I will, followed by your name.

I will, Ryan Purcell.

I will, Don Triggers.

Right. What the board has before them today is a request for approval of a transfer of ownership only. The store is open and operating. Currently, it was father-son. Son was running it. Now we're switching back because you had run it before. Yes. Let the son take over ownership. Now we're back to father. Yes. Okay. So just so the board has some background understanding of this, that it's just ownership only. Nothing's changing. Operations are not changing. Ryan was added to the license February 10th of 2026. Now, what I do want to do, I'll read my inspector's report because I actually did the signposting. And then I will go over some history here that I would like legal just to give a little bit of insight on. as far as what follows the licensee versus following the same entity. And I'll talk about that here in a minute. On April 23rd, 2026, I, Dawn Sugars, acting in the capacity of a liquor board inspector for the Frederick County Liquor Board, went to 227 North Church Street, Thurmont, Maryland, and I met on site with Safar. the owner of the establishment. This application is a transfer of ownership only. The establishment is already open and operating, and there will not be a need for re-inspection because nothing operationally is changing. Only the ownership and Ryan will continue to be the applicant on this particular application. The notice of public hearing sign was posted in the window that allows the public to have full view of it in accordance with 2014-05. Now, what I do want to put on the record is We do have a deferred judgment that was under, it's under the same entity, but now we have different licensees. So I don't know, because typically, typically, typically, typically it follows the licensee. And Jen, we've had these conversations before, like, should this follow since it's the same entity? Ryan was on the license, but not when the infraction occurred because they are under deferred right now. under the old licensee and the old entity. So I don't know what you want to do with that. It was a sales to minor December 4th. Let me actually go further. Actually, January 12th, 2026, there was a sales to minor, and they have a one-week suspension that is pending. If there is another infraction, there is a fine pending as well. Did you say 2026? Yeah, it just happened.

Okay. Mm-hmm.

So, Jen, I don't know, like, what we... Give her a minute to think. And that was under Fahad and Sam Fieser were the licensees at that time.

I don't really have a comment on it at this time. It's... I think it'd be a little different if we were here on a violation, but it's before the board. They can give it the weight that they feel is appropriate given the circumstances.

Whether that violation history follows into the transfer. I'm not prepared to give you... Okay. Answer on that. If another violation comes, then we would bring that before and we would just kind of have it in a holding pattern at this time. We can have a conversation if we need it on the line. Just wanted to make sure because it's the same entity. Okay. So it's before the board.

Am I seeing correctly that their hours of operations are 4 a.m. or am I just reading that wrong?

They're a gas station, so they can be open, but they just cannot have alcohol sales. Right. You're aware of that?

Yes, absolutely.

Commissioners? Are you Sunoco or Liberty? Liberty.

Okay, then we turn to you and ask you to tell us why we should give you the honor of holding a Frederick County liquor license in this transfer.

I just know we've gone through a lot of changes and he's been changing the shop around a lot and trying to get more in-depth in better employees. So we've just been doing this changing, trying to better our place. We just ask that we can continue to serve our community.

Thank you, Commissioner Burrell.

How many employees do you have at this location?

We had three currently.

Okay. And out of the three, were any of those three there when the violation occurred? No. And, you know, what things are you doing to make sure I know, you know, you've got the mount up your way, but you also have Catoctin High School where you guys are located. Like, what are you doing to make sure that you're doing the carding, checking, educating?

We have the card checks that we've been doing. We got those located not too awful long ago. So we've been using that. We do our training. We've been making sure they do their able training and their likely serving training. We've just been monitoring, you know, quite a bit. He's been checking the cameras a lot more, just keeping an eye on things. And they do know our protocols and our placements for the alcohol serving.

And do both of you work there? Or, like, who's the day-to-day?

He's the day-to-day. Okay. I used to work there, but I'm in town, so I go and just help do little odds and ends and help out with the shop. Gotcha. Okay.

There's all the questions I have.

Is there anything you want to ask? No, I don't have any. That's terrible. I lost my question. One second.

You're looking at that, Madam Chair. We'll put on the record that the license was issued January 6, 2016. They've had a license for 10 years and five months under Thurmont Liberty and so far in between father and son. Okay, gotcha.

So just so I'm clear, the titles being transferred to you, right? And you are 100% owner?

Yes.

Okay. Know that he's fine. Know that you may not have any ownership with this facility, but because you're on the license, you are held legally and financially responsible no matter what. All right. Do we have any public comments for this case? No. Thank you so much. Then we are back up here for a motion discussion, whatever the pleasure of the board is.

So I do have one question for Dawn. So at the time of the violation on January 12th, who was running the store? The father or the son? Son.

And the board can choose to, we've had it follow licensee. That's been the history and the precedent. Follow licensees.

Not the establishment. That is correct. But is that in situations when none of the licensees are still at the location?

We've had it where we've had a situation in one of our licensees where one still remains and one doesn't. At this particular one, none still remain. Okay. And again, we wouldn't, I guess, bring this up again unless something would happen. And then we would talk about that at that particular hearing if it's not going to happen.

Okay.

But if that would happen, we would just bring it up at that time. Okay.

Not the issue now.

Right.

Unless the floor decides to start a clean slate. It's not the issue now.

And this transfer is ready to go. Immediate.

Correct, yeah.

They don't need anything further from you or anyone. Okay. So we're back up here again for motion or Further discussion?

I'm sure I move that the board grant the approval of the transfer for Surmont Liberty effective immediately.

Second.

Okay. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. That's 3-0. Your transfer is granted. We wish you the very best.

Thank you, ma'am.

We hope never to see you here other than for a few days. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Far. Thank you. Far. Thank you. Far. Yes. Andy, we'll reach out. We'll be here for a little bit. We'll reach out to you to be able to transfer the license and all that fun stuff on here. Okay?

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Our next case transfer is Fiesta Tangiana.

Mm-hmm. Okay, please join us up here. Application 262533. And this is new, but it is my good transfers.

Where does it say no, right? Oh, she could see her. Yeah, it's a transfer application.

Everyone ready to give testimony. Please raise to the Board of Licensed Commissioners. Please raise your right hand and respond with I will following the oath. In the matter of Fiesta, Cijana, Salvadorian cuisine application, do you solemnly declare and affirm under the penalties of perjury that the testimony you're about to give to the Board of Licensed Commissioners in the matter now pending will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. If so, state I will, followed by your name.

I will, Shatara Swenson. I will, Corrine Ortiz.

Well done, sugars.

Thank you.

The board has before them today as a request for an approval of a transfer application of Fiesta Tejana, Salvadorian cuisine, Class B beer, wine, and liquor. The open items completed application means that we're still waiting on a landlord's signature. You guys are still negotiating with the landlord for an assumption of a lease. Yes. So that's why the lease is also still open. Workers' comp, because as she takes over new employees, things like that, she'll have to get a workers' comp policy. and a new establishment phone number, which, again, as she takes over. May 1st, you guys actually did the settlement, but they're under a management agreement with the old owners until they can get everything completed here through the board, through their lease, and all of those things. Mr. Harrison, can we please get your inspector's report?

On April 23rd, 2006, I conducted a new license transfer inspection at P.S. Tejana. Located at 480 Prospect Boulevard, Frederick, Maryland. The new applicants are applying for a Class B beer, wine, and liquor license. The notice of public hearing sign was posted on April 23, 2026. This is in accordance with Section 20-1405. No re-inspection will be required before the license can be issued.

Thank you, Mr. Harrison. The licensee has never held a license before, and I will turn it over to the board for discussion.

Thanks. Commissioners, if there's no questions here, I'll ask you to give us your reasonings for wanting a liquor license here.

Thank you. I've been in the restaurant industry for more than 20 years. I know how to card people. That's number one. And serve. That was my main thing. Customer service. I was a server. So now that we have the opportunity to be owners of a restaurant, I own a food truck as well. That was my first business four years ago. Now the opportunity presents us to get the restaurant. When I look at it, I look a big opportunity there to serve our community. This is my first time working with a license for liquor. I'm learning a lot. Definitely. We took the class last week, so. being serving and being honoring I think it's totally different but we learn a lot and I've been following also the rules as a server we we have taught also to card everybody if they don't have an ID then we're not allowed to serve alcohol that's even before we started as a business owners and then nothing just looking forward to have a good restaurant business and and that's why we're asking for a license yeah thank you I kind of have the same background as her I've been in the

hospitality industry for 18 years, working at Dutchess, which I currently work for Dutchess Daughter for the last nine years. And that's where I met my sister-in-law, which is why we're here together. But we're under strict policy to card and things like that. So it's not anything new to us. So we're just excited to have this Mexican restaurant and serve our community.

Very good. And just real quick, I don't know if I mentioned, Just on the name, it will be only Fiesta Tejana. We're removing Salvadorian cuisine. We're trading to be an authentic Mexican restaurant. Oh, very good. Yes.

Commissioners? I just want to ask, so then I know it says on here, but normally I don't see them with the completed application unchecked.

Right. So it's the landlord portion of it. So we couldn't complete it. And we know that we're working on the assumption of the lease. They won't sign until that's done. So that's why they're operating under a management agreement for now. So the landlord and it's a shopping center landlord. So it takes a little bit of time to sash that through.

And so you'll make the correction on the application when you take the change. Gotcha. And how many employees are under management? How many employees do you currently have?

Right now it's it's family. So it's six of us right now.

Okay. How many are involved in the service of alcohol?

Four. Okay. But two more are husbands. They also got trained last week.

Okay.

Very good.

And I know it's a little different when you go from serving to owning and all the different rules that apply, like everything. So I know you've done the ABLE training, correct? And so I guess my other thing is, what are your plans to train up other employees? I know it's harder sometimes when you have family. So what is the plans for training and making sure they're following all the rules and things like that for the service of alcoholic carding?

Well, mainly I'm going to be pretty much all the time at the restaurant. She's helping us a couple of days a week. So we're going to interact regularly. Basically, one of us, we're going to be there all the time, including our husbands. And then the other two servers that we're planning to have, as soon as they finish school, I'm going to send them to get trained. Just because they were supposed to come last week, but they couldn't for school-wise.

Okay.

Yeah.

School isn't college school or school isn't like...

So my daughter is finishing high school and then she has so much going on right now. She's taking nursing classes as well. So her timing was too crowded for her last week. But yeah. Definitely soon as she finished that, I'm planning her to have training. Okay. And the age to serve? 18. 18. She's 18 now. I can just make a chart.

Okay. No, those are all the things. I know we have a growing community and there's never enough Mexican food in town. So there's lines everywhere. So anyway, that's all I have.

Thank you, Commissioner Glass.

Nothing.

And as I always do, you, my dear, will be... Have no ownership. Correct. And you will still be legally and financially responsibility should the slight chance of violation ever happen. Yes. A violation will never happen, right?

No.

No, I know. Okay. And she will be there sometimes. And I just really want to make sure that you're aware of that because it is a huge responsibility to have your name on that license.

It is, but because it's a family business, I'm very excited for her for this endeavor that she's, you know, embarked on. And I, like I said, I've had so much experience in this. So I saw the difference when I was working at the restaurant. I'm like, okay, make sure we're doing this. Make sure we're doing that. I felt like, okay, this is a big difference, but I'm very excited for this. So. Yes.

And you work for a very reputable restaurant right now. Yes. All right. Do we have any public comment?

No.

All right. Seeing none, we are back up here for discussion or a motion. So question for you real quick.

How long do you think it'll take to work out the agreement with your landlord? We literally like right on the bus today between the, I'm sorry, I forgot his name. The one we did with the, paperwork with he's doing all the paperwork that way we can hit it like send the package to the landlord and that we can get is it marlin no no no no marlin um i'm sorry victor padilla is the one who was helping them to start the restaurant so he's the one who's doing the process right now and between him and my uh accounting girl she's helping us with all with all that process i think 30 days maybe i think less literally we're like on the last because this two weeks has been very um fast for me. So I've been trying to get everything quicker. We always tend to give you more.

Yeah, I appreciate it. Yes. Earlier.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. We're on the and the insurance for the we try and just get the everything done and then we can get the insurance right away.

And yeah, we just give some extra time and emotion. So I move that the board grant grant conditional approval. for Fiesta Tejana through July 15th, 2026, pending the approval of all state, county, local ordinances, laws, and regulations.

I was just talking about how well you do that. All those in favor, any further discussion? Everyone say aye. Aye. Aye. 3-0. We're very happy to have you here, both of you. Thank you. And I wish you all the best. Always remember, Ask a question first. Our staff is here to answer anything they can. And if they can't, they'll find the answer. Yes, we know. Don't be wonderful. I've been TIP certified by her at Dutchess. And your staff, try and have an ongoing discussion with them. And I know it's husbands and that's tough, but an ongoing discussion as far as the rules. Yes. Yes.

I don't like them.

No, no. Hey, Jen, I got something on this.

Let's come look at the regulation book also. Yes, definitely. Thank you. Thank you very much. And I wish you every success. Thank you so very much. Hope to see you all there. Thank you. Thank you.

It's nice when we don't have any, I think, you know, in case we get any response. OK, so good. Thank you. Thank you guys.

Thank you.

OK, now we're turning it over to. There's no public comment. Thank you.

Thank you, Jen.

All right, we'll move into staff meeting renewal update. Ashley, could you please do your in-block presentation? You have this in front of you, guys.

The last, well, the April 13th hearing, the board in-block approved 328 licenses. We have an additional 31, which is on the list, which brings us to 359 renewals or licenses that had renewed this year. And then we have the two that you guys approved on April 27th for the hardship extension. Yeah, could you give an update on the hardship? Give an update on the hardship? Their responses so far. So I checked in last week. We have four decisions who has not had their emergency hearing yet. Lorenzio is still working on it. Their accountant was to provide an update. We're still waiting to hear from her.

Emergency hearing for poor decisions. What's that?

When she came before you guys last week or the week before that she said she was going to have an emergency hearing with the comptroller's office. She still has not had that hearing yet. I mean, so the 20, you guys gave her till the 20th and we just have to see what happens. They're trying to get their down payment percentage reduced. So, but she has not had that yet. Lorenzio's is progressing. Poor decisions is still, we're still waiting. So. And they understand that we have no control after the 20th. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

In the backside, Ashley? They need to vote on the N block.

Go ahead and vote on, yeah.

All right, all those in favor of the N block, please signify by raising, or can I have a motion first? Yeah.

I'm chair. I move that the board approve the 31 extra licenses for the N block.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. 3-0.

All right. Now, on the back, we had 11 licenses that did not renew. Do I need to list through all of them or they can just read it? They can read through them. And just a little reason of why they did not renew and the type of license they hold.

Thank you.

We also issued eight licenses that also renewed during this renewal period. And they are listed there and the type of license and the date that they were issued.

Thank you.

Wolfsville stopped closed. It's the only thing up there.

Yeah.

So that's a summary of our renewals this year. Is there any of them that closed in the wine place that's going in? Do you have any role in that tasting room part?

They are doing a promoter's permit for now, and they've already applied for a full-time license, which they'll be on next month's hearing. Everything goes well. Speaking of that, I mean, I could go right into, well, we'll stay in order here, but we'll come back to it.

Mexican Rodeo, just want to keep everyone updated that we did. Move on, Dawn. Can I ask, like, there's a couple that I'm kind of curious about. Cafe 611, is there any ongoing conversation with them whatsoever, or they just didn't reapply?

He let his license lapse so he could go to a promoter's permit.

Okay.

So it'll be event-based only, which is what he was operating under anyway.

Right.

So it will be license by license as he needs it.

Okay.

Thank you. I'm sorry. Surely. We did meet with the security company and had conversations with the fair board events person for the Mexican Rodeo. Chris drew up a, we're gonna propose for this June 14th, Mexican Rodeo to move the beer garden behind a fence to allow, we've been working with the fire marshal as well. So there's been lots of detailed conversations of how can we improve this flow? How can we change some of the flow in and out of the beer garden? Because some of it is just not in our purview, like as far as egresses, things like that. So we've been working with them on that. We decided that we want to move the beer garden back behind a permanent fence that's there at the fairgrounds. Because once we had the Frederick Running Festival this weekend, we saw moving it back, you created a little bit more flow from the track to the area where the beer garden was. If you move it behind the fence, which is hard for you guys to envision, I know, but it creates a bigger flow. And with so many people, we need to create a better flow. So we're going to create choke points for in and outs. June 14th is the next one. Thank goodness they canceled the Memorial Day one so the guys don't have to go out and work Memorial Day. But we've decided that we are going to just stay within our purview of we license the track area, the stands, the beer garden. If things happen outside of that, it's not in our purview. Egresses are outside of our purview. There will be detailed expectations given to Alex. We've moved from, and I say we, me, moved from, and Joan and I have had long conversations on this, cannot protect Alex anymore. We deal with him. He has to make sure the rules are followed. We license him. We license, he has to make sure security, it's, we can only manage what we can manage in our lane. So, It will be specifically laid out. We want wristband colors specific. I mean, we are going to be very specific. A flow in and out, changing of the beer garden location, and then the fire marshal will do the rest, security will do the rest. And if it doesn't happen, I have written in here, and we are going to stop alcohol sales at 7.30. We found that that's a good timeframe, 7.30. If they don't mean it, the inspectors have the latitude to stop alcohol sales. The event doesn't have to stop. You can keep playing your music and keep enjoying whatever, but alcohol sales will cease. And we will not stay on site all day. Ronnie would prefer just to keep an eye on this particular one. And I'm going to give them the latitude to, because we shouldn't have to stay all day at an event, right? To make sure it's compliant.

In your defense and Ronnie's and Chris, this was a situation where They went to the nth degree to try and educate and bring everyone involved to the table. It didn't work. So now they couldn't have tried to educate more. Now it's got to be on Alex's shoulders alone and they don't get paid to spend the whole day there doing security. So I thank you for everything you've done, but welcome to the new age.

Yeah, so. We feel like we have, and we talked about this last month too, about the security having guards there, peak times. And we've talked to them about moving the beer garden as well, because it's too much in one area. They have a VIP area, stage area. We're going to move away from all of that. so that we can have a clear delineation of our beer garden. That's been a problem before and figuring out where to move it logistically on the fairgrounds and be able to enclose it. So we came up with a plan. Chris drew it out. You know, Ronnie went out and visited the site and said, yeah, I mean, this will work. So we're going to try it. We can keep trying. Kind of what they do at the running festival. That's what we go behind the permanent fencing and create a barrier. to create a little bit more egress room into the beer garden. It's just too crowded. It's just too crowded. It's too many people that attend it. So, um, that I just wanted to give the board an update of what we, we, you know, we are working with security. We are going to meet with Israel and Alex to go over what the expectations are. And the, the gentlemen have the authority to stop alcohol sales, um, If they don't meet everything that's going to be on this bullet point list.

Oh.

We've gotten to that crossroad, you know. Everything possible to encourage and help. Yeah.

Yep.

So I want to make sure the board was updated on that. Is there anything on Mexico Verde that anybody wanted to add?

How's the parking lot partying, tailgating?

Not our problem.

I know.

Not our lane. I know. Backing out of it. We don't license it. We tried to help with it, but parking.

It's a city in a county issue.

Yep, they don't care.

And that's on them.

Well, it's not even county so much as it's within the city limits.

Then it's on them.

I don't know if you guys have noticed, but on your special licensing updates, it's getting warmer weather. We're starting to have a lot more special licensing. So Tricia has been really working hard at that, getting all of those set up in the system, making sure people are walking in the right direction, I hope. And then the gentlemen will be picking up a lot more weekend stuff to make sure that they stay in compliance with the special licensing. We would like to start a, and I talked to Joan about this as well, a regulation review, especially Chris being newer. This was so beneficial to And as you can already see, we've got sticky notes going of things that we just want to update and fine tune. Each year, I feel like we get better and better at it. You know, we get, I don't know if it really needs to have, remember, Jim, we did the whole full overview, but now this is just fine tuning some wording, fine tuning some definitions. We're going to do a committee, set up some time where Joan probably wants to come in, give some input, have us sit around as a group. I can invite everyone. Obviously, I can't invite the entire board.

If they want to come, I'll back out.

We can do updates each month. But it's not a lot of material that we need to change. It's really wording. We've learned that over, obviously, time, what we need to add in there. Not too many. There's only four there right now. But just describing what an event is after meeting with the state. You know, they're like your promoter's permit. You really need to develop a definition of an event because people were doing tap room open as an event. So we need to tell that story a little bit so that because they weren't privy to it. We'll have them coming to our hearing next month. True Standard was operating under a promoter's permit and doing a tap room open as an event for over a year, spending lots of money in promoter's permits, lots of a lot more than they would spend on full time licensing. but they wanted to be able to pour other alcohol. And when they're a DDS or a distillery, they can only pour their alcohol, mix their cocktails. So they did a promoter's permit because it's so loosely written, loosely written. And me and Jen discussed it. We had conversations, not like we just issued it and didn't, we had conversations in it. The criteria is very loose and up for interpretation of what an event is. And so we need to tighten that language a little bit more per the state. I was going to say the state's more involved now. Because they do have a state license as well. And they did not like our promoter's permit riding with their permit the way it was. They need to get their distillery DDS taproom license.

Basically, it was a bar. Yes. Which we know how Frederick feels about bars. Yeah.

So they'll be on next month's agenda to get them. back in line with where they need to be and they were very cooperative they were very under the promoters permit we did pull back and tell them they can only serve their products the state told them they can only serve their products right now even under the promoters so they can no longer serve any other cocktails or any other alcohol as far as mixed yeah so how does that compare with other states Evidently, Frederick's loosey-goosey. We're the only one. We're one of two counties that don't have a D. Everyone has a D in the other counties where they can have a bar.

A tavern. And across the lines in the other states, they can do the same thing. It's just that we're being over-restrictive.

And we were going to bring this to the delegation the year that we had multiple items, and it just was shut down. Has it always been that way? Always been that way.

I was going to say Ron Young is the one that orchestrated that. We did, and it was taken away because of the exhale issue.

Oh, yes. Well, they were a B, right? They were a B.

It was technically they had food, but it was a dance club. I mean, it was the age when I was turning 21. I mean, it was the place to go. you went and hung out and then I kind of went down, went South after it was open for a while. And there was, you know, stabbing shootings, things like that.

Yeah. You can't tell me there, there haven't been taverns in Frederick in the past. Yeah. I can't.

And after 10 PM, there's no food alcohol ratio anyway. So I don't, it's the, we've tried to present this to the delegation and that's the year that we were told to back off on a, And just present certain items. I mean, we could go back at it again and try to ask for a D. What's the other county that doesn't have?

Is it? It's a small one. Talbot?

Something like. It's a small one. So it's a rural county. Yes. Yeah. Eastern Shore. Yeah. It's a county that doesn't have. We could go back. Yeah. We could go back to the delegation and ask for it again. Good luck.

No tabs or bars. Sorry. I'm trying to keep the language correct. I know, right?

Food requirement bars are usually tied to restaurants.

Yeah. That's fascinating. It is.

But I would beg to differ. If we go to any place downtown Frederick after 10 o'clock. It's a bar. It's a bar. And I went to one of the tabs we approved and walked in to someone literally who'd had a fight there because we were walking by someone who'd been hit and two guys. And I was like, wow, this is what we just approved. Okay. So it's a bar. It was a bar. There was no food being served after 10 at night. And that was barely 10 o'clock. Interesting.

It's definitely interesting the way they've tried to, but that's something.

And that's one of the things I want to ask when you go through regulations, because there's so many rules, you're just creating rule breakers. Like, have we gone through and said, what makes sense? What doesn't make sense? What's over restrictive?

We've removed a lot of stuff. that I feel like we've done really well with the over-restrictive and just being straight to the point of the law, sticking as close to the statute as possible.

And many places we took out our language and put in the state. Yeah. Yeah.

That's very good. So we've moved towards that in the last three years and it's been great. It's it's and our licensees are very, very grateful that it's, a little less restrictive in some fashions and others, the more restrictive we are is more of like the training and the, they don't always like that, but it's good for them.

So here's one of my things when it comes to a D and one of the studies that's out there is that you would think that our people would want to serve food because people stay 52 minutes longer. If you serve food, there's like there's studies. I mean, Now, what's the NLLEA? They do all these things and tend to if you stay longer, you drink more. So it is the direct opposite of if there's a tavern, people are in, they have a couple of drinks and then tend to move to the next thing. And then they get to get hungry or they might want. Yeah. So it depends. If you do present something to the delegation, I'd also present some of the NLLEA studies that show this is the rationale between the two. It's generally if you have dancing and music or a venue, the people are going to stay much longer. Because at the potentially new establishment we have, they have a music venue and there was no food being served in there. It was straight up alcohol only all night. Sounds like legends. But no, it was a downtown one near a new hotel. So anyway, I just share that is that because it skirts right up to what it is. It's a bar. We're just not calling it that. Yes, we all agree. So that's why I say where we have a lot of rules, we have rule breakers. So I think the delegation might just want to say we might just want to go like the other counties that have it. And then you patrol it as such.

They can add their own restrictions into the D if they wanted to. but we'll see if we want to take another swing at it this year, but we'll present it to the board obviously first during our forum in October, and then we'll go from there.

And then I know there is a unwritten, unspoken or spoken, I don't know what you want to call it, rule that it only goes to the delegation chair. Is that formal or can we send our thoughts to the entire delegation?

Listen, I'm going to get scolded. No, I'm just telling you it's a political game. I know. That's played. I choose not to participate in because I might not be here. Yeah, the things, the dynamics that's in that group, I've been requested directly not to send it to everyone.

Let me ask you this, moving forward, and it's got to come from you guys too, is how would you feel if the commission sent it to the delegation instead of our director?

I mean, with your approval, obviously. Theoretically, it should come from us as the appointees versus the staff. Why don't we try and restructure that?

That's fine.

Yeah. Yeah, there's just a lot of dynamics there that are.

And I know you're under tremendous pressure. Who's the chair of the delegation right now? Do what? Who is the chair of the delegation? Jesse. Oh, okay. And he's put her under enormous pressure and I don't appreciate it.

Do you have a preference?

As far as?

Sending it to everybody versus just the chair? I mean. Or do you think it just stirs the pot unnecessarily? There you go. Yes. So I would have to, you know, what's the point in stirring the pot unnecessarily?

Because I've had many members of the delegation look at me and go, well, I didn't know that. Why didn't you tell us?

So you have a situation with a chair that was on the liquor board who compartmentalizes things and does not share with the rest of the delegation or puts his spin on it from his viewpoint. And being the person who did serve on the committee with him, I would concur with sending it to the full delegation.

Okay, let's put that into practice. Okay. Got it. Yeah. If we can talk offline.

No, no, that's offline. I'm being enlightened. Yeah. Because I don't have a clue. And I'm being kind of protective.

And then the next one, motion. When we do a motion for all employees to attend educational classes, we wanted to, we have a suggestion, but How to manage that as staff? Could we, and this is, I'm asking, this is kind of dialogue on how we could, for example, when we have a violation and you say all employees and licensees must attend VPC. What we're running into is what's all employees. Like we don't keep track of their, there's so much turnover is what we're finding. And people are saying this to us. We're getting feedback. You know, I don't have the three people that were here before we had the violation. Now we have new people. And do the new people have to take it? So Candy's finding herself saying to me, and I'm saying, hey, make sure the board's motion is executed, right? And we want to make sure we follow through with that. And she's like, well, I think we've executed it. I think we hit everyone. But you really don't know. Could we come up with potentially and it's going to be case by case because you may have a place that has 10 employees. You may have a place that's corporate and has 20 employees that serve alcohol. Could we come up with as we and I could do this as we're talking through the violation, a minimum of and I'm using this example. There's 10 forefront of house must take it. Do you know what I mean? So you pick a minimum and we know when they need it. And really, sometimes it's not the licensees who need to take it. It's the management. But I'd be able to tell you guys, because we work with them every day, all day, like these licensees are heavily involved. Yes, they should take it and their front of house. Or these are just three corporate people from a corporate place. I'm talking chain restaurants that are just here as they're not there every day. Right. And I'd rather see the managers have to take it in the front of house. So I just want to roll that out for discussion for education that we are. We struggle with sometimes. Did they meet the threshold of the board's requirement? We don't let the board down to say, well, only two people came. So, OK, checkmark, checkmark. And I'm always saying, did they really? Was it really only two people that worked there? You know, so we find ourselves kind of trying to make sure we execute what you guys want. but make sure we also met the threshold of the motion. So Jen asked me, did we have a suggestion? And I, I think as the cases come up, we'll know kind of, and you always say, how many employees do you have? So kind of banking off of that and going, okay, you have 10, how many actually serve alcohol? Six. Okay. Three of them have to come that sort of thing. And then say, and you and I, we can kind of say, is there a manager you'd like to see come? Yes. Is there a licensee? Yes. They're involved. They need to, or, they're not involved. They just flew in from Tennessee to come to the hearing. You know, you know what I mean? Those sort of situations. So I just wanted to roll that out for conversation. As you and I discussed, it could also be a percentage.

Um, like we do. A's percentage.

Yeah. Um, but then we'd have to know how many employees.

So it's also, when you bring the case before us, you can give us your staff recommendation as well. Okay.

I just didn't want to bring that up, but if we have one coming in the future and Debbie go, where did that come from? You know, we'd have discussion.

That's why I asked, just so that they in their mind are thinking how many people they need to make sure it reiterates when they're getting their license so they understand, but then there's probably needs to be, you know, I mean, again, handing someone a rule book and, you know, and I know they get their ABLE training. There's a lot of stuff in there for these new, like the new ones today, for example, there's a lot in there. You might have served, but you didn't know what went into all the back house. So I just think that those just reminders to them of, and then tracking. I mean, I asked those questions for a reason. It goes on record.

And that's where Candy found herself questioning, like Debbie asked them, how many employees do you have? And they said, six, but only two people came. That's not all employees. So she finds herself kind of like, did they meet it? Did they not meet it? And, you know, I, I task her with, you know, making sure that that gets completed.

Do we have an outreach once? I mean, they've submitted to us at once, right? Like at the beginning and then they have it in renewal at renewals. Correct. They have to state how many employees they have.

Well, they state how many alcohol awareness staff they have.

Okay. So maybe it's a question that we ask on our renewals. And change so that that way you're keeping up with it. That's total employees, alcohol awareness. So then, you know, if you're meeting the ratios and every year you have a validation point.

But it's only alcohol awareness on the numbers of employees that are actually serving.

Right, right. Because 50% of them. Number of employees, number of employees involved in serving and then number that are trained. And that's how you'll, I mean, you can just put a series of, you know. And at the very least, you've got them on record. Right. And then if they come and they don't, because we're finding them. I mean, I looked at your little feats that they went out for violation, alcohol, and it's not whoever wasn't on duty. So they're getting picked up in no contest letters. Okay. And then that's a kind of reminder for them or even put it, you know, on our applications.

And I mean, do you all have that information on your iPads or whatever, when you go to, um, Different establishments. What information? Do you still carry the iPad with other phones?

But they can see the alcohol awareness. It is saved on a team's. Okay. They need to. Okay. There's a lot of dialogue when they go in the field. Gotcha. Verifying alcohol awareness and things like that. But you can throw it back at them. Okay. Gotcha. And that's how they catch them. Usually. Oh, these two are phenomenal. Speaking of that monthly violate, well, I don't have it on my list here, but I'll review it while we have it in front of us. We did have a few, obviously, with infusions. We're still seeing a lot of infusions. We do have the AA. But I think with the summer coming, we're going to see more of those infusions not labeled. Hopefully, we're continuing to educate them, the no contest, the warnings, that they'll start to get it, that you can't. People are a little upset by it. We actually found our first illicit alcohol ever. You cannot remove any alcohol from an original container. And they had a good reason. And we talked about it in that you can't remove it from an original container. So it was a box of a pre-mixed cocktail box. And they didn't want their customers seeing them pouring it out of a box. So they put it in a decanter so that it looks nicer when they're pouring the mixed cocktail. And once you remove it from the original content or the original packaging, You now have lost all your content information, your hazard information, things that are required by the state for health, all kinds of other reasons. When you do that, you now make it illicit alcohol because you don't know what's in it unless you label it and put a date on it. So we've had a couple things come up with that. We're educating people on it that you cannot remove it from the original content box, whether it's in a box, a bottle, whatever. Move it to a new one. and then just keep pouring it and keep it forever so that it grows things in it. And you have to have labeling on it. You do. So we had a couple of people upset about, they make their own Kahlua and they've been making their own Kahlua for some time. They just got caught. You're not a rectifier. You don't, you don't have a rectifying license. And if you do let me know. Okay. You're not a manufacturer. So we've come across some, definitely some, uh,

Some interesting things that as we go out for the summer months, you know, that... How are we doing on distributors actually distributing alcohol to smaller venues?

That's not improving at all. Not improving at all.

Is there anything we can do to help?

Mm-mm. It's all state-driven. All state-driven.

Getting up the mafia there. Mm-hmm. That's where I get nervous. Yeah. So... Those guys are... Yeah, those guys are king.

Mm-hmm. We did have two conferences also this month that I did not have on the list, but I do want to bring up for the board. One was for the infusion for making their own Kahlua and they requested it. They were upset with us. And I always say to them, if you get a no contest, you can contest it and you can come before the board and make your case as to why you think you should not be charged. Their reasoning was, is that no one had seen it before. Well, I'm no one caught them. Basically, they hadn't been caught. Because they would store it somewhere to ferment. And then they just brought it out when Ronnie happened to walk in when she was bringing it out. And he's like, oh, what's that? Oh, it's my homemade Kahlua. And it just went from there. And we're like, well, we can't ignore it. You know, we have to talk about it. So we warned, we educated, we warned. You could tell she was, you know, but then she wanted a conference. She wanted to talk about it. And She didn't like being warned about it. And I said, well, you can always come before the board and tell them. You can speed in your car all your life. But if you get caught, you get a ticket. It's like stealing all your life. Yeah. And then the other person we called in for conferences because we're finding a lot of times when we go into these inspections. I mean, we are and I've actually been out doing them as well to get a feel. I like to always get a feel for what's going on. And people will stare you down like, why are you looking in our coolers? Other inspectors never looked in our coolers. We're not other inspectors. This is not the same. We should be looking in your coolers. We should have always been looking in your coolers and your storage area and all those things. And in this, we go in their back offices, check their records, things like that. And there's bottles sitting on their desk, like partially consumed bottles. Some of them could be broken, leaking, whatever. You can't have these things just sitting around. I'm going to think you're drinking. I'm going to think you're back in your office just having a good old time. So we've had to talk to people about boxing up and managing broken bottles, return to distributor, samples that come in. Create boxes for these because I'm going to think you're sipping the sauce on duty. That's exactly what I say to them. What is that? So we brought someone in for it because they had two tequila bottles. Tabitha caught this one because we've been on the road a little bit. And two tequila bottles that aren't even on their receipts. Where'd it come from? And why is it on your desk at your computer screen? And they had a story for it. They had a story for it that they caught someone on their patio from a wedding party hat and they confiscated it. Why is it sitting at your computer? Why is it poured down and thrown out? You know, if you want to take a picture, document it, do your thing. But you shouldn't have open bottles of alcohol in your office. So we have to warn people about that. Like, it could appear that you're sitting back here just tipping back. Doing the books. I don't know. So we've had a couple of those things occur, too. So those are always interesting. Before we bring them before the board, we do, again, try to educate. We try to have the conversations. But we always tell them, and I always welcome them. If you don't like what we've had to say as far as following the thresholds, we follow the thresholds. You can come before the board. Plead your case. Bring it on. You can come tell them anything you want. I'm going to present it the same way, whether it's here or in front of them. So, yeah, so it's always interesting. It's always interesting. Now, I do have one last thing, and that is the Steinhardt Elk Haven, which Commissioner Burrell brought up. They want to do a common area consumption area. And what does that mean to you? So let's talk about that first. Historically, Steinhardt and Idiom have shared a, it's really a small space. You've probably been to it. And there's like a chain between them. And they've always had problems with the and I can give you one person in your group wants to go to one establishment.

One wants to go to the other and you can't sit at the same table together. Right over the chain.

And they catch them all the time. I don't know if you they catch them all the time cross pollinating. Right. And Richard Griffin had talked about once before trying to do consumption areas and they're not unheard of. The only reason that we're okay with this one, but we want to present it to the board, it's within my delegation of authority to approve outside areas. But I always bring before the board if it's something unique or different, right? And this is a contiguous space. It can be. If you remove the chain in between, they are in one space. They cannot walk down to Union Mills and Union Mills cannot walk up to them. No, we're not making that kind of consumption area. We're talking two places side by side. that want to be able to share a contiguous consumption area that's enclosed and monitored by both. We ask them to separate a glassware so that we can tell who has what. We are okay with it. We've talked it over with the inspectors. We've talked it over as staff. And there's nothing against the rule. There's no law that says you can't do these things, right? But that's the outside area that's right outside of Steinhardt and Elkhaven. to be able to have the wine on their side and the beer from the other side.

And so when Donna and I talked about this on the face, I have no objections, but I asked her to consider, and I'm asking you to consider maybe a sunset to allowing this for a year or two years to see if there are any unintended consequences that pop up and just But I'm okay on the surface with the concept, and she and I talked ad nauseum about it.

Don't some of their tasting rooms come for renewals? Yeah. So when every year in their annual renewal, instead of doing a sunset every year in their annual renewal, if we've had issues, then we bring it at that time.

If we have issues, we're going to bring it up anyway. If it has issues, it's going to be before us.

And that's perfectly okay, too. It's just, I guess I just wanted to say, there could be unintended consequences. So that's what I'm just being aware of. Can we just talk through...

a potential violation scenario, would they continue to have, would they have joint responsibility over the entire outdoor space or would they continue to have their own, would they continue to have responsibility over their portion? And if a violation, like what, how would,

The glassware will, like, so if an Elkhaven person is over on the, and again, this area is not very big, is over on their side and they're having a problem and they've got their, they're a patron of Elkhaven, they're accountable. We've talked about this. And that's why we said the glassware is very important. The cups. And if you are a Steinhardt patron, they're going to be accountable. And they've agreed to that. They've agreed that if a violation occurs and it's, what's that? If it's not clear. We would have to work through that scenario. And what type of violation could happen? Well, we've got over service. Well, what cup you got in your hand? Drinks carried out. What cup do you have in your hand? So what violations could occur is where I go to outside areas is drinks carried out of the area and over service. Other than that. They don't have waitresses that go outside, so it's. Or do they? Well, they're going to, they've agreed to have monitoring going in and out, checking on their drink orders, checking on their, they've agreed to add additional. And plus there's cameras on the one corner of Steinhardt and Oak Haven has some cameras as well.

I guess my, they're not having like the services at the counters though, inside the establishments where the carding is happening, not on the exterior where they're sitting down. Correct.

Correct.

So they're not having wait staff go outside to serve.

But they don't need to have someone go out and like walk out and just keep kind of.

I suppose if a situation came up where it was not clear. And let's just say hypothetically, and they're both pointing the fingers at each other, the board could could say, OK, we're going to close the outdoor area if we can't.

Right. If we can. Yeah.

And that was my unintended consequences. Sunset. Idea came from that.

But I think Steinhardt has been habitually a good licensee. OK, we don't know as well, but I don't I mean, they have a winery that they run their tap room there with, but they're going to be coming before the board next month as well. So we will bring it up again to say it's a can take if the board approved it. a contiguous space where they're gonna share this space with them if the board approved it. And I told them, you know, we would have to- It's not changing the footprint. Not at all. It's just literally- Moving the chain.

Yeah, right. Absolutely. Literally. I mean, the bigger issue that you can't patrol there is people that go around the corner to McClintock's grabbing liquor. Then they're sitting with friends and they're drinking their stuff that they've got. It happens all the time on the creek. You got stuff coming from something happens on all the outside areas. Correct. It does. I mean, it's just the nature of. And for some areas like Memphis, when I went to Memphis, for example, Memphis has their entire downtown licensed off and you can move back and forth and people in this area come from all over and they're used to what even an area in Montgomery County does it. The one they do, it's they do a little quad block now. Yeah, I think Rio where you can do it. There's another one down the street from Rio. So it is common in all the outdoor that they in. And so I just think as a board and as we just have to understand, like, are we going to be militant police on it? Or as long as it doesn't get out of control and the local police are kind of turning a blind eye to it, which, you know, they want economic development. I just am sharing that because there's other areas of our state that do this frequently. And I think if just moving a chain, but we need to understand, like, what is our duty? And we as a board, I think that's not our duty if people are carrying from one place to another, unless the restaurant patrols it, right?

It was drinks carried out. They cannot drink. They cannot carry their drinks from outside.

Like, I've seen it. McClintock's. They'll come around and they'll sit on the patio with their friends and they'll drink their hard liquor at the table while the people that they're with are drinking from inside of one of the breweries. Well, breweries close to McClintock, so how would they do that?

I'm just saying, on the creek. Right. Well, no, they cannot allow outside alcohol in and they cannot allow theirs to go out. So that's why this has to be approved.

What is the perimeter limit? to the outside world, so to speak, not between them, but what kind of guardrail or fence?

Well, there's the creek that blocks one side and then there's the public walkway. That's the other, which I've caught Union Mills, the people handing it over the fence when we've been out at night and they're handing it over. So it does happen unless you're there to see it.

Right. That's what I'm saying. It's happening. And the question is, is who's responsible and, you know, That's all I'm just trying to say. It's happening whether we open a link between them or not. I mean, just being realistic, it's happening downtown.

But with the added cameras, you might actually catch more than you would have normally.

We're not concerned about Steinhardt and Elkhaven sharing this contiguous space.

I'm going to ask the inspectors a question. How do you both feel about it, and do you think you can control it?

Yeah. I mean, I think, like Dawn was saying, Steinhardt, I think they're really great. I mean, okay, then they're still new, so we're still learning them. But I don't think that there would be any issue with it anyway. I mean, I'm sure they probably used to do that anyway without us knowing.

Yes, which is what Steinhardt said. He didn't like it. He would go out and tell them to stop it.

We're allowing them to do it. We know they're going to have somebody monitoring them. Before, there was nobody monitoring, so.

Good thoughts.

Okay.

And as long as they're monitoring, I mean, I think something for downtown where there's outdoor areas, they need to be monitoring for outside alcohol coming in, because it's happening. And that's what I... If that's something we're going to have, and it gets back to our book... If it's a rule, I don't want to see rules that we just turn a blind eye to. It's either we enforce it or we don't. But, you know, I just think that that gets to the bigger thing in our regulation review.

And part of their second round of inspections is going to be patios and open areas and outside areas. And how are you monitoring? And some, again, I went out with Chris a couple weeks ago and I didn't like this patio that's been on this particular place. There's two solid doors. And I'm like, how do you monitor this? How do you pay attention? How do you, well, no one's ever asked us that before. Well, I'm asking you now, how are you not handing it over the fence to the parking lot? Like I would like to see these doors open and I would like to see those cameras working. So, and I just kind of lay it out for them. So patios are a focal point for us because we know it occurs, especially when we go out late at night, they'll be, they'll stand outside of the patios. They'll hand over the patios. No, we'll tell the doorman you got it. So it's definitely something that that's conversations. So.

So tell them when they come before us to be prepared to explain exactly how they're going to work it.

Well, they're looking for approval today so that they can start using it.

I thought you said they were coming before.

They have a promoter's permit right now. And Steinhardt is already there functioning. And they're literally side by side. So they're under a promoter's permit right now. Elk Haven is. And then Steinhardt is full time already.

So they're looking to us right now to give approval? Mm-hmm.

To use the outside area.

And it'll only be for three weeks, which will give them the approval through promoters. we would give them approval. If they monitor it and enclose it, we would give them approval. It's not an unusual request.

I know, and you didn't even have to bring it to us, and I appreciate the fact that you did.

So do we need a motion if the board would approve it, like, officially? Probably best practice, yeah. All right, so then I'll move that we grant. Okay. Okay. You said it's for three weeks, or is this like they want to do? They're going to be on the June 8th hearing. Elk Haven is. Okay, so I move that the board grant temporary approval to have a combined consumption area between Steinhardt and Elk Haven until the June 8th, 2026 hearing. Second.

All those in favor? Aye.

Aye.

3-0.

Wish you're on unless there's other discussions.

When are we coming back in their next meeting? I just zoned out on that. Oh my golly.

Educational status motion. New management. Does anybody else have anything?

I'm just making sure I've got all the notes that I've written down here. Okay, then we will be back on June 8th and our next one after that is July 13th. Chris.

Motion to dismiss.

Second. Aye. Everybody aye.