Liquor Board Agendas/Minutes/Recordings - Regular Meeting

Okay. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the renewal hearing for the Liquor Board. What is today's date? April 27th. Debbie, can you hear us? Okay. Commissioner Burrell is going to join us for video. So, Dawn, I'm going to look to you. Ashley, I'm going to look to you to swear everyone in. We'll do it one time.

she's going to be testifying as well. Jen, is it okay if Ashley does her own swearing in or how do you want to do that? Because she is going to probably offer some testimony.

Then we probably ought to have someone else swear her in. Okay.

Give me just a second. I'll drop it in teams.

I was going to say, do you have a script and I'll just swear everybody in?

Yeah. Okay. Is that okay, Jen? If Joan does it? She's not testifying. Yeah.

Yeah, that's fine.

It's on my computer.

Oh, oh, well, let's just be flexible.

When you see this matter of request for everybody. Yep.

Right hand. Okay. All right. Everyone who is 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 request for extension. Do you solemnly declare and affirm under the penalties of perjury that the testimony you are 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, say I do, followed by your name. I do, Ashley Kenisi Gay. I will, Dawn Sugars.

I will, Beverly Molden.

I will, Jay Lorenzo.

I will, Amy Stubbs.

Perfect. Thank you. We're all sworn in.

Madam, what we have before us today is there are going to be two cases, obviously the two establishments that are going to be requesting a postponement to avoid a hardship for their renewal due to the reasons that they're going to present to the board today. So I am going to turn it over to Mr. Lorenzo to explain to the board why you would need those additional 20 days. And if we do get outside of those 20 days, we'll talk about what that looks like as well. But I'm going to let them present their case.

Chris is joining the meeting.

Mr. Glass is with us also.

I'm Jay Lorenzo, owner of the Lorenzo Restaurants Incorporated, trading as Lorenzo Brick Oven Cafe. Thank you for allowing us to come before you today. We ran out of time a little bit this year. This will be my 13th renewal in Frederick County since we opened our business just north of Clarksburg in 2013. We've had to take care of some issues in the past a few times. throughout the last many years and haven't had to go this far ever. And I had my Mount Airy location. I operated for 15 years in Carroll County and also never once had to let the license expire or, you know, come this close. So we appreciate the opportunity. This past year was a little more difficult to stay on top of things. We had an original installment agreement plan with the state after COVID and whatnot, so the difficulty we ran into. And they allowed us to get on a payment plan that was a very fair, reasonable plan. And, uh, we, uh, we maintained it for several years. And then this past year we ran into some more hardship with the sales at the restaurant and increasing costs. And I just weren't able to keep up on that installment agreement.

Is that 2025? Uh, yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

And, uh, really we thought it'd just be a short period and get back on the installment agreement. I just weren't able to. So we, uh, We have record of payments and everything we've been doing for quite a while, but we're really hoping and we're making progress in re-establishing an installment agreement plan.

So with your CPA being here in front of us today, and I'm going to let Commissioner Glass and Commissioner Burrell, so they understand that the CPA is here in the room as well, understanding that I know that you guys may have filed an extension probably for 25. Yes. File 25. That's my understanding of it. And Ashley is under oath as well, which she can testify. She's been back and forth with the comptroller's office and your team understanding. Have you been able to establish the new plan or you have an emergency hearing that's set up with them or trying to establish that to reset this payment plan? Go ahead.

Three. See, we've been working with Latigra Yates.

Mm-hmm.

and we're on schedule to get her a 433B. I'm hoping we're going to finish that today. What's the 433? The 433 is basically lists income, expenses, assets, liabilities, and Maryland has its own form. The IRS has its own form. Okay. And so this is to show why to request a payment, a new payment plan, and to show hardship that it'd be very difficult to pay the original amounts that were set. There were two locations. I have documentation here and the liabilities. And we worked initially with Ms. Connie Snooks and Ron Carr. And Ron Carr, we began the, I don't know how much detail you'd like, but we began the payment installment with $1,000 a month for each location. And that was maintained for a period of time. And then after that, they bumped it up to the original amount they requested and maintained that for, I believe, over a year, close to a year. And as Mr. Lorenzo said, at the end of last year, they ran into some difficulties.

And our understanding from the comptroller's office as well, just so our commissioners are aware, We did get notification. There is significant liability that is still open. And I think that's important for the board to understand and know what challenges that you're faced with and not sure that hopefully, and I guess back to my original question is, is that emergency there, what they call an emergency meeting to establish with the comptroller where you can set this back up? Has the foundation been laid for that to set a time? Again, Ms. Yates- Requested. The 433B first. And when she gets that, then she'll make a determination. Gotcha. Okay.

And I'll also state there, again, there were two liabilities, one for each location. And when we first set it up, when, you know, we were discussing hardship and all that, Mr. Carr had stated that the Mount Airy, as long as we paid it, and I believe it was for a year, that they may drop that off. Okay. I haven't brought that up because I thought it was important to just get on this right away, but. I'll just statement of fact that Mr. Car had. Said we couldn't. We needed to keep paying, but that if we paid over a period of stated period of time that that would because the location no longer exists, there's no assets there.

And if I could say the the Mount Airy both were lumped under one umbrella for the company. So when that one, when I had to sell the assets off to that one, we did, we hoped that that would been set aside as something separate to work on because there were no more sales being generated. But that wasn't the case. So they wanted both. So we did the best we could to keep both going while just the Hyatts Town location, Clarksbury location was paying both. And we were selling a lot of debt from those years as well as we came to the final operational day at the end of 23. And carrying that wasn't sustainable with just the sales from Hyatts Town to take care of both. So we're hoping that there will be some debt forgiveness, as Beverly mentioned, with that operation and offering compromise and that kind of stuff. We're working on that as well.

So if you should get the 20-day waiver at this point, is there a possibility that it can be resolved within that 20 days, or are you still looking at issues facing it? I believe so.

Yeah, we believe we can, yeah, and that it'll be a reasonable amount, and a lot of times in the substantial amount that's owed is always much scarier when you see it on paper, the amounts, but we know that it's set up in reasonable installments we we really believe that they'll be able to to work out a a fair assessment and a monthly installment agreements moving forward okay commissioner glass or commissioner burrell do you have any questions i take that as no no i do not

I do have one question and this is for the accountant. So this is for, cause you mentioned multiple facilities. I just want to make sure if this is just for one license in Frederick County. Correct.

That is correct. The other license was Carroll County.

Okay. And is this a class? I don't have any notes in front of me. It's a restaurant. Thank you. Yep. Gotcha. Do the assets outweigh the debt?

Estimate? Probably not.

Probably not, she said. And I also would like the board to consider when they're considering all the facts that have been presented to them, it is $100 a day for typically when we do these hardship hearings or after the 30th when a license expires or doesn't renew, I would ask the board to consider for these cases not imposing those $100 a day fees to allow them to have the opportunity to be able to get a payment plan in place.

I agree with that. If we give the waiver, that is a waiver to the fine also in my mind. Mr. Glass agrees.

Understood and agreed.

Debbie? Commissioner Burrell, are you okay with that?

Yeah, no, I'm shaking my head yes, sorry.

Thank you.

And I also would like to put on the record, if this is not, because I want to talk about the what ifs, if we're not able to meet again, because that's what this hearing is for. If we get to the 20th, like let's just say the extension is granted, and we get to the 20th and things just really aren't, because we know sometimes things don't happen as quickly as we like with the operations at the federal and state level. So if we get to the 20th, the license, the board only has the authority written in law and statute to go to give you 20 days. What would have to happen there, and this is what I'm visualizing happening, the license would expire on the 20th. And then you would have to do a reapplication. You would have to stop alcohol sales until we could get it resolved. In that situation, I would propose to the board, and I know I'm getting, I just wanna plan ahead because of legal counsel and things like that. If we had to come back before the board, I would ask the board not to also impose application fees, Other fees that would make it again more difficult for them to reapply. They would come back before the board as a new application, but I would ask the board for the latitude to also waive that reapplication fee because we really want people presenting what was already in the file.

Commissioners.

I understand your glass is OK. Commissioner Burrell is OK. And I'm OK, so. Worst case scenario. Oh, Jennifer, Ms. Keefer, go ahead.

Yes, Madam Chair, I just had a point of clarification. Has the licensee already paid the renewal fee? Yes, he has. Okay, thank you.

Now, worst case scenario that you just brought up, The application would be the entirety of the year would it be retroactive would it be pro rated what are you thinking.

At that chart has he paid the full license fee as well or not. So when this is paid all fees okay so their license is already paid for for the year okay gotcha.

Well with that so madam chair ask counsel the question yes. Jennifer, if if the board makes a motion, do we just tackle. The 1st issue and wait and see, and then we tackle the 2nd issue by, like, an email vote or is that something that we would you want to see lumped into 1 because we don't know the what if they do still have 20 days. So wanted just to confer how the council would like to see emotion.

Um.

So under scenario one, the licensee would be able to take whatever steps necessary during the 20-day waiver period to be eligible to receive the renewal license, and then they would be good for the next year. Under scenario B, if they're not able to renew their license within the 20 days, excuse me, then if they wanted to continue to sell alcohol at the establishment, they would need to reapply for a Class B license. I think that the fee waiver request would need to be handled, it would need to be handled publicly, whether that's today or whether it is, in other words, if it's going to have to be a board decision and a board decision would need to be made publicly. So, um, the board can either decide to, um, I guess prophylactically address it now, if, and when it becomes, um, ripe for, for, uh, reapplying, um, or the board could wait and say, hey, bring it before us if it becomes a reality. So I think to answer your question briefly, I think it would need to be either today in this public hearing or at a future public hearing.

So theoretically, we have a May public hearing. So they would have more clarity in two weeks from now if this is going to be a reality. then addressing today. I just don't know if the board has had a precedent of a what if scenario in these in the past, so not sure if that would create a precedent versus just waiting, you know, giving the 20 days in a 1st motion and then waiting for the hearing in May if the things don't look like they're going to be progressing, because that would be within a week of the deadline. Correct? Our May hearing is the 13th.

I thought it was the 11th. It's May 11th. And we still could update the board at that juncture by the 11th to say, hey, here's where we're at. And we're requesting at this juncture the application fee be waived for the reapplication if we think we're going to cross that road. We really don't know until, again, they start getting into this. Once they give the 433B, then it will take them – I feel like it possibly could take them the two weeks to answer them – I really do. That's why I brought it up to I'm trying to think forward. So if he does have a lapse that we can address those lapses and it's already going to affect his business. So I just wanted to be out in front of that because 750 is usually required as part of the application process. And I don't think that that's a fair assessment in this situation that we charge that.

I'm Commissioner Brouwer. what you said made absolutely perfect sense. I'm of the mind to gamble a little bit, either go ahead and put them on the agenda for the May hearing just in case, or gamble and go ahead and make a motion that covers both aspects however we see fit and let that ride. I don't see listening to our attorney A key for I don't see where we can't.

Oh, no, I believe that we can. I just I've been on the board a while and I know there's been other tax issues that have come up that we have not been. thought about a what if in the future and waited for. So I just didn't want to set a precedent that then, you know, and as a business owner, I completely get it. I'd lie on my accountant to make sure, keep everything going. So, and, but I also know, I mean, I do know the state can move very quickly when it so chooses and you get to the right agent. It's all about who you get. So, you know, So, so I just wanted to be sure with council that whichever way we decide to proceed that what we do for 1, we need to do for all. And then if that, you know. We are, we are not, you know, we only have what limited information that we have at this time. So I wanted just to make sure from that standpoint, not just looking I appreciate in the current situation. I just want to make sure that doing a preemptive vote. And I get it. If you're a business owner, you don't want to have to come back in. But is that something we as a board should look at or see if it resolves first and then make a separate motion on it? That's my only thing.

Commissioner Glass. Yeah, if I could just weigh in. I think these are unique cases and they need to be addressed case by case. I think whatever we decide on case by case does not set precedents. That would be my only rebuttal to that thought. Because these are unique circumstances, each individual business that may be facing a challenge or a hardship or a particular issue, they need to be weighed on those merits and the information that's brought before. So I don't think we should be concerned about setting any precedents. I think we need to just focus on each case individually. So precedents normally refers to... something that is that is general and that is standard uh over the course of time with respect to to rules regulations and protocol these these would not fall underneath that in my opinion so i think whatever motion or decision we make case by case needs to be made uh individually and i don't think it sets precedence that's just my two cents valuable two cents as always um

With that, I would be very specific. I can make the motion or whomever. I'd be very specific in naming the exact entity in our motion, however we make it. Does anyone want to make a motion?

I'll make a motion. Oh, go ahead. Either way, either way. I just want to make sure, besides Lorenzo's, what's the full name again?

Entity name. Lorenzo Restaurants, Inc., trading as Lorenzo Brick Oven Cafe. I'm Jay Lorenzo.

Lorenzo Brick Oven, Inc.? Is that acceptable, or do we need to say the whole thing?

Lorenzo Restaurants, Inc.

The full name is Lorenzo Restaurants, Inc.

Yes. And that's what the state looks at, not the trading name? Yep.

Gotcha. Okay. Okay. OK. OK, Commissioner, would you like to make a motion?

I will try. I move that the Frederick County Liquor Board grant Lorenzo Restaurant, Inc., an extension through for the full 20 days without any, with waiving the $100 per day fine. In addition, if this is not resolved by the end of the 20 day period, and the license expires. I move that the liquor board staff be granted the ability to wave a new application fee given the current already paid renewal application. and be able to, if all of the documents meet and are there, be able to have the liquor board staff adjudicate the renewal.

Second.

Any further comments? All right. Seeing that, I'd like to see a raise of hands if you are in the affirmative.

Aye.

Aye. 3-0 passes unanimously. We wish you all the best luck to get this all figured out. Stay in touch with staff as you obviously have been and let us know every step of the way. And I thank you both and I wish you the best of luck. We all do.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Beyond safety, which is our first concern to the county and our public, keeping small business in business is also a very high priority for all three of us.

Absolutely.

Appreciate that.

Appreciate you. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And you'll stay in Kyle. Obviously, Ashley's been the lead on this. So you guys will keep in contact with Miss Ashley.

The letter asked for documentation. Do you want to do that with through Ashley?

We have emails, so we won't need them. It's just payments. We might want to. You can go and give them to her. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Today's a little trippy. This is just his one place.

Want to come up? Our next case will be poor decisions will be coming before us.

We've got Hyatts Town and Newmarket. Flames on either side of where I live. Uh-huh.

And if you want copies, I just want to show this.

I don't know what I'm supposed to say.

You are supposed to appeal to us, the board, and explain to us why you need this, why we should give it to you.

All right. You're already sworn in. And for the record, just so Commissioner Glass and Commissioner Burrell get your names, could you guys just say your names?

I'm Ashley Yochum with Poor Decisions. I'm Amy Easton.

And they both are licensees on the Poor Decisions License.

And that's located in Newmarket, just for point of reference.

Newmarket, yeah, right at, like, Mossetter.

Yeah. And they're here for the same thing. They request a postponement to avoid a hardship of their license expiring. So if you could explain to the board what you've done to this point. Again, they only have the latitude up to 20 days. You heard the case before you. That if we hit that 20th day, they don't have any latitude in statute to give you any further. Then we would have to talk about those. Again, I know it's what if scenarios, but I know how the state's been operating lately. And I just want to make sure that the board is clear on what you need. So I'll let you explain to the board about your situation.

Yes. So essentially the same thing. Asking for an extension because there is some outstanding debt that is due to the state. When I had spoke with the state, I believe her name was Alyssa. she referenced me to the next person, the collector, all of those things. They gave me the amount that we were supposed to pay. And up front was like, you need to put, I think it was 50% debt. 50% is what I'm asking for, yes. She did say that, obviously, given the fact that between this hearing and the time that I needed to have an emergency hearing, that it wasn't, there was no time in between, essentially. But I have since then been in contact with the debt collector of the state, I've gotten some paperwork to fill out to show them, again, bank statements asking for less than the 50% to be asked. And I actually have a scheduled meeting with them a little bit later today on the phone. I just had to come to you guys first, obviously, because you're eight. And from there, I will be taking the next steps as to what paper needs to be filled out and to start getting the ball on making certain payments to the state.

Okay. Since this is the first time I've met you. Correct. This has been a process since January. When did this all make itself relevant to you?

When the state got involved. So when I came in to file my liquor license or renewal, Ashley had told me all of the things that needed to be done. When I contacted the state, we had found out that the people that we were using as our accountant were actually stopped paying the sales tax for us. My assumption is because they stopped actually doing our taxes in general, which was like, not the W-2s, the end of the year taxes. I was under the impression that that was just what they had stopped doing, not payroll withholding, sales and use. I had no idea that that's what it was. They had had access to our numbers I thought they were filling them out. And when I went in and called the state and they had told me that the date that it had stopped to current, I was extremely shocked. So when did it start? December 24, I believe, was the last time they got one.

Oh, Merry Christmas Eve.

Sure. So needless to say, since then, I have filed everything up to current. then received the amount of what it was and have been working with them and trying to get a certain payment plan less than the 50 percent that they had originally asked for.

So have you given them anything at this point? Anything as in what?

No, dollar wise. No, I have not, because when they had first said how much it was, I kind of was extremely shocked again, messaged Ashley instantly, asked to come here first because this hearing took This meeting came before I was able to actually have an emergency hearing with the state and file the paperwork in regards to get less than 50% paid down. But I do have a meeting with them later this afternoon and sending paperwork over to them to show the records of bank statements and things that they've asked for.

Ashley, do you want to add anything to this line of history?

What she says is accurate as far as contacting our office. The renewal was filed on March 30th. the application fee has been paid, but the license fee has not.

Just as a point of reference for you, because obviously this is all new to you. Yes. Our renewal season starts in January. The sooner you can get that in, the sooner we can help you with any problems we catch. Yes. Okay.

Commissioners, do you have anything you'd like to ask or share?

That's a question just because I guess I'm just missing some of the back and forth, but is this a, a, it's a renewal. So how long have you held a license currently?

2022, maybe 2022. Okay.

And I'm assuming this is, so you're, you're saying that they didn't do your, the quarterly estimates that are due as well as the payroll, the nine 41 taxes.

The withholding is what we were missing a little bit on the withholding, which which I also thought was weird because the withholding is only the only month that they were missing was the current month that we were in, which is, again, why I was so shocked that that was getting paid. But sales and use were not getting paid.

OK, so it's not all of your payroll taxes were being missed.

It was just the quarterly sales and use. Yes, ma'am.

OK, gotcha. All right.

And Commissioner Burrell, September 6, 2022 is when their license was issued.

Okay. And this is your class. I just want to make sure. Yes, it's a restaurant. So it's not census driven. Okay, gotcha.

You got it.

Thank you.

Commissioner Glass. And this was your accountant or your payroll manager that wasn't sending in sales and use?

I wouldn't really call them accountant. It was a family friend of ours that has an account. Well, they said they had an accountant in business. We obviously were misled on multiple things with them. I went with them because I've known them forever. There was never any issues up until they stopped paying with literally no sign of just saying anything other than, hey, I'm not doing that anymore. But they are a CPA business. Yes.

Yeah, unfortunately, I've seen this before. Mm-hmm.

And it's a little bit better that you've seen it before, but not at all better.

Well, and when he says that, and it's hard because I ran businesses. They both run businesses. It's very difficult to keep track of everything. You're so busy running your business that you don't have time to run your business.

Well, and like I said, they were doing our payroll still. They were still doing the withholding. So it was like part of it was getting done. The other part wasn't getting done. So Shame on, like, maybe I could have asked more questions, but I was under the impression that this was all getting done up until I got slapped in the face with a big old number.

Yeah, yeah, it's an out of sight, out of mind part of the process. Unfortunately. And your trust is put in whoever's running your payroll, and you're expecting that, especially if you're seeing the withholdings come out for individual employees, you're thinking everything's just fine. And it doesn't hit your bottom line until the state calls you. So, yeah, I've seen it before.

And it would be for in their situation, it's for just this last quarter. Well, all the way up January, February, March. Sounds like December. Everything was done through 25. We're talking just this beginning. But the state, they used to be a little bit more lenient on that first quarter. But now all of a sudden they're coming back. We're seeing new things that just happen where they're saying, oh, you owe us March. So we're going to put you on hold for March. Yeah. Yeah.

And the wonderful thing about starting early is our staff, unlike every other, and I'm not chastising every government organization, is our staff helps you through the process and keeps in touch with the state, the feds, whomever, to make this process a little smoother. This is very unusual what The staff does. She's been great.

Literally, I would email her and I don't even get to put my phone down. And Ashley's like, yep. Thank you. So she's been great.

And I will give report decisions. They were one of the first ones as soon as we sent out the alert to say, hey, if you're going to have a hardship, they were the very first ones to respond and say, hey, I don't know what I need to do here. I just found all this out. I'm overwhelmed. Help me work through this. What do I need to do to save my license? So they were one of the first ones to reach out.

So I heard you say that they paid the application, but not the other piece. What's the other piece again?

The license fee of $1,500. That's their yearly license fee.

Okay. So is this something we think can be resolved in 20 days, or is this something we're going to need to think about like the previous motion was?

So I think maybe like the previous, I'm going to contact the state, do all of my due diligence with them in regards to how can I get a hearing and get the paperwork filed. But I would like to say I would hope because of the paperwork. But I don't but I don't know. So, I mean, the hope is that, yes, it's going to be. But I depending on how long it takes.

Will the fifteen hundred license fee, the yearly fee for the actual alcohol license be a challenge if you have to put 30 percent down with them? Okay. She said no. I wanted to ask that question so that if they did want to wait to pay their license fee until the 20th, I mean.

I'm okay with that. I can see within myself waiving the $100 per day, but I cannot waive the application fee. Right, which is fine.

Okay.

You mean the renewal fee? Yes, gotcha. Okay. Yes. Sounds like. Commissioner Burrell, Commissioner Glass, either one of you would like to make a motion?

I can make a motion if you'd like, or unless Chris wants to. I see Chris leaning in.

No, you're just too good at it.

She did so well the first time. Yeah, she always does.

All right. And the official name of the business is Poor Decisions. Is there an Inc. or LLC?

It's Poor Decisions Restaurant and Bar LLC. Okay, just make sure I have it all.

Okay. So, Madam chair, I'm prepared to make a motion if. Yes, ma'am ready? Yes, ma'am. I move that the Frederick county liquor board grant the 20 day hardship for poor decisions, restaurant and bar waving the 100 dollar per day fee. If it comes that at the end of 20 days. Uh, the situation with the state tax hold remains, then we would expire the license. They could pay the 1500 dollars with before the end of the 20 days. And then when. When the new, when they are prepared, or the tax hold is released, we would then be able to have the liquor board staff, grant them the authority to adjudicate the application without coming before the board for their renewal. And it would be the renewal $1,500 that would need to be paid before the end of the 20-day hardship waiver. Second.

Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Burrell and Glass. So, in summary, she's waiving the $100 per day. Renewal fee is not waived. You still have to pay that by the end of the 20 days, before the end. By the end of the 20 days. Yeah, no later. And then if, God forbid, you lose your application, you will not be able to sell liquor until you get everything in order, you reapply, then that fee will go towards what you've already paid. So that part is waived also.

Okay, 750 application, yep.

Okay. So with that, I look to you to see if everybody's in agreement or if you have further discussion. All those say aye. Aye. 3-0. We wish you the very best. I know it's difficult to deal with all this. And it's very hard when you're running the business, and I assume you both are. It's very difficult to keep up with everything. But put reminders on your calendar, whatever you have to do. And never trust anyone. We are definitely, I've already written all the dates for the next five weeks. We wish you the best, the commission too. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Just stay in contact with Ashley and you'll, yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you. Jose Perez, Casique, it's going to come before us.

Jose has not been sworn in. Ashley, do you need him to sign that as well? Good morning. Good morning. Anyone here, please? And are you going to testify on this one too, Ashley?

Yes. Okay. You got to come back over here. You can have a seat. Okay.

Okay, where is it again? All right, I'm going to swear in that's going to testify on this case. Everyone who is 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 a request for extension, do you solemnly declare and affirm under the penalties of perjury that the testimony that you are 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.

I will.

Followed by your name.

Jose Perez.

I will, Dawn Sugars. I will, Ashley Kinesi-Gay. Thank you. I would also like to put on the record for the board that Jose Perez is a 50% owner, not a licensee, but he is also Mariachi's, Casarico. He owns Red Horse. He's an owner in several Class B restaurants throughout Frederick County. So I just want to make sure that the board is clear on his role in this financially. That's why he's here today. Rigoberto is not here today. Even though he has 20%, Jose is the main owner of all of those locations. But he's here just for Casique. And you're not on the license? He does not appear on the license, but he is 50% owner here. And which to me, he's the financial person behind all of those restaurants.

Okay, that part I get. The part I don't get is why the licensee is not here. Because we're giving the license to the licensee, not to you.

It should be here. Even though I had met with Ashley and

the rest of the office administrators.

And they expressed that if we get some agreement with the controllers, which we had reached already, we might not need to come today. But because I just want to show the email that's been back and forth with the controllers, that they agree to our proposal to let us have the license. That's the reason that I'm here.

The comptroller worked with Jose directly. They do not work with licensees. They work with the owners of the locations. So just so you kind of understand the dynamics, because he's the financial person.

So I promise... controllers to give some amount of money, you know, in the next 24 hours. And then a payment plan for the rest of the balance that we owe to them, which they offer that it's only going to be for six months because otherwise they have to put a lien on some properties. And the reason maybe we took so long to come here was because we thought that the first quarter of this year was going to be better for us. And we could have enough money to comply with whatever we have. We haven't paid to controllers. But unfortunately, downtown has been challenging for us. Very challenging.

May I? Yes. When Jose came into the office on Friday, he was at the point waiting for the comptroller to see if they would take a lower deposit. Did they confirm with you?

Yes, they did. Okay.

I have a... And have you paid the deposit yet?

No, that's because it was late. Okay. Friday? Friday. So I'm saying the 24 hours, like by 10 tomorrow, I should be at the controller's office in downtown to hand them a check. Okay.

Why tomorrow?

Because I had to gather some more money from other accounts to be available. If I deposit today, I usually do it by check so the accountants can have control on those And then I had to go and buy a certified check.

I would also like to add, because I know Jose, you know, we talk about things. We stay in contact with Jose because of his other businesses. He's had the Red Horse Fire, but Cacique, focusing in just that particular location. There was a challenge with the landlord. He spent many, many months, it made the Frederick News Post, challenging the landlord for past rent, different things. And there was a lot of legal fees involved for you in order to challenge them. Am I accurate in that statement?

Yes, we spent several thousand dollars on legal fees. But not only that, we were in a limbo, back and forth. you know, legal things until, I think it was November last year, the higher court of Maryland decided on our behalf. So now we can put all the effort to bring the business back and manage the business also.

And this did go to the Supreme Court. It went outside of Frederick County because of all the litigation. And again, this made the Frederick News Post. So it is a public it's a known fact that there was a lot of challenges and they got that overturned in their favor, but had to spend a lot of money battling that in legal fees. So we do we do know that he was he was up against specific challenges for Kasige financially.

Commissioners?

Has the fee been paid and renewal fees been paid for this application?

The $100 application fee was paid on February 13th, but the license fee of $1,500 has not been paid yet.

Is there? Mr. Perez, is the license fee an issue to be paid within the 20 days if the board would grant an ARCHIP?

No. We'll pay the fees whatever way we can before the 30th.

Okay, before the 30th. Okay. And just for clarity, the tax issues, are these your quarterly filing taxes? Are these just the sales and use? Is it payroll? Is there a bigger problem, or is it just this limited for this year with CACIQAE?

Well, there were some sales tax and some withholdings.

Okay. Commissioner Glass? No questions. Those would have been my questions.

Do you want to share anything further with us?

I've been blessed with having business here in this town. As I said before, My children went to school here. This is just the business challenges that we have to go through. Very expensive experience also. So it's a lesson for the future if we're still alive for another decade.

Actually, anything you need to share with us? I think that's everything. Okay.

And Kasike has been a license holder since 2004.

If I can explain why I'm not in the license, it's because at one point you had to have a resident here in the county. And my partner is the one that bought a house on Wilkersville. So that's the reason very much. Even though now we can be licensed.

I'm

Great, I'm not. I mean I I'm. I'm happy that also the the city is being evolving. The county too. It is growing. So and we are happy to be part of it.

Good commissioners. Any further questions or would you like to make a motion? Whatever is your pleasure?

So my question is, is it just the 20 days we're talking about on this, or is this a similar situation to the last two that could go beyond the 20 days? So just trying to understand the timeline for resolution.

OK, on my part, it's just finding the down payment for the amount that we owe to controllers, which I hope in the 24 hours from now we'll have it. And then We're going to either email or show. As soon as you pay that, they should do a release. In the email, it says that as soon as we notice them that we have paid the down payment, they're going to release.

Can you read that into the record? It says, hi, Jose. I'm following up with an update. Management has approved your proposed down payment of $14,000 and a monthly payment of $2,200.00. Please note that the down payment must be made in certified funds at any of our branch offices. Once the down payment is made, the liquor license hold will be released. Also, for any payment plan over six months, a lien will need to be filed. Please let me know how many months you would like the payment plan to be set for. I will send your payment plan agreement next week, and let me know if you have any questions. Thank you, Kira Truxon, Revenue Examiner 1. So it does sound like if he does that down payment in the 24 hours period, Even if we grant the 20 days, he may not need it fully or need the applicate. It's not the same scenario as Chris pointed out, case-by-case situation.

So you would let us know every step of the way?

Of course.

Okay. Ashley is there for you always.

Just call us once you make the payment because then I'll request the release.

I will send you even a copy or email.

That's usually smart because... the releases are very delayed.

Yeah.

Commissioner Burrell, does that answer?

It does, and I'm prepared to make a motion whenever the board's ready for one.

Whenever you're ready.

So I move that the Frederick County Liquor Board grant a hardship waiver for Cacique Restaurant with the payment of the $1,500 license fee for by April 30th and a waiver in the 20 days of the $100 fee in the event that it needs to go beyond the 30th to resolve the tax hold issue.

Okay, so what she's, oh, I need a second.

Second.

So what she's saying is that we're granting the waiver. Hopefully everything will be paid by the 30th, but should it be another day or two past that and there's a $100 fine, We have waived that also. Okay. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. 3-0. We have granted your waiver. We hope everything can be done by the 30th for relief for you also.

Yes.

And I'll see you soon. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you.

Absolutely. Ashley, do you need anything further? No, I do not. Just stay in touch. Stay in touch.

All the best, sir.

Thank you.

And thank you for the great work. Yes, thank you.

Thank you. Do you have anything to share with the commissioners? No, we're good. Chris, I need you to do what Chris does.

What about the other holds? Do you want me to... Do you want to just review really quick? She's just going to let you guys know. Not too late.

Really quick. So we do have additional holds of people who did not show today. Some we were able to get a hold of. Some really believe that they'll have their release by Thursday, April 30th. That is Grace of India, JB Spirits and Eats. And then we have one who is not in good standing. That's Foe and More. I've emailed multiple times, made phone calls, left messages with managers as recent as of Friday. With no word, I just checked again, they're still not in good standing. So we do have one, two, three, four others. Who's the fourth? So it's Grace of India, JB and Spirits. And Tho and Moore. Sorry, I must have counted poor decisions.

Okay, so there could be three licenses that could expire because they didn't.

And it's not for lack of trying on staff's part. They've reached out at least every other day. And they'd have logs of all their efforts. So as gracious as our motions have been for the ones that showed up here, I'm just as ungracious to the ones that have put no effort forth. I don't know how you all feel.

I'll keep you updated on the next hearing if they expire.

Well, in the words of my fellow commissioner, we'll take each case as it comes and see what they have to say.

There you go.

Okay, Chris.

Now, Chris, you're on.

On behalf of this commissioner, I make a motion that we adjourn the liquor board of Frederick County, April 27th, 2026, 8.58 a.m. I'll second it.

All those in favor, aye. Aye. Thank you. Take care, guys. Have a good week.

Thank you, everyone. Bye-bye. Bye.