SALISBURY, Md.- The city of Salisbury and Wicomico County are finding common ground on how businesses and events in the area get liquor licenses.
Salisbury has wanted to create its own liquor licensing commission for the last four years. It came to a head, however, in September after controversy surrounding permits for the National Folk Festival. Maryland Del. Carl Anderton proposed a bill this session that would allow the city to make its own alcohol licensing commission. Business and city leaders testified for the bill earlier this month and since then, city and county leaders say they've been working on an amendment to that bill.
"While the county doesn't feel there's anything wrong with the existing board, we were willing to compromise," Weston Young, Wicomico County's assistant director of administration, says. The compromise expands the county's existing liquor licensing board from three members to five, but three of those members would have to live in Salisbury. The county executive and the mayor would then have to agree on those appointments before the names are sent to the governor for approval. "The county was looking at losing, how it was written, upwards of half a million dollars. That was a mix of license fees as well as loss of dispensary revenue," Young says. "We're trying to compromise. We're trying to work and we think it's a good step forward." The county says 58% of its licenses are within Salisbury, 42% are within the county. Salisbury Mayor Jake Day says the compromise may not streamline the process to get a license,
like originally proposed, but it helps give the city a voice. "But we think it's a great compromise," Day says. "We think it acknowledges not only our concerns and the concerns of the business community but it also affords the county to still have an important role in the licensing of all of the establishments." The process to apply and receive a license doesn't change under the new amendment, only the composition of the board. "The fact that the mayor and the executive have to come together to appoint these, I think we're going to get a better candidate that way," Young says. And Day agrees, the city is happy to see the compromise. "We sent in a letter of support last week. The county government supported it as well, sent in a letter of support, so I think we're all on the same page which is really good." City and county leaders say the compromise has been in the works with several members of the Eastern Shore Delegation. Anderton told WBOC that freely bouncing ideas off each other in Annapolis, along with the mayor's and county executive's willingness to give and take on issues, helped put this amendment together. According to Anderton, the bill should be voted out of committee in the coming days before going through the full house and senate processes. The county says there is one vacancy on the county's liquor board right now, but they are waiting to fill the seat as they keep an eye on the bill in the statehouse.