The Baltimore Liquor Board killed a couple of liquor licenses recently, one of them a prominent one, getting them a reprise of the positive media coverage that followed this summer when two new members, Chairman Thomas Ward and Commissioner Dana Petersen Moore, took seats on the panel.

But how much progress has been made toward reforming the agency?

WYPR’s Sheilah Kast explored that question yesterday, airing portions of her previously taped interview with Ward and her live conversation with two people who have been attending meetings and reporting on them in the ensuing months, Community Law Center lawyer-blogger Rebecca Lundberg Witt and the Brew’s Fern Shen.

Witt said she saw progress and an increase in transparency “since the [critical March 2013] audit came out, certainly, and since this new board was put in place.” Witt lauded the board for doing a better job of making sure applications are complete and sending more inspectors into the field.

“There are still some issues, a lot of issues I think, with consistency from one hearing to the next. So the violations hearings, sometimes they’ll give a 30-day suspension for a violation and the next week they’ll give a three-day suspension for the same violation,” said Witt, who attends the weekly meetings and takes copious notes of the proceedings for her blog Booze News.

A Primer on “Zombies”

Shen agreed, citing a recent Brew story explaining how two so-called “zombie” licenses were treated differently in two instances by the current Board – one killed, the other allowed to live on.

Listeners got a chance to hear Witt, who coined the term “zombie license” on Booze News, explain what they are.

She noted that the city and the legislature, having decided that “there are too many liquor licenses in Baltimore,” approved legislation aimed at getting the board to issue fewer licenses and to let some expire.

“So the law says, if you haven’t used your liquor license in the past 180 days, then your license expires on the 181st day. It is no more. You can come in and ask for an extension of an additional 180 days for a total of 360 days,” Witt said.

“Historically with the previous board – and still with this board – they have given additional extensions out beyond that one hardship extension that the law provides.”

“It’s just something that the law does not really allow for but the board has been doing anyway,” Witt said. “So zombie licenses are licenses that really are dead according to the law, but the board is allowing them to live on as if they were alive.”

Ward: “Board Forgot all about Community”

Ward told Kast he was surprised by what he found was going on with liquor licenes, when he took charge of the agency in June.

“I was out of touch with what was happening,” he began. “And apparently what was happening is that the Liquor Board forgot all about the community.”

“We found that the community was the forgotten person,” he said. “Some of the exhibitions of evidence that we saw were absolutely stunning with respect to the harm that it caused to the life that you might have if you lived near one of these bars and I think one of our jobs is to correct that.”

But Ward also defended the board’s actions on zombies, saying the 180-day rule is “complicated and out-of-date.” He said he is recommending changes in the law with respect to “licensees that are delayed by government, where government itself doesn’t act, give the permits and government is the cause of the delay, keeping the business from opening.”

Witt: Apply the Law as its Written

Is that “a backdoor” to help licensees delay the process, Kast asked Witt.

Witt said about half the zombie licenses could arguably be caused by licensees making an effort “to move things along” but delayed by governmental red tape.

“But a lot of these licenses just close for really no good reason except business isn’t good and it has nothing to do with waiting for permission from any city agency,” she said.

“The board needs to apply the law as its written now,” she said, “and then apply any changes.”