Reform has finally made it to the Anne Arundel County liquor board.
The General Assembly approved changes to the panel that regulates alcohol sales in the county, ending the decades-long power of a senior state senator to treat the board as a political prize.
The Board of License Commissioners will grow from three to five members under a bill headed to Gov. Wes Moore for his signature.
Lawmakers last year passed similar legislation, introduced by Sen. Clarence Lam, but the governor vetoed it.
The new measure extends the role of submitting a list of board candidates to all delegates and senators representing the county. In contrast to last year’s measure, though, this bill gives the governor the power to reject their suggestions and request others.
“The governor wants the final say,” Sen. Pamela Beidle said.
That may clinch the reform, setting the legislation on a path to take effect July 1.
For such a low-profile organization, the liquor board has immense reach. It regulates 600 licenses to sell or serve alcohol in any form — generating jobs, business profits and tax revenues.
Although alcohol sales include a 9% excise tax, those revenues go to the state. Anne Arundel collects fees and fines from license regulation, generating about $1 million a year. Almost all of it goes back into operating the liquor board.
But it’s not the money that makes the board such a plum. The political spoils have always been handing out jobs.
State law gives the county’s state Senate delegation the power to recommend names to the governor for two-year board terms, and custom hands that role to the senior senator of the governor’s party. That party also gets a majority on the board.
It’s a holdover from the days before 1964, when each Maryland county had one state senator. They were de facto political kings, with immense power over the county commissions that were the local legislative bodies before charter government was created.
Even after those changes, though, generations of senators used the power to help friends and allies by getting them liquor board seats. The chair is particularly powerful, controlling who gets hired as one of 20 liquor inspectors.
They are part-time jobs but ones that pay $7,000 a year for a few hours a week going into bars, package stores and restaurants.
It’s a favor to be bestowed, and favors, as always in the world of politics, go round and round.
That started to change in 2019, when Republican Sen. Ed Reilly recommended his longtime aide’s husband as chair. Beidle, a Democrat, broke with custom and asked Republican Gov. Larry Hogan to reappoint the existing chair, also a Democrat. Hogan went with Reilly’s pick.
Once Moore was elected, Beidle nominated then-Chief Inspector Wayne Harris for chair. Harris is a Democrat who’s contributed small amounts to her campaign. But she did it with the consent of all seven county senators, regardless of party.
“Since I became the senior senator, I’ve never used that power,” Beidle said.
When Sen. Dawn Gile, the Democrat who succeeded Reilly in 2022, testified on the reform bill before the Senate Finance Committee in February, she said all the state senators representing Anne Arundel supported it — including Beidle, the committee chair.
Other changes in the bill include preventing any political party from holding more than three seats on the board, limiting the number of members from the same legislative district to two and requiring an ethics disclosure policy to avoid conflicts of interest.
Lam, a Democrat who represents a slice of Anne Arundel, jumped ahead of a task force that recommended updating laws governing alcohol sales in the county. It left the board structure intact.
Legislators passed five of those recommended changes in 2025, including a quota on the number of package stores in each of the county’s three tax assessment districts. Annapolis has its own liquor laws, so the changes do not apply within city limits.
Lam said he was motivated to shake up the board by complaints about harassment and overzealous enforcement, particularly from minority store and bar owners.
Black and Hispanic bar owners, for example, said they were cited frequently for violating their licenses when patrons took impromptu dance steps to live or recorded music. Bars with music and dancing require special licenses.
Five more bills were passed this year in addition to the board expansion, all based on the task force recommendations.
They ease the rules on dancing, change limits for drinks at beauty salons and barbershops, create licenses for sporting facilities such as pickleball courts and swim centers, and amend licenses for veterans organizations to include all uniformed services, not just the military.
Some fees will increase, and members of the board and part-time inspectors will get modest raises. The biggest is for the chief inspector, a full-time job that now could pay up to $75,000.
By changing the appointment process, though, Beidle ended a form of petty corruption she was unable to circumvent.
It’s one of her last acts in office. Beidle will retire in December after 28 years as a county councilwoman, delegate and senator.
It’s not a complete break, of course. The governor will still get to pick board members who meet his or her own criteria.
“It’s still an appointment,” Beidle said.
Changing the board’s makeup, however, doesn’t prevent it from making bad decisions.
Last year, a circuit court judge reprimanded the board for inventing a rule governing complaints aimed at license holders.
The board was dismissing complaint petitions if fewer than 10 people who signed one failed to show up for a hearing. In the case of the Magothy Inn in Pasadena, petition organizers appealed through the courts and a judge ordered a hearing on their complaint.
Critics accused the board of favoritism. The board denied it.
Tuesday, the board is scheduled to take the complaints up again.
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