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Almost one month ago Wicomico County Council Vice President Stevie Prettyman reached under the table and brought out three six packs of beer she personally purchased from a Wicomico County Dispensary. There had been an agreement the County would NOT compete against any County Convenience Store and that agreement was broke.
It has been rumored that one of the people within the Dispensary actually challenged Councilwoman Prettyman by claiming she did NOT purchase this Beer from one of their stores, yet there was as actual receipt of her purchase proving she was in fact telling the truth.
Now what does that say about the heads of this system, trying to defame Councilwoman Prettyman and challenge her integrity? IMO, this person should be terminated immediately!
I have come to learn that the Dispensary in the Giant Shopping Center allegedly pays around $7,000.00 a month for that space. I also came to learn allegedly renovations have been done to a certain location whereas Ron Alessi's company did the renovations. Talk about a conflict of interest!
I also came to learn throughout my month long investigation that the Dispensary System allegedly spent close to $50,000.00 last year in advertising. Want to know where MOST of that money, (if not all) of it was spent? What's the most expensive form of advertising on the Eastern Shore? The Metropolitan Magazine! The rest was spent in The Daily Times. Just take a look at almost any copy of the Metropolitan and you'll see where your tax dollars were spent.
Now what bothers me about this is the fact that the County owns a monopoly on the Liquor Business in the County, why the hell do they need to spend ANY money in advertising, period? Do they think people won't figure out the few locations there are to purchase such said Liquor?
A month ago County Executive Rick Pollitt said, I'm not sure if the County should be in the Liquor Business. He went on to say. When a part of local Government is put up in competition with other stores it's not appropriate.
Councilwoman Prettyman had said, she didn't know if County Government should be in the Liquor Business against private enterprise. Should we be in competition with Convenience Stores?
Back in the prohibition days the United States used a dispensary system to sell alcohol. Dispensaries have certainly outlived their usefulness and the system is broken/outdated.
Worcester County fought this battle 4 years ago, (or so) and brought it to a referendum, losing by only 2%. From the research I have performed, Worcester County is also on the war path to fight it once again, this time with the backing and support of this Blog Site.
The Eastern Shore has its fill of religious representatives too afraid to take the bull by the horns and simply make changes. IMO these representatives are wonderful people and have certainly served and represented their Districts wonderfully. However, there are topics and situations similar to this one that is just too hot a topic for them to step forward and support right off the bat.
By privatizing this business you would see a stronger competition, similar to the competition within Gas Stations throughout communities. If one lowers their price, the others either have to follow to compete or lose business. It keeps people more honest, IMO. I believe there should be two stores each in the North, South, East & West side of Wicomico County and two stores in Salisbury.
Wicomico County and Worcester County have a monopoly that as a businessman, I personally do not appreciate. Again, based on the Wicomico County Council Meeting I attended, Wicomico County is at least interested in researching the usefulness of such a system through Councilwoman Prettyman and the County Executive Rick Pollitt.
The Liquor Dispemnsary brings Wicomico anywhere from $300,000.00 to $400,000.00 a year. While getting close to my own final thoughts, try this out for size. How about the County Executive and County Council bring the decision to referendum? This way the CITIZENS can vote on what THEY want and everyone is in the clear? That goes for Worcester County and Wicomico County.
Again, that's MY opinion and I'd be very interested in what others think and feel about this situation. I'm hearing from both Worcester County and Wicomico County residents and quite frankly each and every one of them are all for taking it away from County Run Dispensaries. What do YOU think?
15 comments:
Counties should not be in the liquor business. Ron Alessi's company should not have done renovations to the site in question. Thanks for bringing this to everyone's attention.
Did the county bid out the renovation job? What is the name of his construction business and how many other county jobs has he gotten I wonder? Since when do you have to advertise the only places you can buy liquor? DUH.
I agree that advertising for the only place you can buy liquor is down right foolhardy and wastefull.
I too wonder how many other construction jobs Mr. Alessi has gotten from his being on the ion with the county and city? Didn't he also do some construction at the Zoo, even though he was the Chair of the Zoo Commission. Smells of cronyism to me!
A. Goetz
It is a fact, according to Article 2b, that the Liquor Control Board (LCB) reports only to the Governor's office, not the County Commissioners. The County Commissioners has absolutely no control over the LCB nor does the Board of License Commissioners have any say, either. Herein is where the problem lies in that there is no accountability. So take this issue up with your local delegate and senator and get the county out of the liquor business. Worcester, Somerset, Wicomico and Montgomery counties are the only counties left to deal with this 76 year old archaic, prohibition law.
Alessi is on the Liquor board. I worked there for six years and found many "Questionable events." Managers were treated to lunches at Brew River, we also had breakfast buffets at the Ramada at the publics expense. When in Rome, you know, I ate well from you being over charged, while we employees enjoyed liquor at cost. That has been now changed to 25% off discount for employees unless that has changed since my departure.
When I first started working there I was made aware that just prior to my hire in 1997, there were two whole days deposits missing and never found, the police were not called and it was all swept under the rug. I called the Sheriff's department at the time to report it and they told me in was in the city jurisdiction and to call the city police, in turn the city police told me to call the Sheriff's department, nobody wanted to touch that "Hot Potato." After those two incidents we did start using tamper proof deposit bags and when I made deposits I always had another eyeball, by taking another manager with me to the bank to verify.
There was one sales person in particular that might have well just filled out his own purchase orders and that salesmen went to lunch at least once a month with the general manager at that time. The salesman making all of their quota's of course got a nice bonus check from his employers at the end of the month.
Was this bonus shared with the general manager? That was never proven but most employees took it as the writing on the wall. People that had worked there for thirty years just got used to it being, that's the way it's always been done!
Ask any bar or restaurant owner how they feel about it. Ask Tom Ruark, he has a liquor store in the Pecan Square shopping center. They all pay 15% more than they would if they were allowed to purchase their product directly from the supplier. I think it's about time they were dissolved. However, you see this also goes up to the supplier level, do you know how much more it would cost them to stop at all the private liquor stores, bars and restaurants? They don't want to see that happen.
You got it Anonymous 3:23, they DO NOT answer to the county!
They could snub their noses at the county, sell beer and there is nothing that Rick Pollitt or the county council can do about it.
Finally some one knows how article 2b works. The monies the Liquor Controll Board wasted could have gone back to the countys general fund. Montogmery County returns a huge amount to its county general fund. As far as lunches go there is a serous question in ethics. Since the Liquor Control Board is in part a whole saler to the local retailers.
We also purchased from four big liquor distributors in Maryland. It's a monopoly all of the way up. Only one company can sell Jack Daniel's, one company can sell Absolute and on and on.
There is also no competition within the state. In DC a bar or restaurant has several wholesalers to choose from, Maryland not the case.
We did receive 4 really nice Sunday dinners a year, one from each liquor company. We went to Suicide Bridge a lot. I did think that was OK because the wholesalers were paying the bill and it wasn't wasting money that could have gone to the general fund.
One of the reasons that Montgomery county does so much better than the other three counties is that they do sell beer as well.
A lot of the drinks you see in the local liquor stores are just beer with lipstick on it. Jack Daniel's coolers, Mikes Hard lemonade and many of those drinks are made from malt, barley and hops just like beer with artificial flavors.
If the county can control the Liquor Board better it would be best to have them under the control of the Liquor Board. As a tax paying citizen I have no problem with the county overseeing the board and I want to keep it that way. If it wasn't under the arm of the County Council you would see a liquor store pop up on every corner. That's what we need in Salisbury, some more homeless drunks everywhere.
They Don't want to honor our 2% cap that was voted in favor of when it was on the ballot. There is constant talk about repealing the voters decision.
Anonymous said...
They Don't want to honor our 2% cap that was voted in favor of when it was on the ballot. There is constant talk about repealing the voters decision.
7:46 PM
Who doesn't want to honor the 2% cap
There is constant talk about it because there is no accountability. What goes around, comes around. Better start looking for a job.
As far a liquor store on every corner that's why they have a Board of License Commissioners to control all licenses in each county.
If you are going to make a comment, educate yourself with the facts of the process.
As was repeated yesterday in an earlier statement:"the liquor control board only answers to the governor."
If you are intelligent enough to understand this you might realize that they are an out-of-control monopoly.
The local liquor stores are regulated to be in compliance of underage sales by the Board of License Commissioners and under cover state police or other law enforcement. That's where their authority ends.
The dispensary's board, I do believe is appointed by the local Democratic and Republican committees. When we had a Democrat governor it's supposed to be composed of 2 democrats and one republican and the governor put's his autograph on their appointment. Vice versa with a republican governor, 2 republican board members and one democrat. I had respect for only one board member, that was retired school teacher, Mrs. Dennis, the rests were more of the Good Ole Boy team. I was sorry to hear that she wasn't going to get another appointment. There goes the checks and balances.
I would bet if you caught O'Mally off guard he couldn't tell you who they are.
Even though the county has little control of the dispensaries they do receive the store's profit that goes into the counties general fund.
If bars and restaurants could buy at wholesale prices they may be able to offer health insurance to their employees. I can think of a few good restaurant's that spent $3000 a week there or more, they would save about $20,000 a year. If you were in that business, how would you feel?
The only private liquor store in the county at Pecan Square also must buy all of it's liquor from the dispensaries. That's why their prices are higher, it's impossible for them to compete!
Anonymous said...
There is constant talk about it because there is no accountability. What goes around, comes around. Better start looking for a job.
As far a liquor store on every corner that's why they have a Board of License Commissioners to control all licenses in each county.
If you are going to make a comment, educate yourself with the facts of the process.
As was repeated yesterday in an earlier statement:"the liquor control board only answers to the governor."
If you are intelligent enough to understand this you might realize that they are an out-of-control monopoly.
9:11 AM
Sounds to me like you want to open up a liquor store. Why else would you have such a strong interest in it. Yes I am educated.
Here's another funny thing. I was the first person in the history of the system since prohibition that ever used a spread sheet for re-ordering purposes. Tracking sales and trends.
I had to teach people there how to use a computer ROFLMAO
The board meets every two weeks to sign paychecks, they meet 26 times a year to discuss a $4 million a year business?
Don't believe me? Just ask any bar or restaurant owner in this county before you call people a liar.
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