Disclaimer: Transcripts are generated and may contain errors, including typos or misinterpretations of the spoken content, and may not follow the video content precisely. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information independently.

ATCC Public Meeting #51, MARCH 2025 at 3:00pm – 2025/03/20 08:50 EDT – Transcript

Attendees

Alan Silverstein, Andrew Berg -TXCRT-, BENTON GREEN -ATCC-, Bonnie Pearsall, Charles Jones, D. Rosarion, Dana Moncrief -MDH-, Dawn Berkowitz -MCA-, Elizabeth Kromm -MDH-, Eric Morrissette, James Hock -State Police-, Jane Springer, Jeffrey Herndon -ATCC-, Jeffrey Kelly -ATCC-, Karen Deaver -CCHD-, L Z, Maria Gracia -ATCC-, Nickole Whitmer, Robert Poole, Rodrigo Landaverde, Wayne Farrare -MDH-

Transcript

Alan Silverstein: Benton Z Silverstein,…

BENTON GREEN -ATCC-: Yes sir.

Alan Silverstein: can you hear me? Okay. I just wanted to make sure I’m on my pad and not on my regular computer, so it’s the first time I’ve done it this way.

BENTON GREEN -ATCC-: All Everything seem to be moving operating properly.

Alan Silverstein: Yep. recovering.

BENTON GREEN -ATCC-: All righty.

Alan Silverstein: I just wanted to check Brandon and then I just talked so I’m good to go. Yeah. My Google through my Gmail account. All Talk to you in a few minutes. All right. Bye.

00:05:00

Rodrigo Landaverde: I see you.

1. Rosarion: Good afternoon everyone.

Alan Silverstein: Good afternoon.

Jeffrey Kelly -ATCC-: I said hello and…

1. Rosarion: Hello.

Alan Silverstein: Think Mr. Kelly’s got his mic muted. Hi, James.

Jeffrey Kelly -ATCC-: I was just taking advantage of the last two or three minutes here to speak the last.

BENTON GREEN -ATCC-: No, You were just a little quiet, sir. Not Jeff.

James Hock -State Police-: Good  That’s good.

Alan Silverstein: Who? Me? I was going to say I’ve never been told I’m too quiet.

BENTON GREEN -ATCC-: He came through, but he was just a little quieter than the others.

Alan Silverstein: So, we’ll start three o’clock on the nose.

Alan Silverstein: Good afternoon, Rodrigo. Thanks for joining us. I think you’re muted, too, so your mic. but I can see your mouth moving. Wait, you see if Mr. Vice Chair Morset is on so

00:10:00

Eric Morrissette: Hello. Thank you.

Alan Silverstein: welcome, Mr. Marcet.

Alan Silverstein: You make the quorum, so you get the prize today. All right. I have three o’clock. This is Maryland Alcohol, Tobacco, and Cannabis Commission meeting March 20th, 2025. I’m going to call the meeting to order. We’re going to do a roll call. vice chair Eric Mo Okay. Dorne Rosarian member. And I’m the chair Alan Silverstein.

Alan Silverstein: So, I welcome all of the people who have joined us today. we’ll start out with the executive director’s report.

Alan Silverstein: Mr. Kelly,…

Jeffrey Kelly -ATCC-: Thank you,…

Jeffrey Kelly -ATCC-: Mr. Chair, and welcome back. It’s good to hear your voice. We’ve had a Yeah,…

Alan Silverstein: it’s good to be back.

Jeffrey Kelly -ATCC-: we missed So, I’ll be reporting out now in the relatively new format of the previous month, just easier to tabulate it rather than since our last meeting, just the previous full month, which could be  During the month of February, we conducted 149 alcohol inspections, 300 tobacco inspections, and 246 cannabis inspections. From all of those, there were 27 incidents that required a report, and Those seizures included 334 sticks of other tobacco products. That yielded a tax loss of $185,480 to the state.

Jeffrey Kelly -ATCC-: There were 214 packs of cigarettes that yielded a tax loss of $1,70 and there were 12 containers of alcohol that were seized. And the yield on that was $3.68 of tax. So we’re kind of low on some of the taxes. My guess is these are probably beer products more than anything because they are very low taxes on beer. we are approaching the last month or we are in the last month of the general assembly session for 2025. So at next month’s meeting it’ll probably be a little bit longer. We’ll spend some time on legislation that passed and other really directly relating to alcohol and tobacco and to some extent cannabis and maybe just some others that would be of interest as well. So we’ll spend some time on that next month. a lot can happen still and so that’s good.

Jeffrey Kelly -ATCC-: our budget hearings went well and our budget on the house side was presented before the commission rather before the committee appropriations committee and that went well but it’s still got a long way to go but so far it looks good and untouched and just within the last two weeks or so we met with the office of legislative audits who has been conducting an audit on us since maybe late spring early summer and that audit pretty much went

Jeffrey Kelly -ATCC-: through October, somewhere in that area is where it completed and then it’s been a while tabulating everything. We met with them as part of an exit interview. no final report yet. So, what I’m reporting is not a final tabulation of everything, but there were a couple of items that they make mention of that say we probably need to tweak and work on, which we’ve done. Almost all of those are done. they don’t rise to the point of being findings that are publicly reported.  They’re just little things that you might want to pay attention to. We did pay attention to them and have corrected those. I’ll speak more about them when the final report is done. and then the final report may have a finding on it as well, which is one that we understand. we know and quite honestly I’ll wait till the report comes out to comment on it in great detail, but simply to say it had to happen. There wasn’t with the limited staff that we had, there wasn’t any other way for us to avoid it.

00:15:00

Jeffrey Kelly -ATCC-: But nonetheless, it was a very brief period of time where certain things were happening.

Jeffrey Kelly -ATCC-: There were no violations. It just simply was an exposure, if you will, very small exposure. So, that’s the end of my report for this month, Mr. Chair. And again, good to hear your voice on air.

Alan Silverstein: Thank you.

Alan Silverstein: Anybody have any new business to bring up before the commission?

Alan Silverstein: I know this is going to be one of the shortest meetings on record.

Jeffrey Kelly -ATCC-: We do want to talk about meet our minutes from last month…

Jeffrey Kelly -ATCC-: because there were minutes.

Eric Morrissette: Yeah. Almost.

Jeffrey Kelly -ATCC-: We just want to make sure you have a picture

Alan Silverstein: I’m sorry. Yeah, I need a motion to approve the February 20th minutes.

Robert Poole: Okay.

Alan Silverstein: Need a second, please. Okay,…

1. Rosarion: Second. Thank you.

Alan Silverstein: we have a motion, a second. All those in favor say I.

Jeffrey Kelly -ATCC-: Thank you all.

Alan Silverstein: I. Motion carries.

Eric Morrissette: All right.

Alan Silverstein: Thank you, Mr. Kelly.

Eric Morrissette: Thank you.

Alan Silverstein: Keep me on track. Okay, with that, u I’m going to adjourn the meeting. Look forward to seeing everybody next month.

Alan Silverstein: Thank you. All right, meeting done.  Yeah, I knew we didn’t

Meeting ended after 00:16:42 👋

This editable transcript was computer generated and might contain errors. People can also change the text after it was created.