[Robert Delafano]: The public meeting of the City of Medford License Commission for 2-20-2025 will come to order. We do have an agenda. We didn't have the minutes on this one from last month, correct? No. I'm going to send it to you next month, but that's okay. Okay, no, that's fine. That's fine. I just wanted to make sure that I didn't miss it. Okay, so since we don't have minutes, we'll just follow the agenda and go right down the line, I guess. Let's see what we got here. All right. Representative from Chef Jason's Catered Events, are you here? I see Chef Jason. You can unmute, Chef Jason. Yes, I'm here. There you go. Great. Thank you. Tell us a little bit about what's going on.
[SPEAKER_06]: So I have a private event over at the Medford Library. doing soda water, beer, and wine for 50 people.
[Robert Delafano]: All righty, let's see. One day, ACM Entertainment, one day license.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Chef Jason, what's your business or background? You're the owner of the catering company?
[SPEAKER_06]: Co-owner, yeah, me and my wife own the company. My company is five years. Previously, I worked for, I was the executive chef and general manager for Montpelier Plaza in Stoneham for almost 15 years. Tilt-off steakhouse before that for eight and a half. A few other odds and ends in between.
[Robert Delafano]: All right. Okay. Okay, great. I noticed that you did say that it's at the library, but address of premise, you put P.O. Box 45, Tewksbury. That's where the library's address should have went in. So, Gary, if you can just- Oh, okay. Yeah. That it's the library's, just so we know.
[Daria Tejera]: So it's not his fault, it's the application for some reason. When you put the address, like the applicant's address, it automatically goes in that box too. It needs to be fixed on my end. So he's, but it's not him.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, the one I have in front of me has high speed.
[Robert Delafano]: Yeah, that's fine. That's good. It looks okay to me. Ben, did you have a chance to look at all of them?
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Yep. I've looked it over. I mean, everything looks, all the boxes are checked and the insurance is, is there, and it's, uh, you know, uh, sorry, you know, registered licensed bartender, you know, doing it at the library. So I'm not, um, I'm not concerned about it. And I would, uh, you know, I would approve this or make a motion.
[Robert Delafano]: Okay, I see the insurance and the driving and all that good stuff as well. So I'll second that motion. All those in favor? Aye. Okay, the motion has it. Your license has been approved.
[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you very much.
[Robert Delafano]: All righty. Let's see. Let's move on to the next one. Sorry, I'm a little disarrayed today. This thing threw me off this morning. That and the fire alarm, I guess, all together at having rolled in a one. Okay. We have a representative from Ocean State Job Lot here. I don't see one, do we, Daria?
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: I don't see one either. I'm going to have to reach out to them again. Commissioner, maybe we could see if they come in by the end of the meeting. If not, we'll just skip them and... Yeah, yeah, we can do that.
[Robert Delafano]: I mean, that won't be a problem. Okay, let's see. What's that? MedFed, and we've got... I think we've got three from... ACM you here. Okay, that's Hendrick. You can mute. Yeah. Great. Yes, we see that. Well, tell us a little bit about what's going on. I see 3, 1 day license applications. I did see your insurance as well. And you can kind of give us a rundown of what's going on, if you don't mind.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: Sure. I will start with the coolest one. The March 2nd is a Mardi Gras party, and we're selling tickets. I should mention that we've already sold 65 tickets, which is above the estimate I'm guessing based on that is probably going to be more like a hundred people just Usually people buy tickets more close to the event and we're selling more at the beginning of the sales so That that's my my guesstimate I The artist that's coming is one of the princes of New Orleans, Andrew, I'm sorry, Glen David Andrews. And he was in the band that reopened Bourbon Street after the terrorist attack this year. So he's really something. And I brought him a couple of other times to the city when I was working at the porch. And also, we did an event for Juneteenth as well, actually in the city hall.
[Robert Delafano]: Okay. Great. Yeah, no, that's not an issue. You know, the more the merrier, that's fine.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: March 6th is a smaller blues performance with Cheryl Arena. She's an Arlington resident and a great harmonica teacher and songwriter. I'm guessing somewhere between 35 and 50 people will be at that. Okay. And the third is an adult trivia night, really a community building kind of event that the ACM is holding, probably between 40 and 50 people in that as well.
[Robert Delafano]: Okay. The only thing I had noticed on two of the applications, the boxes weren't checked for either wine and malt or all alcohol. One of them was wine and malt, but you did mention in the description that you would be serving wine and malt, so I'm just assuming that's all you're going to be doing on all three.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: On the March 2nd, there's going to be hurricanes that are pre-made and sold. It's a hurricane spritzer. So it's the same size pour as a glass of wine.
[Robert Delafano]: Yeah, in that case, in that application, I think we should just change that one to all alcohol. Okay. Because you make it with alcohol, correct, the spritzer? Yep. Yeah.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: In this case, a professional will be doing it so that it's as close to reality as possible.
[Robert Delafano]: No, no, that's fine. It's just that, you know, we want to keep the book straight, that's all. Absolutely. And that's only on the one for the sixth, you said? The second. The second. The Mardi Gras one. The Mardi Gras, okay, yep. Yeah, Daria, if you can just check that off on the one on the second just to, Keep it straight. Ben, how about you? Have you had a chance to look over them and check it out? The insurance look great. I see that you took it out for the whole year. So obviously you guys are planning on doing some different events. You do know that there's a limit on 30 for the year. And the other thing is, Yeah, no, I think the other thing was, um, just keep in mind for the future. If you can, um, give the area enough notice, um, about the events, because we have to by law post it at least 48 hours, um, a public meeting. So, you know, we really can't. Um, do too much if it's a last minute thing, you know, we'll be trying to accommodate as best we can. I'm not sure.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: If we're in the last and the last minute thing.
[Robert Delafano]: I'm not sure there was I was going to mention that to all of the folks that that came before us with a 1 day this week. I don't know if it was you or might have been the last 1. It's just that sometimes they come in the last minute and we have to really, you know, we try our best to accommodate, but legally we're not supposed to because of the.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: I think Daria told us she might've had a little delay on her end. Is that what I'm getting? Oh, okay.
[Daria Tejera]: Okay. She gave it to me on Tuesday. Yeah, okay. I put that down on Friday, last Friday. Gotcha.
[Robert Delafano]: Oh, yeah, okay.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: So this all looks good to me. And then, so this is the building that's right next door to the Great American Beer Hall. I'm sorry, to Atlas Liquors.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: Atlas, yes.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: And then, okay, yeah, and then so is it a, the Arts Collaborative, Medford, is it like it's a space that you're hosting it at this business space?
[Hendrik Gideonse]: Yes, so the relationship is that Theory Wellness, the dispensary that's on the same property, was required, this is my understanding, so if I'm wrong, was required by the city to pay for the space for an arts collaborative that was based on Medford Artists and community building for the arts. So the relationship is that we have the front of the building, which used to be the VW dealership. And it hosts a number of 13 different artist studios that rent space. And we do gallery openings. And when I came on, we're doing musical events. So we're using the equipment from the porch when it closed. The owners donated to the nonprofit. And so we- Okay. able to keep it all in Medford, which was really exciting for me.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Okay. Okay. Got it. Got it. And then the Spencer, he's like behind there or something? Yep.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: And we don't, I mean, other than getting permission to like, you know, put a sign up or whatever, we don't really work with them at all.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Yep. Okay. Got it. Just was trying to understand that. And then, um, no, I mean, like, I think everything's good here. There's, it's not a licensed bartender though. That's serving or a tip certified person.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: It's just volunteers that are serving the, you know, it's, it's, uh, on the second, it's two tip certified catering people. So they're actual licensed bartenders. Um, okay.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: I think you can adjust that then you can check that box.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: Okay.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: On the second.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: And then the others are TIP certified. What I'm finding is, as I'm trying to hire TIP-certified people, that a lot of people let their TIP certification expire. They're trained, but they don't actually have it, so it makes it harder to find people. But I think it's a really good way of protecting ourselves by having someone who probably knows what they're doing.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, when you have 100 people, it's better to have a licensed bartender. So, if these are licensed bartenders, I think you should just check that off. who will be serving the alcohol, yeah. It says event staff volunteer.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: Okay, so the people that will be selling it, it's the Revelry Norland's Cuisine food truck. They're doing the catering there, and it's their bartenders.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Okay, so then, oh yeah, go ahead, Bob. No, no, go ahead, Ben, I'm sorry. Well, so then they're actually the catering company In theory, they could be the one getting the liquor license if they're the one providing the alcohol.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: So I'm buying the alcohol and they're serving it. They're serving it. I'm paying them to serve it.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, OK. So it's just like hiring a bartender and you've stocked the bar. So I think you just would put that that is a licensed bartender serving the drinks then.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: OK.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: if they are, in fact, a licensed bartender.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: Okay. Understood. Is that something that I need to resubmit the paperwork for? Or can you make that change, Daria?
[Daria Tejera]: I'm making that change now.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: Oh, thank you so much.
[Daria Tejera]: I'll put a checkmark, that licensed bartender.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: Okay.
[Robert Delafano]: Just for future reference, Hendrick, you may want to talk to this caterer, because if they've got a state license for catering, they're allowed to bring their own alcohol in, and you don't even have to appear before us. The only thing they're required to do is notify us and the police department within 48 hours of the event. And, you know, it's kind of like, I don't know if they give you a cut of whatever comes in or what deals are made. But, you know, it's there is such a thing that these caterers have a state caterers license through the ABCC. If that's the case, it just save you a lot of aggravation and everything else. Yeah. You just may want to check with them. But yeah, I'm new at this. Yeah, no, I mean, if you're paying for them and for their service and they have the license, it's kind of, you know. But that's something for you to look into if you like.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and they're only doing one of the events, right? They're not, yeah, so.
[Robert Delafano]: Okay.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: I kind of that's what I was saying in theory they could have but I think if you're just getting it for all three events sort of makes sense the way you're doing it so I think you just clean that up then that's more accurate when we approve like a hundred person event and it says no real bartender there that's sort of like a you know you know a thing that but it so we'd like to see that there is a real bartender and there is in fact so that's good so I just make sure that that's all that's accurate.
[Robert Delafano]: Ben, thank you. Okay, Ben, if you want to make a motion, we can do all three days at once. If you don't have it in front of you, I can do it.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: I have them right here. Okay, so I will make a motion to approve the one-day license for the dates of March 2nd, March 6th, March 19th, Um, for the, um, Arts Collaborative Medford, located at 162 Mystic Ave, Medford, um, for the three events just described, uh, pending some minor adjustments to the application for licensed bartender and address.
[Robert Delafano]: Okay. Great. And I'll second the motion. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Hearing and seeing none, the AIs have it. You're all set, Hendrik. Thank you. Good luck with your events. Thank you. Sound like a good time.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: The Mardi Gras thing is definitely something to check out. Oh, cool. Yeah. The guy from New Orleans starts at six. Okay.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Okay, cool. And Andrew, you have one of the best zoom setups here with the microphone and it's like a like a podcaster.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: So I'm, I'm an audio engineer. And I've done a lot of these setups, especially during the pandemic, setting up Zoom for CEOs and fancy types. Wanted to get them to see what it could look like. It's great.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it looks good. Nice job.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: Thank you.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: All right, well, best of luck.
[Hendrik Gideonse]: Thank you so much. Good luck with your events.
[Robert Delafano]: All right, thanks. Okay, and I think the last thing on the agenda is the Buns House, Frozen Boston, Inc. Do we have a representative?
[sJ05aGDSdsU_SPEAKER_03]: Yes. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. My name is Attorney Russell Chin, and I'm an attorney representing the applicant uh frozen boston inc um to be a buns house i should have on the line with me mr guang ping ding who is a 100 owner of the uh entity and the manager who is carnie tron my understanding is uh is on a flight and she has been um She's been logging in or trying to log in. I'm not sure if she's still with us now. Based on that contact, I apologize for if she's not with us here.
[Robert Delafano]: That won't be a problem, as long as Mr. Ping is here, that's fine.
[sJ05aGDSdsU_SPEAKER_03]: Yes, Mr. Wangping is in my office, but in my conference room on this call.
[Robert Delafano]: Yeah, we see him there. All right, and let's see. Mr. Chin. Okay, Mr. Chin. I had the opportunity to spend some time looking over this application, and it looks great to me. I mean, I went through it. All the boxes were checked of what needed to be done. So all the bank statements and everything and the leases and all that good stuff that you're required to have. One of the very few applications we've seen that didn't need correction, in my opinion. But Ben, I'm not sure if you came across anything. Like I said, it looked-. Bobby would usually find it. Kind of like the watchdog, I guess. I don't know. But no, it looked great. It's looking good.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: I was just looking at it again.
[Robert Delafano]: Yeah, no, take a quick look over here, you know, because like, you're going to miss something. It's just, um, you know, even so.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. So it's one. Yeah. All right, so the sale price is 130,000 purchase price and new lease is in place or being taken over. I guess that's, are they taking over the lease or is it a new lease?
[sJ05aGDSdsU_SPEAKER_03]: I believe it's a new lease. I don't recall whether it's an assignment here or whether it's a new lease. I don't have that open on my screen. Do you need to know that? I can try to find it.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: I don't know if it's even, if it's totally critical.
[Robert Delafano]: It's a lease.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: I mean, it's sort of between you guys. Is there any changes being made to the restaurant itself?
[sJ05aGDSdsU_SPEAKER_03]: I think beyond cosmetic, there is no structural change that is contemplated. This gentleman sold and closed his restaurant that was located in Everett under the same name. And he's now going to operate in Medford under the same Buns House name. And he's just looking for the baron wine to accompany his menu.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Right. Right. Of course. Well, um, no, it's, uh, I don't, I, it's, you know, it's not really reinventing the wheel because this was, uh, the chili garden or, you know, right before. Yeah. So, I mean, it seems like it's the same, it's the same setup and it's the same. Kind of everything, just new owners. So I don't have any questions and it looks like the application has everything we need.
[Robert Delafano]: Yeah, you brought up a good point, Ben, asking if there were any structural changes or anything. And where it is only wine and malt, I know that there was not a actual bar in that business. They basically, if you ordered a beer or a glass of wine, they'd just bring it over from behind the counter type of thing. So, I mean, as long as uh, like Ben asked, there's no major structural changes. We're all good with it. It's, uh, yeah, it looks fine to me.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Adding a bar.
[Robert Delafano]: Yeah. Yeah. I like adding a bar.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[Robert Delafano]: Changing the layout where the liquor is going to be stored or served, uh, or any of that stuff, you know? Um, yeah, no, this, this looks fine. Um,
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Okay, and then there's the entertainment licenses that go with this. Is that what we should be looking at next, Bobby?
[Robert Delafano]: Yes.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Not to jump ahead, but I just was wondering.
[Robert Delafano]: No, that's fine. Yeah, I kind of reviewed that as well, and it all seemed okay. I did notice that The three different portions of the entertainment license were signed off by the police, the fire, and the building, and the Board of Health. But what I'm seeing is here you're only going to be having TV entertainment by devices, which I believe was two or three devices in there somewhere. Let's see, two TVs. Two TVs. And there's not going to be any karaoke, live entertainment or any of that stuff?
[sJ05aGDSdsU_SPEAKER_03]: No. Okay. No. Yeah. The TVs will likely be used for menus as well as for just the television, normal television shows.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. That seems about right.
[Robert Delafano]: All right. Looks good to me as well. All right, Ben, would you, well, maybe we should approve these separately. Okay. We'll approve the restaurant first, liquor license, beer and wine, beer and malt, wine and malt license, and then we'll do the entertainment license separate.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Okay. All right. So I guess I can make the motion here. Okay. Okay, so I'm going to make a motion to approve the new, the application for wine and malt, the new license for the entity named Frozen Boston Inc. at 41 Riverside Ave. in Medford, replacing the Chili Garden, the existing restaurant Chili Garden, approving this this application that we have in front of us.
[Robert Delafano]: Okay. I second that motion. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? Hearing and seeing none, your application has been approved. Mr. Ding's application has been approved. Thank you very much.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: All right, so the entertainment license. So we have an entertainment license in front of us. I will make a motion to approve the application for the entertainment license for premises. which is all filled out here, signed by all departments, city departments, board of health, inspectional services, fire and police, as it is presented for two TVs on premises.
[Robert Delafano]: Okay, I'll second that motion. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? Hearing and seeing none, the ayes have it, and the motion's been approved. Mr. Deng, you're all set. Best of luck with your new business. And Mr. Attorney Chen, I appreciate. Nice job on this. No problems at all.
[sJ05aGDSdsU_SPEAKER_03]: Terrific. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and members of the board. Appreciate your time.
[Robert Delafano]: All righty. Thank you. Okay. Well, started out a little rocky, but we got through it okay.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Oh, yeah. I knew you'd be okay.
[Robert Delafano]: I was like, oh, man. And I'm like, I couldn't get this thing unmuted. And it just keep telling, every time I try to unmute it, it'd say, log in. I log in, open my pad, then it says, we're going to say, We're going to text you a code or email you a code. I had to fill in the code. I put the code in when Daria came back on, and it said that it was the wrong code. So I had to log in again, put my password in again. They sent me another code. And then I finally wound up getting on, but it worked. It's all good. OK, I'm kind of wondering if Ocean State might have You know, they've had three or four different applications and managers, and it seems to me they kind of go through a big turnover over there. I'm wondering if that might have been the case. Maybe this new applicant might have quit already.
[Daria Tejera]: Yeah, I can't even, I cannot even remember. I was trying to search my email because I swear. But then, I don't know, I don't know. Sometimes when they don't, I don't know, I gotta look through my emails. Because sometimes when they don't follow up with me, I receive an application and it's like, I know I talked to them, but I can't remember if I sent it to them, send them the link or not. But it's like, please follow up with me. I can't keep it all. Yeah. Yeah, it's on them. You know that there's a meeting in February, just follow up with me. So like, if I don't send you the link, just make sure you follow up. That's it.
[Robert Delafano]: Yeah, no, they will that I was going to do before the meeting, but I didn't have time. I got tied up with something else. I, um. I was going to check the last 2 or 3 months when they were supposed to come. They were supposed to look like, see if it was the same manager. I'm thinking they're turning it over real quick.
[Daria Tejera]: No. I think the one that they did for December, why they did it is because something happened with the manager. So they got a new one. But when I told them, are you attending for the January one because we were on the meeting, they didn't show up. She just said, we're not going to be able to make it to this one. Put us on February. But I can't remember past that. Because I know they sent me the application, because I sent it to you guys, but I cannot remember if we talked, if we did not talk. It's all like a mush now.
[Robert Delafano]: Yeah, that's fine. Not a problem.
[Daria Tejera]: Thinking about it, did I even hear from them? Because I know I followed up with them a couple times, but I can't remember if I was chasing them down for this meeting or not.
[Robert Delafano]: I mean, according to their their application, they're paying the $200 fee to the ABCC and I think $100 to the city as well. So, I mean, you know, who knows? When it comes up again, we'll kind of compare notes and see if it's the same manager or, I mean, if it's different managers in different applications.
[Daria Tejera]: Yeah, I know the last one was- They have to pay every single
[Robert Delafano]: time right yeah if it's different i don't know yeah yeah no this one you know it was never approved the previous it's you know it's i don't know i don't know how to handle it but that's what it is yeah next month is going to be hopefully our normal schedule so i'll just let them know here's the april's um zoom link just make sure you attend that's it yeah Yeah, I mean, I think they've got something next month to the penalty that was imposed by the ABCC. We're not responsible for going to remove the license, correct? I sent it to the police, so. Okay, because the ABCC gave that order. So I think we basically stay out of it at this point.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's what I thought. That was just an FYI to us, right?
[Robert Delafano]: Yeah. And, you know, I think maybe just like Daria did, she sent it to the police and whether they want to go to make sure that the alcohol was put away. I don't even think it should be displayed. If it is displayed, it should be sectioned off. Obviously, the cashiers know that they're not going to be able to sell it. But I don't know what ABCC has for requirements about posting signs in the windows. Yeah, I don't know either. It's that's I think it's out of our hands at this point where it's. Thanks.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[Robert Delafano]: Seems like it is. OK. Other than that, I think we're good, Darry. Do you have a chance to look over that? I was talking with Darry earlier. What I think we might want to consider is sending out like a quarterly newsletter to all the licensees, because we have a lot of things coming up. We're going to do another annual ABCC meeting. And the reason for that is things change. And I was talking to Ralph, and he says they have some new things they like to talk about. And he says, you may want to, if you're going to do the quarterly newsletter, just put in there that keep your eyes open sometime the end of August, beginning of September. We're planning another blah, blah, blah. And we just received, Jerry received something from, I think it was Sophie Greenbaum about the TIP certification. They're offering it for free again through this whole, I guess, Medford Malden area thing. So maybe we can include that in the newsletter stating that it's available. Give them the link, the application, reply ASAP because it fills up quick and it's free.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Bob, will you write that newsletter?
[Robert Delafano]: Oh, sorry. Will you write the newsletter? So who would do it? And it had a draft and sent it to Daria. She's got to check it out and stuff.
[Daria Tejera]: Yeah, I started to work on it, like lay it out and stuff like that on Canva just to see like what it would look like and if we can even send it out. So it looks more like a newsletter type of thing. I just haven't had the chance to catch up with it this week because I started last week. So my plan is hopefully work on it today, tomorrow, and then send it to you guys out. So you have it. Sure. And send it out next week. If you guys are.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I'm very much in favor of the newsletter. I think it's just a good communication source to be license holders. It it shows that we're giving them fair advance notice on things and setting good expectations, you know. I think it's a really good thing.
[Robert Delafano]: I do too. And, you know, what I was talking to Daria about too was we're going to be requesting, I'd like to be requesting a copy of everyone's common vigilance license because You know, people are coming like that new establishment that came in where the porch used to be. There was a question of hours about serving with a liquor license. That's something different than a vigilance license. So we had Daria get the vigilance license, and I told her just grant it to whatever the hours are on the vigilance license, because that's all they can serve. Yeah, that keeps coming up. The other thing is the city never adopted Chapter 138, Section 33A and 33B, which in a nutshell is allowing a place to stay open until Well, on secular days, yeah, till 2 a.m., if need be, 1 a.m., 2 a.m. on Sundays. because of New Year's Eve, Memorial Day, and there was one other holiday, I forget which one it was. But those are the three days they're allowed to stay open automatically, those extra hours. The other one was they're going to roll back the hours one hour earlier for Sundays. So if a place wants to do a brunch instead of, right now all the Medford licenses say, 12 o'clock. But the law reads in Chapter 138, Section 12, which are all liquor licenses, that no one can stop a licensee from serving 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week. So what this is going to do, 33B, is going to allow them to go to 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. just in case they want to do brunch or whatever.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I think it's fair for, you know, Great American Beer Hall kind of places as well to, you know, want to Yeah. I mean, for any brunch place, really.
[Robert Delafano]: Yeah, exactly. And everybody's license will be according to what their common vic says.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: So, you know, maybe- Who sets the common vic? Or like, who approves the common vic?
[Robert Delafano]: City clerk. City clerk does.
[Daria Tejera]: It technically goes through the city, well, it goes through city council. So it's the city council who approves the Common Vic. Do they not just all have the same?
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: So if I want to start a restaurant tomorrow, do I have to?
[Daria Tejera]: You have to go through the city clerks. So I was actually talking to, do you remember attorney Sylvia Guzman from December's meeting? Or I think it was.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Daria Tejera]: she was helping out Yoki. She was doing the transfer for Yoki. So her and I were talking today, because she didn't realize that, or I don't know what happened, but it doesn't seem like she got a common VIC for the new owner. Seems like it's still under the old owner. So she was saying that in Boston and Chelsea, Somerville, whatever, it's streamlined through the license commission. which is what I keep hearing as well. And, you know, usually it's the License Commission who hears like violations on the Common Vic, on the liquor license, it's not usually, City Council is usually not involved. So, you know, I kind of, I was kind of like, it's interesting because I've heard that before that where license commission usually is the one that does everything. It's not like divided between other departments. You know what I mean? So think about it. Common Vig goes hand in hand with the liquor license. Like they can't, a restaurant cannot start serving alcohol at 10 if their food is not- Available. Is not served at 10 a.m. So it's like, it really, we should be really more hands-on. And I think we're starting to get to that point, but it's still, you know, it's just, I feel like we need to have a better streamline. Cause I don't think I even realized how common Vic is very important to the liquor license portion. Like, you know, but also I'm kind of understanding more throughout each time we talk about this.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. Common Vic only applied to liquor, to liquor licensing. Well, not necessarily. For anywhere. No, it's anywhere.
[Daria Tejera]: Dunkin Donuts, they don't serve food.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, does Dunkin Donuts have one?
[Daria Tejera]: They do, yeah. Everybody that serves food needs to have a Common Victor license. So would they come to us for a Common Victor license?
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: No, no, no, no.
[Daria Tejera]: They, well, I don't think so.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: I don't think so. But I meant if you streamlined it.
[Daria Tejera]: Yeah. No, that's a good question. I don't know. Because every time I've talked to somebody, they always mention Common Vic and liquor, not just Common Vic or liquor separately. You know what I mean? So I don't know what would be a different process for specifically like places that don't serve liquor. That's actually a good point. I didn't think about that. Good job.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I just want to know what our parameters are for the hours that we can allow or if we even have any say on it, because that seems like it gets confusing.
[Daria Tejera]: Well, that's what gets confusing. And I think what we can do is just I can, you know, I keep talking to Rich from City Clerk's office to kind of get to the bottom of like, you know, how CommonVic works with liquor license and what are the parameters? Like, do we need to involve city council on this? Do we not need to get, you know, council involved on this? But I think the most important thing is that we've got to keep looking over the ordinances for the city because
[Unidentified]: Right.
[Daria Tejera]: I feel like there's a lot that's we think is an ordinance, but it's not an ordinance or like, it's not necessarily for that or whatever. So, it's just, I feel like we need to kind of. work together and figure that all out. Because I think at the end of the day, it comes down to the ordinance. It depends on what our ordinances say. So if our ordinances say that we have to go to city council for this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, then that's the way we have to do it. If it says, if it doesn't say that anywhere, then I think it should just, I don't know, we need to figure it out, I guess.
[Robert Delafano]: There's a lot of seeing it, and I kind of think it was in, like, the rules and regulations of the commission from the city. I don't know if if that was the place I saw it, but I do remember seeing something about it for extended hours. It had to go before the city council. Yeah, I mean, if if it's kind of like a. uh, not a big deal type of thing. Um, maybe the hours for Carmen Vic can be changed. Um, Carmen Vic from, uh, well, the Carmen Vic is, I think on the porch was 7 a.m. I believe till 11 p.m. seven days a week. On the porch? Really? Well, not the porch, the establishment. And, um, When we look at it, you sent it to me, and I says, oh, seven days a week. I said, but wait a minute. Our liquor license is only going to go till noon on Sunday until 11 PM, because we haven't adopted 33B yet. So first of all, we've got to get 33A and B adopted, and we've got to find out how to do that.
[Daria Tejera]: I am working on that.
[Robert Delafano]: Yeah. And then after that, Maybe we should have a meeting with all the department heads, uh, for the health building. Fire police and. And collect city clerk and say, okay, can we just use an overall balloon time? that the Common Vic is good from 7 a.m. well you can't say 7 a.m. either because some people are open early for breakfast like Starbucks and things like that but have just a regular till 2 a.m. not that everybody's gonna stay open that late But the one or two people that might want to stay open till 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. for some reason, get to after hours crowds or whatever, at least will be able to grant the license or deny the license at that point. We can't do it because our hands are tied because the Common Vic is set for a certain time for some reason through the clerk's office. When my daughter had the restaurant, I know I keep bringing it up, I used to do all of her paperwork. I'd go into Boston City Hall, and when she was applying for it, they said, OK, what would you like for hours? They asked me. I said, I don't know. She says, well, these are the max hours, aren't you? Are you serving, did she ask if we were serving alcohol? I said, no. And she says, okay, well, these are the hours, the max hours, you may as well take them, because whether you stay open or not doesn't make a difference. I said, okay, that's fine. So I did, I put them in it, whatever she suggested as the max. I don't know if the city works the same way or what. I mean, it's like a whole different animal. I think they were a little, I don't want to say sloppy, but the Common Vic licenses weren't monitored as closely for renewal as our licenses, because we do it for the state. I mean, we have rules. It's not done by November 30th. They got to reapply for a license. So everybody makes sure they get it done. When I went to talk to the city clerk last year, she pulled out a stack of, a folder with a stack of applications in there, and it was the middle of the year, and they hadn't been finalized yet, their Common Vic licenses, which kind of threw up a red flag to me, like, okay, are we supposed to be letting them serve alcohol if they haven't gotten a valid Common Vic license? You know, who knows what's going on? So it's kind of a real gray area right now, and I think we ought to establish a citywide, I don't know, format or rule or whatever, just so everybody's on the same page.
[Daria Tejera]: I think it would be nice if we all work together. Again, I know what health department does, I know what city clerks does. building and fire, like building and fire, you know, did a good job this time around. But again, I didn't know who they were issuing the fire inspections to, or people would be like, Oh, well, I need help with this. And I'll be like, I don't know, you have to reach out to build, you know, it was much better. 100%, but I feel like it would be nice to know, like, okay, let's send out an internal email for everybody who's involved. Like, what are you doing? What am I doing? This is when this is due. This is when this is due. Like, I didn't know, building department asked me for my master list, which is fine, but I didn't know when they were sending out notices about the fire inspections.
[Robert Delafano]: Well, they're doing them together.
[Daria Tejera]: Well, that's the thing, but again, which is good. Exactly. I, you know, I give them a lot of props and I said, I like the way they did it this year, but I think it's the communication part that's missing where we have to communicate with each other. Like, all right, we're going to start doing inspections because I was more finding out from the owners of the restaurants versus like our internal team. You know what I mean? yeah so and they could say the same about me and that's fine but i just feel like we need to i always go back to this we'll have to work together to better understand how to tie this together so it's easier for the businesses and people are not saying that they have to jump through the hoops because I felt bad for that turning because she was like This is so complicated, you know, and it's like I know if it's using to me It's confusing to the business owner and to the attorneys too because as they are like if the process is not a hundred percent clear It's difficult. Yeah, so I get it, you know and I couldn't like I couldn't disagree with her because I I get it because a lot of things we get confused with or we're like Okay, so what are we doing? Right. Just part of the process, you know, and I think we've gotten a lot better and it's moved a long way, but I think we just have to stay on top of it and just kind of like check things off and find out things and just make sure we're clear on what's going on. That's it.
[Robert Delafano]: Yeah, that's kind of why I want to start a little early this year with the newsletters, just kind of throwing a little blurb out there about this is what we're going to be starting this year. We're going to require a copy of a valid Common Vic license. Even if it's a 2024, 2025 license, and they're trying to get a 2026 liquor license for renewal, that's fine. It's a valid 2024 Kramovic license. We know it's a valid license, because they don't have to renew until December 31st, which is a month after we have to. So any existing one they have for that year, we're good. And it's the same with their fire and building inspection, if it's a valid. inspection certificate. That's all we care about. Um, I mean, if it's two years old now, yeah, but if it's supposed to do, it's, it's, it's cool. I mean, I don't have a problem with that. And even with Boston, when, you know, my daughter had to renew every year, they'd send a very detailed letter that, um, this is what it's going to cost to renew your common Vic. This is the information we need. We're going to need a new certificate of compliance, a certificate of inspection, I think it's called. That was from the building department. And it said in bold letters, you are responsible to have this done before applying for this license. So that tells the person, the business owner, hey, I got to call the building department and get this done. And they said, you're also required to have a border health inspection. white paper with big gold seal on it. And then at the very bottom it says, if you do not have all of these documents, you will not receive your convictual license. So they type it out really clear, and pretty much you go there, you know what you got to do. And I've been in line in City Hall waiting, and the girl behind the desks looks at the papers and she goes, no, you don't have this. And she throws it back at him. When you get it, come back. And people just walk away, and next person in line, yep, they get everything. Here you go. Stamp it. See you later. You're all set. So I don't know.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: So what do we do?
[Robert Delafano]: I don't know if we can be that efficient, because I don't know what department I used to get that from, whether it was a city clerk, whether it was a licensed department. I can't remember. It was so long ago. But that one department made sure that you had all of these things together, because she didn't have liquor. So I know it wasn't the liquor license department, but maybe they have a separate licensed department in Boston. I don't know. I think they do. But you make sure you had all your documents before you got your Carmen Vick.
[Daria Tejera]: Well, that was the thing. Attorney Guzman thought that she, when I sent her the licenses, she thought that she was getting the common VIC for me as well. So when she came in, she's like, oh, I didn't see a common VIC. And I was like, oh, it doesn't come from me. It comes from city clerks. And she's like, oh, my God. i didn't you know like i didn't realize that that's like usually cities do it all together right you look a license together come on vic because again they go hand in hand but yeah it's we're not gonna get to this now we're not gonna get to it i don't even think in a year because i think it's one of those things that it's almost like a new process to adopt, but I think we can get better. I could reach out to Boston too and just see what they do, how they kind of handle it. Just again, to make it easier for the people more so for the businesses.
[Robert Delafano]: Yeah, but I don't think you can. Can you imagine the workload that's going to be on you if you got to do work?
[Daria Tejera]: No, no, I think we just have to streamline it better. I think it's doable if we have all the departments involved. It's just how do we bring everybody together?
[Robert Delafano]: Exactly.
[Daria Tejera]: Yeah. Because obviously we don't have that kind of
[Robert Delafano]: I think what will have to happen is each department will have to send out a newsletter or a notice like we're doing. And they got to send it out and say, OK, this is what's going to happen this year. Like Bill, the clerk's department, OK, on your common vigilance license, if these hours are not what you require, please contact the clerk's department immediately, and we'll change it. Fine. They change it. They send them a new common vic. So now by the end of the. you know, come November, they'll have a Common Vic with their proper ID, proper powers that they can submit to us. And whatever's on that Common Vic is what we'll put on their liquor license. And once it's in there and you renew, I'm sure that data just all renews, correct? I mean, for what the previous years was, pretty much. So that'll kind of streamline us a little, but The clerk's office has got to do the work before us, you know what I mean? Or the licensee has got to go to the clerk's office and say, hey, I want to stay open these hours. How do I do it? And they tell them, you know, fill out the paperwork. You've got to go before the council, which is the way it is now. And then they'll give them the new common victim and they submit it to us during renewal. We can only put on the liquor license what the hours are on the common vac. So, I mean, it's up to the licensee to do the rest. But, I don't know, unless they want to change the rules in the city. Which, I don't know.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Interesting.
[Robert Delafano]: Yeah, it is kind of strange. But, hey, we're taking baby steps and you can't move the whole mountain at once. You just got to take a little chunk at a time, you know. So, let's see what happens. Everybody good?
[Daria Tejera]: That was it.
[Robert Delafano]: Good. Awesome. Okay. We'll see you next month and go from there. Motion to adjourn the meeting. I second it. All those in favor? Aye.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: Okay, thanks, guys. Thanks, Dario and Bobby. Thank you.
[Robert Delafano]: Bye, guys.
[MCM00001210_SPEAKER_04]: All right, take care.