The Board of License Commissioners (BLC) met on June 8, 2026, at 10:00 AM in a hybrid format to discuss and vote on recently passed state legislation (HB 456) authorizing a new gift basket permit for florists to include beer, wine, or liquor in deliveries. The board also considered local rules to regulate the permit. A quorum was present: Chair David Yungmann, Dr. Opel Jones, and Ms. Christiana Rigby; Members Deb Jung and Liz Walsh joined later. The meeting concluded with a unanimous vote to adopt the bill and the proposed rules.
Is being recorded and summarized. Good afternoon. This is the June 8th, 2026 session of the Board of Licensed Commissioners. At this time, Ms. Berg, will you please call the role of board members? Chair Youngman. Here. Dr. Jones. Good morning, everyone. Miss Rigby. Here. Miss Young is absent. And Ms. Walsh is absent. Okay. A quorum has been confirmed. Today's proceeding is being conducted as a hybrid meeting, which is available in person and virtually via WebEx. It is also available to the public through live stream on the Howard County Council website. We are here today to discuss and approve one new bill that has been passed by our state delegation. All members have received a copy of the bill along with the fiscal note and policy note. The new bill authorizes the Board of Licensed Commissioners to issue a gift basket permit to a person whose primary business is the sale and delivery of flowers to include the sale and delivery and includes the sale and delivery of gift baskets. This permit will allow the gift baskets to contain beer, wine, or liquor. Let me go ahead and go through these bullets. The permit holder would not be allowed to hold any other type of alcohol beverage license per license or permit. The board is prohibited from issuing a permit for use in conjunction with or on the premises of a chain store, supermarket, or discount house. The deliveries must be made by individuals at least 21 years of age to consumers of legal drinking age located in the county. The alcohol included in the gift baskets is regulated to specific volumes and must be purchased from a retail license holder, and those volumes are it are in the proposed rules and in the bill itself. The permit holders' annual sales from alcoholic beverages may not exceed 10% of the holders' annual gross sales. The permit holder must maintain records and submit reports to the board's office. The annual permit fee is $100. The bill establishes that the prohibition against issuing alcohol beverage license to establish within specified distances from public schools does not apply to the issuance of the gift basket permit. And then we have in our proposed rules brought in the concept of the log that we ask that the folks that do carry out and delivery to maintain and establishments establishes a certification that whoever receives that basket needs to sign that they that they're 21 and that they understand the penalties of not being 21 if they are in receipt of that. It's horrifying. So do we have any discussion of the bill or the proposed rules? Ms. Walsh. Okay. Hi, Ms. Walsh. Just yell out if you we're we're in discussion now. Um I'll recap just for since you guys are just getting here that we're basically adopting the state bill and then adding to it that the florist has to maintain a log of these deliveries, like we require of other licensees that do um carry out our delivery, and there's a certain a written certification that whoever receives the gift basket needs to certify that they are 21 and show ID and that they understand the penalties of accepting that basket if they're not 21. So I'm not sure how the floors will work around all of that, considering it is a gift, but nonetheless, our job is to make sure that we enforce the minimum age to receive beverages. Ms. Young. What happens when no one's home? Because we know that those things get delivered. They won't be able to leave it. They won't be able to leave it. They won't be able to just it just like the um just like the alcohol delivery.