Council Rushes to Close Biz License Loophole

A failure to obtain proper approval for a set of new business regulations forced city officials last week to reinstate a business license for an establishment whose owner stands charged with keeping a massive amount of pot on the premises. 

As a result, the City Council will consider emergency legislation tonight designed to  clarify and significantly modify the law. It is the second set of revisions to the city's business regulations in the last six months. 

Last October, the City Council approved revisions to the city's business license ordinance, setting out new regulations for Bed and Breakfasts and clarified instances in which the city could immediately revoke a business license when presented with a business related public nuisance.The laws went into effect on Nov. 6. 

Or so it was thought. 

The revised law contained a bit about parking regulations for bed and breakfasts. Parking regulations need to be approved at the County level before becoming effective. This approval was never obtained.

"As a result, the ordinance may not have been effective, although no one in the city realized this," writes Chris Giunta, Hyattsville's acting code enforcement supervisor, in a memo to the City Council. 

The law's legal limbo was pointed out by attorneys for a business, not named in Giunta's memo, whose city business license was revoked in early November. That's when witnesses told police that a suspect sought in relation to a nearby assault went inside a business located at 4643 42nd Place in Hyattsville. 

Police obtained and executed a search warrant at the address and seized "a large amount of illegal narcotics", including 58 pounds of marijuana worth $527,000, according to Fox 5 WTTG-TV. 

A large amount is putting it humbly. It is believed to be the largest drug bust in the history of the Hyattsville City Police. 

According to Fox 5, Lanham resident Dean Roy Thomas was charged with a number of crimes related to the assault and subsequent discovery of drugs and weapons. 

Under the recently approved revisions, Hyattsville's Department of Code Enforcement soon after revoked Thomas' business licenses at that location. 

According to Giunta's memo, Thoma's attorney, Ellis Koch, informed city officials during an appeals hearing on Feb. 15, that the law lacked the proper county approval and might not be effective.

"Out of an abundance of caution the licenses were immediately reinstated," wrote Giunta. 

Realizing that the public nuisance aspects of the law need not be held up by the approval process for parking regulations, the October revisions have been split into two articles, one for general business regulations, and one for bed and breakfasts. 

Overall, the revisions add several sections of new language which expand the power of city officials to revoke a business license. 

For instance, language was added explicitly allowing the city to consider a property or business' past history when deliberating licenses revocation. 

It also describes an appeals process for business owners subjected to license revocation. 

The general regulations, if passed as emergency measures, will go into effect in 20 days. 

The bed and breakfast regulations outline licensing procedures for businesses not permitted in most of Hyattsville, except for the University Hills neighborhood in the northern neck of the city. Because they include parking regulations, they must be sent off for county approval before they can become law.