Targeting businesses with specific restrictions WITHOUT specific measures of relief will further wound our great city and county. These wounds may one day heal but their scars will never be forgotten. In a good economy, hospitality businesses were only averaging 4%-5% profit and we are in the ninth month of dealing with this.

Congress has not enacted any bills such as the Restaurant Relief Act, so we need you and the county council to figure out how to support on-premise. The restaurant grant program is not nearly enough. 120k restaurants have shut down permanently across the country and that number is going to double or triple over the winter. To help stave that off, here are my suggestions based on what other cities, counties, and states have done. At the bottom is a Google document to reference these:

-Extend time between announcing shutdowns and when they go into effect. 24-48 hours is not nearly enough. I’m not sure what data you were waiting for but talking for an hour yesterday only for it to be an announcement about an incoming announcement does not help the anxiety and stress of those most affected.

-Cap third-party delivery fees to 10%-15% in the county. Yesterday, DoorDash IPO’d to the tune of $60+ billion dollars. That makes them bigger than every single restaurant group other than Starbucks and McDonalds. They are bigger than Chipotle, Wendy’s, YUM Brands (Taco Bell/KFC), and Cheesecake Factory combined.

-Reduce the property tax for commercial buildings for on-premise by 60%. Building assessments are way out of whack considering the business has been shut down. Why 60%? Because that is the number of hours bars and restaurants have had their opening times reduced by. Of that 60%, 25% can be kept by the landlord and the remaining 75% must be given to the business owner.

-Extend the time to pay for liquor and business license renewals until the fall. Cash flow is key over this winter and the fees for renewals should also be reduced since they paid for something that wasn’t fully able to be utilized.

-Provide more guidance webinars specific with the business owners. Not just press announcements where the whole county finds out at once. DC’s Mayor Office does a good example of this.

-When returning to on-premise, provide more steps than 25-50% increments. After shuttering in March, we jumped all the way to 50% for indoor dining with two days’ notice. Re-hiring and setting up for indoor dining require more time and work than that.

-Take out that the restriction that employees count against the total capacity. If you are using the fire marshal’s total capacity, then use the same math they are. Which does not include employees as they also are basing these numbers off of the non-public spaces.

-Protect business owners from personally being held liable for default payments to landlords. New York City passed 1932a that did exactly this. It’s bad enough these operators are losing their life’s work, they shouldn’t lose their house and shirt too. Most of them are operating at losses anyway to help keep their staff and the families employed. Let’s show them the same kindness.

-Stop punishing the businesses for the actions of the guests. If fines want to be handed out for staff, that is one thing. But people shouldn’t be reporting a business when their guests won’t listen.

-Meet with other city nightlife mayors who are providing guidance, grants, and legal protections in a timely manner. NYC, Pittsburgh, DC, and San Diego are examples of cities that have these, and I can connect you with any of them. Maybe even appoint one for Annapolis/Anne Arundel for the time being.

-Come up with a plan now to support businesses over the winter, early months, and spring. Waive event fees for meeting planners/event organizers when they can safely have events again. More of these and drawing people in will only benefit all of on-premise, hospitality, and performers.

-Make cocktails/alcohol to-go permanent. Ohio and Iowa have done this and while you may not be able to enact this for the city/county, your offices have the closest proximity to Hogan than any other executive you had on your roundtable yesterday.

-Work with Anne Arundel Community College to pull from their funds from the AACC Foundation to provide up to two free classes for those now unemployed. Not having a sense of purpose or trade to work on is extremely dangerous to mental health as we have seen over the last few weeks.