For the past year, the Montgomery County Department of Liquor Control’s dispensary system, which requires every keg, can, or bottle of alcohol sold within the county to be purchased from the County itself — either directly or indirectly — has been under fire. The State Comptroller, Peter Franchot, a county native and the state’s chief regulator of alcohol, has even called for it to be abolished.
Earlier this year, the Department of Liquor Control itself commissioned a report from a Philadelphia consulting firm to determine what the DLC needed to do to modernize its operations and better serve the county’s consumers. That 95-page report was released yesterday and it highlights multiple weaknesses in DLC operations, including an aging truck fleet, insufficient number of stores to meet the needs of either customers or retailers, high operating costs, and low profit margins. The report also notes that the Chevy Chase location, which just happens to be a block or so from the border with DC, has been a colossal money pit — losing $278,000.00 in fiscal 2013.
The report includes recommendations to deal with this raft of challenges, but it also raises the question of whether the system is worth saving at all.
Sure to add to the pressure on DLC is that the Montgomery County Office of Legislative Oversight is due to release its own report on DLC in the coming months. Until then, and as we embark on a new legislative session in January, the drumbeat of criticism against DLC is likely to continue and grow.