After hours of impassioned testimony from mostly immigrant business owners who packed the Prince George’s County Council chambers, the council approved new legislation aimed at levying liquor, gun, tobacco and self-storage businesses — a move opponents called legally questionable.
The legislation sponsored by Council Chair Krystal Oriadha imposes a new $5,000 use and occupancy permit on all county liquor, gun and tobacco stores, as well as self-storage facilities.
Row after row of the council chambers were filled with people, many of them of South Asian descent, who were there against the bill. They’re worried not just about the fee itself, but the fact that it also goes up on an annual basis.
“I am the son of two Indian immigrants who came here with nothing,” said Aalekh Kaswala, of Bowie. “My dad used to sell roses on the median. Then, he was a pizza delivery guy.”
Eventually, Kaswala’s father bought a liquor store on Marlboro Pike, which is now owned by Kaswala’s sister, who lives in District Heights.
“This industry is almost entirely immigrant-owned and operated,” he said. “Each one of these licensees is a family, and the way I believe that we’re being spoken about, we’re being demonized.”
Also in Largo to testify against the measure was Bruce Bereano, a lobbyist hired by the storage industry against the bill.
“This bill, on its face, is so blatantly unconstitutional and illegal by discriminatory classification of certain businesses,” Bereano said.
“These businesses are here legally and lawfully through the zoning power and authority of the county council and the county government.”
He argued there was no truth to many of the “whereas” clauses in the arguments in the bill.
Bereano called it outrageous and slanderous during his public testimony.
“‘Whereas self-storage facilities, as known as consolidated storage facilities, pose several risks to the public health and safety, primarily stemming from their improper storage of hazardous materials, poor sanitation, potential illegal and unsafe and criminal activities,'” he said. “All of this is lies, these whereases are absolute lies and unsubstantiated facts.”
Bereano also said it would prove again that the county is anti-business.
The long list of those who testified during the public hearing on the legislation also generally spoke out against the bill. However, Oriadha argued it’s more about choosing the right businesses.
“We deserve better. Our residents deserve better,” she said during the hearing, after half a dozen business owners spoke out against the bill.
“There’s also a reality of the types of businesses we want to continue to attract and the ones we don’t,” Oriadha added in an interview with WTOP.
“And I think that’s wildly agreed to by every person actually lives in Prince George’s County.”
She said it comes down to deciding what types of businesses the county wants to attract and which ones it wants to dissuade.
“If you say, ‘Hey, I want better,’ then you’re anti-business,” Oriadha said.
“And that’s the furthest thing from the truth. I have had so much pro-business, pro-Black and brown business set aside legislation. So I’ve been here for the last three years in a real thoughtful way. So it’s not anti-business, but is that what we deserve?”
As the council hearing on the issue continued, most of the testimony came from liquor store owners — many of whom were of South Asian descent. Some connected their immigration stories with those serving on the council, though it didn’t go so well when they did that.
At times, the hearing was combative, with council members pressing store owners about where they live and how they contributed to the community, including by asking for the names of community leaders they work with.
In the end, the council voted to pass the bill 9-2, with Council members Jolene Ivey and Sydney Harrison voting against the bill over concerns about the legality of it. But the council’s office of law vouched for the legislation as being legally sound.
Bereano said that assertion would be tested in court.
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