The Baltimore City Council is exploring whether to create a new city agency to ensure certain business regulations are enforced and better protections for residents from consumer scams.
Councilman Ryan Dorsey, who introduced the bill this week, said he believes the new agency – the Department of Business Licensing and Consumer Protection – could be created by reorganizing existing city departments with some additional staff.
During the course of his work with the council, Dorsey discovered that there is no mechanism to enforce the rules of city business licensed by the finance department.
“We don’t oversee how businesses operate,” Dorsey said. “When an operator is doing something unlawful. Not only do we not have an agency empowered to write civil or environmental citations, but we can’t even use the court to address these problems.”
Currently, the city can only seek a legal remedy if the city itself is directly harmed. Under the bill, the city could also act on behalf of affected residents in court.
Meanwhile, Dorsey, who represents Northeast Baltimore, noticed an uptick in financial scams, especially targeting older residents via the internet.
“Often older residents are preyed upon because of lesser literacy with the internet and electronics,” Dorsey said. “Personally, my own grandmother was targeted as an older resident.”
Dorsey said he had a majority of support for his plan on the council and the administration of Mayor Brandon Scott is open to the change. However, Dorsey said if the bill is approved it will take some time to establish the new department within the existing city government.
“We’re doing a little bit more homework with the finance department and other executive agencies on what a transition could look like,” Dorsey said. “I’m not sure what a real timeline would look like.”
The department would also include an independent commission as a recourse for businesses to appeal decisions by the agency.
Although a similar state agency exists, Dorsey said the city has additional regulations for businesses that the state lacks.
Dorsey said when trying to work out a parking garage problem, he was punted from the finance department to the transportation department to even the city’s housing department. None of those agencies had the ability to enforce the rules of the existing license on the parking garage.
He said nearby jurisdictions such as Howard and Montgomery counties have similar agencies.
Baltimore’s planned agency took inspiration from Montgomery County’s department, Dorsey said.
“The Montgomery County model, which is what I really modeled this after, goes more in the direction of saying business licensing is about making sure people are not subjected to unfair practices,” Dorsey said. “Business licensing at its core is about protecting consumers.”
Eric Friedman, director of Montgomery County’s Office of Consumer Protection, said most years his agency saves residents the same amount of money equal to the agency annual budget.
“It’s actually is something that’s also pro business,” Friedman said. “It’s unfair when honest merchants … have to compete with unconscionable trade practices or unfair practices or unlicensed businesses.”
Friedman said his agency, which was founded in 1971, consulted with Dorsey’s staff to help with the bill.
“Really, local government is in the position to best provide services to residents and to merchants,” Friedman said.
