Bars frustrated at paying liquor license when they’ve been closed much of the year

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    HONOLULU, HI (KITV ) — Bars on Oahu will be allowed to open in Tier 4, but when that date will be is not certain. The island is in Tier 2 right now, and bar owners say they’re frustrated they’ve been closed for so many months. As their bills continue to grow and their sales remain at zero, one big frustration is why they’re required to renew a liquor license when they can’t even use it right now.

Shawne Garlieep owns Creekside Lounge in Kailua. “The loss of revenue is huge. We have $20,000 a month going out for insurances and everything else, but nothing coming in,” she says.

There is no light at the end of Garliepp’s tunnel. The owner of Creekside Lounge in Kailua says she has more big bills coming up in a couple months. “My insurance of $20,000 to $30,000 coming due in December. So do I renew all those then find out he’s [Mayor Kirk Caldwell] still not going to open us?” she asks herself.

That’s why she wonders why she had to renew a liquor license. It’s just a couple thousand bucks, but at this point, every dollar counts. She is just one of many bar owners that may be asking themselves that question.

“When you renew you have to pay a million dollar insurance policy for each of your bars. it’s a high cost item,” explains Bill Comerford, owner of four bars, and the president and founder of the Hawaii Bar Owners Association.

He details the hard decision he and his association members face. “Do I pay that license or not? I haven’t been able to use it for 90 days last year and so far I haven’t been able to use it for two months this year.”

It’s not that easy to just let it lapse and get a new one. The Honolulu Liquor Commission says if you do, you have to start from scratch when you want to get it back. “If licensees choose to voluntarily cancel or not renew their liquor license, that license is considered inactive and terminated. The former licensee, will be considered a new applicant and will have to file a new application, in which they pay the application fee of $2,375 as stated above, and go through the new application process and obtain approvals before they are allowed to sell liquor again,” the Liquor Commission says.

Comerford says it can cost $10,000 to $25,000 in related fees. “It’s not a set fee, it’s the cost of what you have to do to renew that license by notifying people in the neighborhood, and going through the full process. It normally takes six months,” he describes.

There are fewer bars or restaurants with liquor licenses today than there were a year ago. The Honolulu Liquor Commission says as of September 29, 2020 there were 1,426 active liquor licenses. Last year, there were 1,496.

Garlieep renewed her license, simply because starting over as a first time applicant would be too hard for her. “You have to renew your license. I don’t want to start over. I don’t want to go through the background checks, fingerprinting, all that,” she says.

Under Honolulu’s Four Tier Reopening Plan, bars fall into Tier 4- the loosest restrictions, with an average of 20 cases per seven days. Even then, it’s the only category on the chart that doesn’t list a firm reopening. It says TBD – to be determined. “Just let us open. Or give us some idea when you’re going to let us open,” huffs Comerford.

Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said in a statement, “The decisions related to Honolulu’s COVID-19 Recovery Framework and the Order Implementing Tier 1 were made by the Mayor, approved by the Governor, with input, recommendations, and guidance from doctors and epidemiologists from the Hawaii State Department of Health. It has been a challenging process to decide how and when to reopen safely and the City has aimed for balance based on science and data.

“All businesses want to reopen as soon as possible, and the City would like to allow all businesses, no matter the public health risks, to reopen so that we can ‘go back to normal.’ We all know, however, that a new normal requires a gradual reopening. Otherwise, all of us will be faced with increasing numbers of positive cases and a surge that will require further restrictions.

“Honolulu’s COVID-19 Recovery Framework is designed to allow ‘low risk’ businesses and operations to reopen in Tier 1 based on public health concerns, with riskier businesses opening in later tiers, when virus circulation in the community is lower. This means some businesses will have to wait until we see that the spread of the virus is controlled and manageable.

“We will never be able to return to a healthy economy until we control the spread of the disease. According to the Department of Health, along with the CDC, bars, by their nature, are a high risk environment for the transmission of COVID-19. We’ll be working with the Department of Health to determine what regulations would need to be put into place to allow Bars to safely reopen.”

But bar owners like Garlieep say they are hanging on by a thread. “Probably in three more months,” she predicts. “That’d be it. Then I’m done.”

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