BALTIMORE — It's a new era for the city, as council makes moves to pass its first major policy change of the session.
On Monday, council voted unanimously in favor of District 3 Councilman Ryan Dorsey's bill, advancing efforts to create the Department of Consumer Protection and Business Licensing.
"It's not an accident that this was council bill 25-0001," Dorsey said.
The legislation aims to end several trade-specific consumer boards within the city, such as the Board of Licensing for Towing Services, and consolidates these powers all within one department.
"Baltimore is unusual in so many ways, standard ways of governing should not be among them," Dorsey said during the bill's second reading.
"The 74th city council is standing up for consumers and fighting for Baltimoreans and this is a great example of us standing together on behalf of our residents and fighting for better," council president Zeke Cohen added.
Dorsey says this effort puts Baltimore in line with other municipalities like Howard and Montgomery Counties.
"We already license businesses and we already have business licensing and consumer protection laws, that we just administer poorly because unlike virtually every local government, everywhere, we don't have an office dedicated to this," Dorsey said.
"As everyone knows, there's nothing worse in government than silos," director of Montgomery County's office of consumer protection Eric Friedman testified in the Feb. 25 Housing & Economic Development Committee meeting.
"All the tools that you've put into this bill look like it's exactly what we need, what you would need. The authority to issue subpoenas, issue citations, to have hearings these are all the exact things that you would want to have," Friedman added.
Not only does the bill streamline the process according to Dorsey but it also makes it easier to identify problems and effect change.
"When you have an inspector general's office, you have one place everybody knows to report things that don't smell right. If you don't have an inspector general's office, you don't know the volume of things that don't smell right," Dorsey said.
"Having a consolidated place means that there's the possibility and the likelihood that people can start to see patterns emerge," he added.
Though not official just yet, Dorsey says they've already been working with the Mayor's Office to find their director.
Since there are so many former federal workers now on job hunt in Maryland, they're confident they can find a qualified candidate.
The bill has to pass its third and final reading before it becomes law.
