Liquor licenses in Boston are scarce commodities that often sell for tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, but the city’s two municipal golf courses have found a way around the steep cost.
The George Wright Golf Course in Hyde Park and the William J. Devine course at Franklin Park are selling beer and wine to golfers by stringing together a series of free, 30-day licenses.
The unconventional approach means the licensee at each course changes every month. A Brockton woman, for example, was the licensee at George Wright last month before giving way to a woman from Walpole. At Franklin Park, Antonia Pollak, the city’s parks and recreation commissioner, held the license last month before handing it off to a man from Dedham.
The parade of licensees was brought about by the discovery in May that the two courses had been operating under illegal six-month liquor licenses for nearly two decades. The practice was halted in early June after the Boston Licensing Board learned of a 1991 state regulation barring the issuance of temporary licenses to any one person or company for longer than 30 days in a year.
Pollak, the official who heads the city-controlled Fund for Parks and Recreation, the nonprofit corporation that technically runs the golf courses, responded by applying for a series of temporary licenses rather than buying an annual liquor license from a restaurant or bar looking to sell.
The 30-day licenses are typically granted to people selling liquor at temporary events that last a few days or a week. By permitting Pollak to string 30-day licenses together, the Licensing Board is allowing the golf courses to sell liquor long-term without going through the expense of actually purchasing a long-term license.
Daniel Pokaski, chairman of the Boston Licensing Board, said the problem is unique to Boston because every other city or town in the state can issue an unlimited number of seasonal liquor licenses. State law prohibits such licenses in Boston, he said.
Pokaski said he said he probably wouldn’t allow a restaurant or bar to string together temporary licenses in the same way the two golf courses are doing. “The difference is these are public golf courses,” he said.
State regulations limit the issuance of 30-day licenses to one person per location per year. Pokaski said the board told Pollak she couldn’t have one person hold temporary licenses at both golf courses simultaneously and also couldn’t have the license holders all come from the same company or organization.
“Please be warned that it is not acceptable for a number of those affiliated with one organization to apply for separate 30-day periods as that would undermine the intention of the regulation,” wrote Jean M. Lorizio, executive secretary of the Licensing Board, in a June 2 letter to Pollak.
Through her spokeswoman, Pollak declined to identify the golf course license holders or explain how they were selected. The spokeswoman, Mary Hines, said in an email that the city is following the directives of the Boston Licensing Board and referred questions to board officials.
License filings indicate the current license holder at George Wright is Regina Titus of Rainbow Pond Inc. of Walpole, who, according to corporate records, resides at the same address as Francis A. Clerici Jr., who holds the food and beverage concession at the two municipal golf courses. The previous license holder at George Wright was Wilma Brewyard of Brockton, who said in a telephone interview that she works for Clerici as a chef and manager at both courses.
At the Franklin Park course, 30-day licenses have been issued to Pollak and to Patrick Verdieu of Dedham. Verdieu could not be reached for comment, but Brewyard said Verdieu works for her as a supervisor at George Wright.
Pokaski said Pollak had indicated to him that she hoped to use the 30-day licenses to make it through this year. After that, Pokaski said, the solution may be to have the company that runs the food and beverage concessions at the two courses purchase a liquor license from some other license holder or seek a change in state law allowing the city to issue seasonal licenses.
The licensing snafu came to light earlier this year when CommonWealth was researching a story on Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s decision to assume day-to-day management of the city’s golf courses. Although Menino said the courses were turning a profit, tax records and reports filed by an independent auditor indicate the courses are actually losing significant amounts of money, as much as $422,565 in fiscal 2008.
