The D.C. Mayor’s office is looking into accusations by a recently resignedmember of the District’s alcohol control board that board Chairman Charles Brodsky asked him to support a change in city regulations that favored one of the city’s largest wholesale beverage companies because Brodsky believed he could gain favors from the firm.
Mital Gandhi resigned last week. In an e-mail announcing his resignation to city officials and D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Board members, Gandhi said Brodsky asked for his support in changing a city regulation on behalf of Washington Wholesale Liquor Company because the company was a “prospective sponsor” for Brodsky’s Nation’s Triathlon and might “also support [Brodsky] in a future [D.C.] council bid.”
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The accusation is “not accurate — not true,” said Brodsky, who discussed Gandhi’s claims with The Washington Examiner over several days. Repeated calls to an attorney for Washington Wholesale and the company’s president were not returned. The Examiner could not independently verify Gandhi’s claims.
“Any allegation of ethical breaches of integrity we take seriously,” said Ron Collins, head of boards and commissions for Mayor Vincent Gray. “We’re assessing the claims by talking with all parties and seeking the records.”
Gandhi declined to comment. He has clashed with other city officials. Last summer he accused Gray, then chairman of the D.C. Council, of “political favoritism” in an e-mail to council members after his nomination to the Board of Elections and Ethics was rejected.
Washington Wholesale has repeatedly asked the alcohol board to allow it to store liquor in a Maryland warehouse owned by a sister company. Since June 2008, the company has said it must use a warehouse in Maryland because the District doesn’t have the warehouse space it needs to expand and meet the city’s growing beverage market.
The board has denied those requests, citing a D.C. regulation — based on the primary American source of supply law — that makes it illegal for D.C. wholesale companies to purchase alcohol from other
wholesale companies. The most recent denial by the board was issued on Dec. 1, 2010.
On Jan. 21, 2011, the company made the request again, with a minor change. The company said in its most recent request that the alcohol would be stored in a Maryland warehouse owned by Washington Wholesale, rather than in a warehouse owned by its sister company. The board approved the request on Jan. 26 in a 5-2 vote. Gandhi and Mike Silverstein dissented.
“I believe that a fact-finding hearing is called for because this is, in fact, a major change in the policy,” Silverstein said after the vote. He concurred with a statement by Gandhi in which Gandhi said, “It is my belief that this request will cost D.C. taxpayers jobs as well as tax revenue.”
D.C. Association of Beverage Alcohol Wholesalers President Paul Pascal, who served as general counsel to Washington Wholesale until late January, said the most recent request “isn’t that far different from the last proposal. … It may well be the board took a different view of the situation between now and then.”
“The board has not violated the primary American source of supply law,” Brodsky told The Examiner. “It’s my belief [the board] has been exemplary in following the letter of the law – not just in this case, but in all cases.”
