Topic: Woody DaCosta

Caymanians who run businesses selling goods and services on a popular stretch of Seven Mile Beach can at long last apply for a permit to allow them to operate there within the law.

“Bad faith” decisions made on behalf of Cayman Islands government-appointed boards will not receive legal protection, Premier Alden McLaughlin declared Friday.

The Cayman Islands Port Authority Board was appointed with mostly the same membership and the same chairman as of Nov. 1, according to government records.

Woody DaCosta has been removed as acting chairman of the Liquor Licensing Board of Grand Cayman. Mr. DaCosta, who will no longer serve on the board in any capacity, was asked to step down Wednesday afternoon by Commerce Minister Joey Hew.

The departure of acting chairman Woody DaCosta from Grand Cayman’s Liquor Licensing Board was inevitable, considering the drama of mismatched minutes and conflicting statements that has been playing out in the public spotlight for the past several weeks.

The draft minutes appear to have been either edited or altered to “rewrite” the narrative of what actually took place at the March meeting. The changes are so extensive that we can draw no conclusion other than they were purposeful.

During its controversial March meeting, the Liquor Licensing Board of Grand Cayman granted an application from a gas station to sell alcohol on Sundays and, further, agreed that all gas stations that applied could obtain similar permission, according to an original set of minutes obtained by the Cayman Compass.

Government has ordered an independent inquiry into the liquor board’s handling of an application from a gas station to serve alcohol on Sundays. The inquiry follows reports and an editorial in the Cayman Compass highlighting concerns over an application from Peanuts convenience store at the Red Bay gas station for a “retail license.”

Businesses will be limited to only one type of liquor license per premises under a new policy, restricting the options for gas stations and liquor or convenience stores seeking to sell alcohol on Sundays. The Liquor Board has given businesses with multiple licenses until September to pick which license they want to keep.