The ouster of Liquor Commission administrator Wallace Weatherwax was just the beginning, said commission chairman Dennis Enomoto.

Commissioners have also taken steps to tighten internal policies and improve efficiency, toughen the rules governing bar owners and focus on issues affecting public safety — including making it a priority to curb underage drinking.

The changes are part of an attempt to reform the troubled agency and restore public confidence, Enomoto said.

With three new commissioners in place and Weatherwax bound for retirement, Enomoto says, the pace of reform will quicken.

The change in leadership will help the agency move past the allegations of corruption that have plagued the commission in recent years, Enomoto said.

He said questions about public trust were starting to make it difficult to work in partnership with police and other organizations.

"We're trying to make sure our house is solid," he said.

Last week, the commission agreed to a negotiated settlement that gets Weatherwax out of the job immediately although he will continue to be paid until he retires Oct. 31.

Weatherwax's former special assistant — attorney Anna Hirai — has taken over his duties. "My duties are not that different now than they were when I was special assistant to the administrator," Hirai said.

The commission oversees nearly 1,400 bars, clubs, restaurants and other businesses that sell liquor. It gets its money — $3.7 million budgeted this year — from the operations that it licenses and from fines paid by those businesses.

Some of the recent changes at the commission are intended to help investigators do their jobs.

For example, the commission enacted a rule that prohibits liquor licensees from an increasingly common practice of flicking the lights when investigators arrive at a bar as a signal to stop illicit activity, Enomoto said. Now that's a violation and bar owners can be cited, fined and even have their licenses suspended or revoked.

The commission also passed an anti-bribery rule. While it is a crime to bribe someone, the commission had no separate means of dealing with licensees who tried to bribe investigators.

"Now, if they offer any kind of bribe, we can cite the bars," Enomoto said.

Another rule change requires that businesses with liquor licenses must notify the affected neighborhood board when a business may affect a community by adding to or changing its liquor license, Hirai said.

"We specified that they actually had to contain meaningful information," she said.

In the past, some applicants got away with vague bureaucratic information that didn't include the street address or even type of business planned. "The Neighborhood Board had no idea what was going on. This way they can actually evaluate the notice," she said, and decide whether the proposal requires action.

And more rule changes are in the works, Hirai and Enomoto said, as is a new strategic plan that will act as a leadership blueprint to get the agency past the cloud of scandal.

Looking realistically at its limited resources, Enomoto said, the commission is working hardest on issues that affect public safety and has set curbing underage drinking as a priority.

"We're redirecting our focus to public safety," Enomoto said.

To get that done, the commission is working with other organizations to have underage decoys go into retail stores and establishments that serve liquor to see how well the laws are being upheld. In the past five years, Enomoto said, the decoys have proven effective.

He noted a trend toward fewer businesses selling liquor to minors both in stores and places that serve drinks. While the number of businesses visited remained fairly constant, the percentage of businesses selling to minors decreased, Enomoto said.

Another rule change responds to customer concerns. Until this summer, when adults attended a ball game or a party with a bar, the servers were allowed to sell only one drink per customer. The new rule allows each customer to buy two drinks.

Enomoto sees this as a practical convenience that still helps to limit the potential for problems. However, he said, "You cannot buy the whole table when you go to a wedding."

Meanwhile, Enomoto and Hirai said they will focus resources to best use their small staff. Although they have 50 positions listed in the organization, only 28 are filled.