The Safety and Licensing Committee is meeting 04/28/2021 at 5:30.
The biggest item on the agenda is the Resolution Condemning Xenophobia, Racism, and Violence Against The Asian Pacific Islander Desiamerican (APIDA) Community. At the last Safety and Licensing Committee meeting, both Alderpersons William Siebers (District 1) and Matt Reed (District 8) expressed concerns about the the section that read “BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Appleton Common Council encourages the Attorney General to work with State and local agencies and Asian American and Pacific Islander community-based organizations to prevent discrimination and expand culturally competent and linguistically appropriate education campaigns on public reporting of hate crimes,” and the appropriateness of a city council giving directives to a state official. Other than that, they were on-board with the resolution.
At the last Common Council meeting, Alderperson Siebers referred the resolution back to the committee. When asked for his reason for doing so he stated, “The message of this resolution in my evaluation is extremely important. I, as one individual, support the intent of this resolution, but equally important is the vote that we’re going to be taking in the very near future on this resolution. I would love to see a unanimous vote on this resolution. I don’t think we’re there today. I think there’s some things that can probably be looked at and changed. I think the vote is extremely important. I’d love to see it leave, or be voted on and it be a unanimous vote. I think that then says a lot in regards to where this Council stands. So thank you.”
Another item that the committee will be taking up for a second time is the alcohol operator’s license for Camilo. During the last Safety and Licensing meeting the committee was down one member. When Camilo’s appeal came before them 2 committee members voted to grant him a license and 2 committee members voted to deny him a license. They decided to put the item on hold until the next meeting when the committee would have a new configuration and, hopefully, all 5 members would be present.
The committee does indeed have a new configuration. Alderpersons Katie Van Zeeland (District 5), Matt Reed, and Alex Schultz (District 9) are all returning as members, but Alderpersons William Siebers (District 1) and Kyle Lobner (former District 13-former) are not returning and have been replaced by Alderpersons Michael Smith (District 10) and Sheri Hartzheim (District 13-current). Additionally, since the last committee meeting it has come out that Camilo’s character reference, Paul VanderLinden the owner of Muncheez Pizza, has been “charged with skimming about $800,000 from the restaurant’s receipts and using part of it to pay cash wages to his employees.”
New items they will be taking up are an electric scooter ordinance amendment. In light of the approval for a pilot program with Bird, Inc, there are some updates that need to happen to city code in order to enforce fines against people who break ordinances while on scooters.
They will also be voting on a resolution submitted by Alderperson Smith that looks like it would make it easier to establishments that are licensed to sell alcohol to expand their alcohol service area to a parking lot or the sidewalk outside their premises. The provisions of this resolution would be temporary and would expire 10/02/2021 and are being proposed to assist restaurants during the pandemic.
There are also a bunch of beer and liquor license applications they will be voting on.
View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=844720&GUID=C4DAFC46-2E62-4C6C-9396-5CFC27E3A4A7&Options=info|&Search=
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