During the 11/03/2021 Common Council meeting, several items were either referred back or held for the 11/17/2021 Common Council meeting.
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) requested that the Class “A” Beer and “Class A” Liquor License application for Tee Tees Nachos LLC be referred back to the Safety and Licensing committee. This item was initially recommended for approval by the Safety and Licensing Committee. After being referred back by Alderperson William Siebers (District 1) it was then recommended for denial.
Alderperson Van Zeeland explained that she was requesting the second refer back on the recommendation of city staff in order to allow the special use permit process to be completed. It was anticipated that the item would return to the Council during the 11/17/2021 Council meeting.
Because this was the second time it was referred back, the Council had to vote to approve the request which it did by unanimous voice vote.
Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3) requested that the vote on the 6-month lease extension of The Collective sculpture be held until the 11/17/2021 Council meeting. He stated that the Public Arts Committee had met that morning and voted on some related items that would also be in front of the Parks and Recreation Committee in the future, so holding the vote on The Collective until the 11/17 meeting would give the committees time to take action on those other items at which point the Common Council could approach the vote on all of those items with the same perspective and in a consistent way. [I assume he was referring to the two other Sculpture Valley sculptures that the Public Arts Committee voted on in addition to The Collective. The lease extension requests for both Gesture of Consciences and To The Moon Alice will be coming before the Parks and Recreation Committee next week before moving onward to the full Council on the 17th.]
A voice vote on the request to hold was conducted. No one opposed the hold, but Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) stated that he was abstaining. [As the Executive Director of Sculpture Valley, it would be a conflict of interest for him to vote on the sculptures his organization handles.]
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) did not request a refer back or hold, but she did ask for the Reserve “Class B” Liquor and Class “B” Beer License Permanent Premise Amendment application for River Tyme Bistro to be separated out. The Safety and Licensing Committee had recommended that the item be approved contingent on approval from all relevant city departments.
When the item was brought to the floor, Alderperson Hartzheim asked Karen Harkness, the Director of the Community And Economic Development Department, if she could give the Council a rundown of where this item was at and what she foresaw occurring with it.
Director Harkness responded that city staff had a meeting scheduled with the owner of River Tyme Bistro on the upcoming Tuesday. Members of multiple city departments would be going to the location and reviewing what the option were to try to help move the project forward.
Upon hearing that, Alderperson Schultz made a motion to hold the item until such time as staff had a chance to meet with the property owner and come up with some alternatives.
Mayor Woodford asked if they could set the date of 11/17/2021 for the Council to take the item up again, and Alderperson Schultz expressed his willingness for that to be included in his motion.
The motion to hold was approved 14 to 1 with Alderperson Michael Smith (District 10) opposing. He asked for a clarification on the rules of Council and whether there could be discussion on a motion like this.
Mayor Woodford answered him that a motion to hold was debatable.
Alderperson Smith responded that he had put in a request to speak prior to the vote being called.
Mayor Woodford asked Attorney Behrens for his thoughts on how this situation could be handled.
Attorney Behrens said it was the Chair’s discretion and suggested that Mayor Woodford could let Alderperson Smith say what he was going to say and then make a decision from there.
Mayor Woodford let Alderperson Smith speak.
Alderperson Smith said that his thought was that this would be better referred back to committee than held because some of the things that the departments would request be handled would probably come before the Safety and Licensing Committee anyway.
Mayor Woodford decided to not take any steps to change the vote or make a way for the item to be referred back but instead kept it as an item held for the next Common Council meeting.
[The Safety and Licensing Committee isn’t even meeting next week and this issue does seem important to the wellbeing of the business, so it seems like it wouldn’t hurt to let the Council have the option of voting on it at the 11/17 meeting. It seems to me that the worst-case scenario would be that the Council found it was complicated and required a committee to review, at which point it could be referred back to the Safety and Licensing Committee. If they referred it back at this meeting it would be guaranteed to not come before the Council for a final vote until at least December 1, but if it’s just held then it at least has a chance for a final vote at the November 17 meeting.]
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=886961&GUID=0A0DB456-0029-4C49-93A4-CE5E1993B8F3
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