Safety And Licensing Committee Meeting 04/13/2022 – Will Hold Alcohol License Revocation Hearing For Core’s Lounge

The Safety and Licensing Committee is meeting 04/13/2022 at 5:30PM. They have 9 alcohol license applications of various types as well as a request to purchase a fire truck. However, the item that I expect will probably take up the most amount of time and will be of the most interest to the public is the Alcohol License Revocation Hearing for Core’s Lounge, LLC.

Core’s Lounge has popped up on agendas several times over the last year, and has been the subject of multiple noise complaints since it first started operating.

• 06/09/2021 Safety and Licensing Committee – Residents in the neighborhood behind Core’s Lounge came to the meeting and asked that its alcohol license not be renewed because noise and loud music had been an ongoing problem since the business opened in December of 2019. No representative of Core’s was present and the committee discovered that it was procedurally required to approve the license renewal due to timing issue. The possibility of starting a revocation process after the license was approved was discussed but due to state statute and the specific facts of the case, it was not guaranteed that a revocation would be successful.
• 06/16/2021 Common Council – The Council voted to approve the renewal of Core’s Lounge’s liquor license because they felt that, given the governing statutes, they didn’t have the option to do otherwise without opening the door to a lawsuit. Alderperson’s did express frustration about the unresolved neighborhood noise complaints.
• 07/07/2021 Safety and Licensing Committee – The committee received an update from the Police Department on the complaints the police department had received regarding Core’s Lounge, the steps they had taken to investigate the noise complaints, and the results of their investigation into those complaints. The police report provided to the committee was 143 pages long, and the results didn’t seem to look good for the neighbors complaining about the noise. The police had not been able to substantiate the noise complaints, and three of the noise complaints had actually been called in at times when the business had been closed.

That was where things sat on July 7 of 2021, but now according to the complaint filed by the City of Appleton against Core’s Lounge, the bar ended up violating laws on three separate occasions after their apparent vindication on 07/07.

Incident 1: 07/25/2021 – A mere 2 and a half weeks after the Police Department’s report to the Safety and Licensing Committee, they were issued a citation for Excessive Noise and a citation for being Open After Hours. On 11/10/2021 Core’s entered a No Contest plea to the charges and was assessed 45 demerit points for the Excessive Noise and 50 demerit points for being Open After Hours.

Incident 2: 09/04/2021 – Core’s was issued a citation for Failure to Vacate Premises. On 11/10/2021 Core’s entered a No Contest plea and was assessed 50 demerit points.

Incident 3: 02/13/2022 – Core’s was issued a citation for Permitting Underage Person to Loiter on Premises. On 03/09/2022 they were found guilty of that violation, and Core’s was assessed 80 demerit points.

Core’s Lounge has racked up 225 demerit points within an 18^th month period, and per Section 9-54 of Appleton’s Municipal Code, if any establishment holding an alcohol license accumulates 200 or more demerit points within an 18-month period, the license in subject to revocation.

A side note of interest is that, potentially prompted by the complaints raised about Core’s, the Common Council on 12/15/2021 passed a resolution updating the city’s demerit point system, doubling the time demerit points accrue. Those changes, however, will not go into effect until 07/01/2022, so if Core’s ended up having its license revoked, they will have had it revoked under the older more lenient rules.

[I love courtroom dramas, so I hope this committee meeting turns out to be interesting. I’ll be disappointed if I bring my popcorn to something that turns out to be a big nothing-burger.]

View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=937054&GUID=32E2E8CD-DAB0-4B40-B17F-F5C63783FA15