The Safety and Licensing Committee met 04/26/2023. The item that took up the most amount of time during the meeting was the 10-day alcohol license suspension for Chadwick’s Bar.
Chadwick’s had racked up 240 license demerit points related to three incidents of catering to underaged drinkers in the bar. The number of points were actually enough for them to have their license outright revoked; however, the bar owners had been working with the city and had implemented some new procedures and technology to identify fake IDs. In light of the positive steps the owners had taken, the City Attorney’s Office was comfortable reaching an agreement with them in which Chadwick’s would have its license suspended for 10 days and 80 demerit points would be held in abeyance for two years, bringing the total number of active demerits down below the number that could result in a license revocation. The bar owners agreed to comply with all City of Appleton Ordinances and the laws of the State of Wisconsin, and if they did not the 80 demerit points could be reinstated resulting in further consequences.
The committee voted 5-0 to approve the agreement.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for your downloading pleasure.
Back on 03/01/2023, Jen and Philip, the owners of Chadwick’s Bar appeared before the Safety and Licensing Committee to discuss the demerit points they had received regarding serving underaged patrons. They talked about the difficulty they had experienced in recognizing fake IDs, some of which were very high quality, and the technology they had recently purchased to help them identify fake IDs. Overall, the committee members had seemed satisfied with their actions. At the time, it was mentioned that there were potentially more demerit points coming down the line due to a case that was still pending in the courts. That case since resulted in a conviction which was why the bar and its owners were back before the committee with an agreement for a 10 day license suspension.
Assistant City Attorney Darrin Glad was supportive of the agreement that had been reached between the city and the bar owners. He said that city staff, the Appleton Police Department, and the Legal Services Department all wanted the agreement to be approved. He noted that approving it would mean that the city would not need to hold a license suspension hearing, a process that was time consuming, required the participation of multiple staff members, and could be appealed to the Circuit Court. Waiving the hearing was “a huge benefit to the city staff and resources”.
Assistant Attorney Glad also believed Jen and Philip had responded in a genuine way to the demerit points and were making bona fide efforts to fix the problem. He noted that, given the nature of the violations, the staff recommendation probably would have been something around a 10-day suspension even if they had gone to a full-blown hearing anyways, so he thought it was important to approve the agreement as written.
Jen, one of the owners of the bar, told the committee that Chadwick’s had implemented a new scanner system to check for fake IDs. They had been using it for around a month and a half and it had been working very well. “Not only is it catching fake IDs, it’s also deterring the kids from even trying. So once word gets around, then we don’t even have to deal with it as much anymore.” They had also researched ways outside of the scanners to identify fake IDs, and those other things were also working well.
Philip, the other owner of Chadwick’s, brought in around 30 fake IDs that they had confiscated. He showed them to the committee, and the committee members seemed to be pretty impressed with the quality of the fake IDs. He said that he had been trying to get other businesses to start using scanning technology as well, but they had told him they liked the extra business they were gaining now that underaged kids weren’t going to Chadwick’s anymore.
[Although much of the committee interactions take place off camera, I got the impression that Appleton Police Lieutenant Nagel perked up a bit when Philip said that. So, perhaps the bars around Chadwick’s can look forward to some added attention from the Police Department in the upcoming weeks/months.]
Alderperson William Siebers (District 1) had not been a member of the Safety and Licensing Committee when Jen and Philip had first come before the committee back in March, so he had not participated in that discussion. As a result, he wanted to make sure that this agreement was warranted. He said that his understanding was that Chadwick’s was known as a place where underaged people could get in.
Philip responded, “We weren’t aware of that. It’s no longer that way.” He and Jen had purchased the business 4 ½ years ago. Prior to Covid they had served an older crowd, but once Covid happened the patrons had switched over to being younger. He said that the entire group of people who went to bars on the Avenue, at least in the 400 block, had gotten younger. He also noted that younger people tended to go to the establishments that just offered drinks and did not serve food.
Lieutenant Nagel also spoke well of the changes Jen and Philip had implemented. “I’ve had several many meetings with Jen and Phil. They’ve spent 1000s of dollars on the ID scanner system, have caught, I would say, more than two or three dozen IDs, worked with us directly, have actually helped myself out identifying some of the fakes that are out there now. I’ve been walking the Avenue also at night and have observed more people working the door, more calls for service to them to check for fake ideas. I’ve seen a significant difference in their willingness to not only protect their business, but not allow underagers in there.”
The agreement Jen and Philip had reached with the city would see demerit points that were not held in abeyance drop off their record 36 months from the dates of conviction. The 80 demerit points that were held in abeyance would drop off 2 years from the date the Common Council approved the agreement.
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) asked what would happen if, in spite of the effort they had put in and the changes they had implemented, an underaged person was still able to get in and the bar ended up with another 80-point violation.
Assistant Attorney Glad responded, “I think at that point, if it’s a good enough fake ID, they made their efforts, they put things in place to stop that, I think we’d be looking at a point where there’s two discretionary acts that would come in before imposition appoints. One would be the officers; they can use discretion to not cite. They could cite the individual person as opposed to the bar. And we can choose discretion to not apply those points, because somehow, they got caught despite the bar’s efforts. And then, similarly, the prosecutors would have an opportunity to not go for conviction because the points only kick in upon conviction. So, looking for a just outcome is something both the police and the prosecution do.”
The committee went on to vote 5-0 to approve the stipulation agreement between the city and Chadwick’s Bar.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1063462&GUID=2CE651A6-96F8-4F8A-B8F6-24867EDE1821
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