The Safety and Licensing Committee met 08/09/2023. One of the items they took up was the alcohol license suspension hearing for Speakeasy Ultra Lounge. The bar received 150 liquor license demerit points for an incident in October 2022 in which two semi-nude dancers performed for money in the bar during an event.
Per the city’s Alcohol License Demerit Point System, demerits between 150 and 199 accrued during a 24-month period require a license suspension of 10-90 days.
Theodore, the owner of the bar, reached an agreement with the City Attorney’s Office to serve the suspension and shut down the bar from 08/14/2023-08/23/2023. Unfortunately, due to timing issues, the agreement could not be voted on by the Common Council prior to 08/14/2023, but, if approved by the Common Council, the agreement included a clause stating that the suspension would be retroactive to 08/14/2023.
The committee voted 5-0 to approve the agreement.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download.
Neither Theodore nor his attorney spoke during the meeting. Assistant City Attorney Zak Buruin presented the agreement to the committee and emphasized the good faith shown by the business in addressing and dealing with this. He also said that he had made an effort to incorporate their input as much as possible during the process.
Alderperson Chris Croatt (District 14) asked what would happen if the stipulation was not approved at the Common Council meeting on 08/16/2023.
Assistant Attorney Buruin answered, “[T]hen we don’t have a suspension at that point. It does run afoul of the agreement, and potentially we’d have to go back, maybe not all the way to square one to deal with it, but potentially to square one,” although he did go on further to say, “If ultimately that doesn’t work, that is a risk that we all knew was being undertaken at the time, though.”
Alderperson Croatt did not expect the agreement to not be approved, but he always like to think about the what-if scenarios.
Alderperson William Siebers (District 1) asked what would happen to the points that had been accumulated once the suspension was served. Attorney Buruin said that they would not be wiped clean but would continue on the bar’s record for the remainder of the look-back period for various violation consequences.
The one situation in which additional points might not count toward anything would be if the bar was convicted of serving alcohol to a minor. The state statute around that superseded local rules and, in effect, only allowed points for that violation to be counted if they were convicted more than once in a 12-month period for service alcohol to a minor. Demerits for other general violation, however, would be added on top of the 150 they had already accrued until they were past the look-back period.
The committee voted 5-0 to approve the agreement.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1103674&GUID=DD9AD8C6-1BBB-49A7-BDA1-F0391B34793C
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