The Safety and Licensing Committee met 03/27/2024. During the meeting, they took up two operator/bartender license applications that staff was recommending be denied. The committee ended up voting to deny one of the applications and approving the other. It was an interesting meeting because in both cases, the vote by the committee was dictated by state statutes, and the committee did not have much discretion to make another choice.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
The first license application was for Isaiah. Isaiah had a string of drug-related offenses. Those offenses were evidence that he was a habitual offender who had not demonstrated responsible behavior around drugs/alcohol, and for that reason it would be permissible for the city to deny him his application. However, under Wisconsin state law, he would have the right to prove that he had been rehabilitated and could still have been granted a license had he been able to demonstrate that.
Unfortunately, Isaiah also had some convictions on his record for 3rd Degree Sexual Assault and Battery which are crimes that are considered “exempt offenses”, and the city attorney’s office interpreted Wisconsin state law to bar people with exempt offenses on their record from qualifying for licenses or from having the right to demonstrate rehabilitation.
This, obviously, completely tied the hands of the committee and left them with no legal option other than to vote to deny the application, although Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) did vote against the denial.
The committee members were not necessarily happy about having to vote for the denial, because Isaiah seemed to be making some good changes in his life that were putting him on the path toward being a beneficial member of society. He was not going to be a bartender but needed the operator’s license in order to be able to be a manager at the restaurant he worked at.
The restaurant owner attended the meeting and spoke highly of him. “I really wasn’t thinking that he would do a whole lot, you know, […] But over the last year, he has done an amazing job for us. I asked him to be a manager about four months ago. He hasn’t called in. He’s done a great job. […] And so, I did give him the management position due to the fact that his parole officer did say that he could have the bartending license. So, I went off of that. We got him that, and he’s done nothing but good things for the store. We have great comments about our customers, everything like that.” Without the license, he would need to be demoted back to the kitchen.
There was some question as to why the probation officer had indicated that Isaiah could get a license, when state statute seemed to bar him from that. City Attorney Zak Buruin discussed that with the probation officer after the meeting and in a follow-up memo to the committee reported that the probation officer “was unaware of the statutory requirements for obtaining such a license and that he would not have been able to provide […] guidance on that.” Rather he had merely provided feedback to Isaiah, “regarding probation expectations, rules, and requirements. It was not based upon a differing interpretation of the relevant statutes, nor upon awareness of any other overriding provisions.”
Isaiah was very aware of his history and, although he had not known about the state laws governing his application, he seemed to have gone into this situation knowing that it was a long shot that his application would be approved.
Alderperson William Siebers (District 1) mentioned that he was concerned about people thinking that they could appear before the committee and get them to overturn a denial in situations where the committee did not have the authority to do that. Isaiah may have slightly misinterpreted what Alderperson Siebers was trying to say, but it did prompt a very heartfelt and thoughtful speech by Isaiah that I found very touching and that I suspect many of the people in the room found touching also,
I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t trust me either. I don’t—all you—all I’ve ever shown my entire life is that I do know how to disappoint. I do know how to do the wrong thing. It’s a lot easier to do the wrong thing because you know […] the community. You try to do something that’s good and you fail, it sucks. You something that’s bad and it goes even worse who cares? It’s such an easy life for me to live to […] every single day and know that it doesn’t matter because no one cares.
I’ve spent the last year of my life doing stuff I never thought I would ever do. Never thought I would out of that lifestyle I was living. I honestly assumed that I’d die or something else would happen. In the last year, I’ve rebuilt relationship with my family, with my mom. I have really tried to just become an adult, and it’s really hard, especially when you’re starting your 30s. So, I, you know, I’m just doing everything to the best of my ability, and the only reason I came here today is because I never thought I’d be in a position to run any business in my life. So, I never thought I’d ever be trusted to do anything, especially run a legit business. Well, she owns it; I just manage it for her, but, you know, I never thought I’d ever be the type of person I am today. I figured I’d always be the one who just fails and nobody cares.
I’m starting to do things where I fail. It hurts; it hurts me; it hurts the people I care about. And it’s scary. And I don’t like it because now if something goes wrong, you know, I feel like I’m trying to do the right thing, and now even when I do the right thing and I’ve done everything I can to show I’ve done that, it doesn’t matter because my past life is always what destroys me. And I get it; that’s myself. But, you know, that’s why I’m here. Even with—even with the chance being, you know, a snowball in hell, there’s still a chance. So, I came here to plead my case.
Alderperson Siebers was clearly one of the people who was touched and told him, “For whatever it’s worth, or whatever it’s where it’s from me as one person, if your license is not granted, don’t let that stop you. Please, don’t let that stop you. You got a good start. Don’t stop. And maybe the next time you come here—if your license is not granted—maybe the next time you come here, there’ll be a different story. Don’t stop.”
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) also seemed touched and said, “Being that these, per the law, do not allow you to show rehabilitation, that’s where we have a problem. And just to clarify, I felt Alder Siebers was trying to say he felt for you being here in this position to tell us all of these things about you to have us not have the ability to help you. You know, I think it’s important that you have the ability to state your case, but, unfortunately, just based on the information that we have in front of us, legally, we cannot help you on this. But again, I think you’re doing great; I think it took a lot of courage to be here. And there are people here who believe in you.”
The committee ended up voting 3-1 to deny the license application with Alderperson Wolff casting the dissenting vote.
City Clerk Kami Lynch also explained to Isaiah and his boss that the recommendation to deny would come before the Common Council for a final vote on 04/03/2024 and that that meeting was open to the public and they could sign up to speak if they wanted. Isaiah’s boss indicated that she was going to review all of this with her attorney [and it certainly never hurts to get a second opinion, as it were], so there is a possibility that they will be attending the Common Council meeting.
Additionally, during the meeting Clerk Lynch told the committee that the license application form had recently been updated to provide more information about the sort of situation they were dealing with right now and hopefully prevent situations going forward where applicants came before the Safety and Licensing Committee hoping that their denial could be overturned when the committee could not do that. Unfortunately, the timing of Isaiah’s application had been bad, because he had applied 5 days before application had been updated with the new language.
[I think everyone in the room was hoping that this setback will not throw Isaiah off the positive path he seems to be on. I know I certainly am hoping the best for him.]
The next application the committee took up was for Miguel. He also had a string of convictions. All of these, however, were for driving while intoxicated. Those convictions demonstrated a pattern of poor decision making on Miguel’s part and were also substantially related to the sale of alcohol which is why the Police Department was recommending denial of the application.
Miguel’s convictions, however, were not exempt convictions, and he did have the right under state statute to provide evidence of rehabilitation. In fact, Wisconsin state law states that licensing agencies may not refuse to license individuals who show competent evidence of sufficient rehabilitation. One of the documents that are listed in the law as being evidence of rehabilitation documentation showing completion of probation. Assistant City Attorney Buruin was himself able to attest that Miguel’s probation had ended last week.
[This was a similar situation to an applicant named Katie who had come before the committee back in October of 2023. Her application had initially been recommended for denial, but after she was able to provide evidence that she had successfully completed probation she was able to have her operator’s license application approved.]
Miguel told the committee he had completed probation, had also completed Moral Reconation Therapy, and continued to attend AA meetings.
His boss also attended the meeting and spoke highly of him, saying, “We’ve had hundreds of employees over the years, and unfortunately, I can sit back and see that you guys are in a predicament—right?—where some—this industry is going to have a lot of people with substance abuse issues and whatnot, naturally, and that’s unfortunate. But we’ve had hundreds—thousands of employees over the years having all of these businesses, and Miguel is easily in my top 1%.
“I wouldn’t show up for many of the people that were denied, and even in reading the application, if I were the one checking the boxes, I understand seeing those type of offenses and just it’s easy to deny—right? But seeing as we had a little bit of wiggle room in this case, 100% I was going to be here, because this is a guy that’s helping me train new staff. I mean, I have my hands full right now. So, he’s there early. He’s there late. He’s always there. Very, very responsible. And I understand his history may have jaded your opinion of him in the past, but it’s his future that I’m excited about because he’s definitely one of my right-hand men there that I’m constantly going to and very, very responsible in the business. So very grateful for him either way.”
In this second case, the committee’s hands were essentially tied in the other direction, and they were statutorily required to approve the license application, though I would say they were much happier to approve this application than they were to deny Isaiah’s application. They ended up voting 4-0 to recommend Miguel’s license application for approval.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1147960&GUID=F16F0740-9157-4626-A3AF-D23A26F1CB7D
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