Bartender/Operators License For Miguel Referred Back To Safety And Licensing Committee For Further Discussion

The Common Council met 04/03/2024. One of the items that came before them was the bartender/operators license for Miguel. This item was initially recommended for denial by the Police Department but ended up being approved by the Safety and Licensing Committee after they were told that he had completed probation and that counted as evidence of rehabilitation.

Alderperson Chris Croatt (District 14) requested that the item be referred back to the Safety and Licensing Committee for further review. A 2/3rds vote by the Common Council was required to prevent the refer back and keep the item at Council. 6 alderpersons voted in favor of referring the item back while 8 voted in favor of keeping it at Council. Because the 2/3rds threshold was not met, the item did get kicked by to the committee.

I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:

Alderperson Croatt who is the chair of the Safety and Licensing Committee had not been able to attend the meeting where this item was discussed, but he had some questions about it so requested that it be referred back.

Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) objected to the refer back, resulting in the Council having to vote on whether or not to keep the item at Council or allow it to go back to committee. The main concern regarding allowing the item to go back to committee was that Miguel’s provisional bartender license was going to expire on 04/10/2024 which meant that between 04/10/2024 when the license expired and 04/17/2024 when the Common Council would be able to vote again on his license, Miguel would not have a license and would not be able to legally perform any work that required having a license. Although he would still be able to perform work that did not require a license, some members of the Council did not want to put him in a position where he would not be able to work in whatever new position he had that did require a license.

The Council ended up voting with 8 opposing the refer back and 6 in favor of the refer back. A 2/3^rd majority was required to overcome the refer back request, so the item did end up being sent back to the Safety and Licensing Committee for further discussion. That meeting will take place 04/10/2024.

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1171631&GUID=B24EBD3F-50C1-4017-A9E2-4DA9177FF156v