Safety And Licensing Committee Approves Bartender/Operator License For Applicant With OWI History

The Safety and Licensing Committee met 04/24/2024. The first action item they took up was the Operator/Bartender License application submitted by Miguel. This item has been in and out of committee and placed on hold since it first appeared before the committee a month ago. Miguel has a history of drunk driving offenses, and the committee has been dealing with the question generally of whether he has been rehabilitated as well as the specific legal question of whether or not the committee was required by state statute to view him has being rehabilitated.

During previous meetings, Assistant City Attorney Zak Buruin had initially advised the committee that Miguel met the statutory requirements for being legally considered rehabilitated; however, after having done further research, he submitted a memo in which he advised the committee that Miguel met the requirements to be considered rehabilitated under the law for two of his OWI offenses, but there was nothing statutorily that required the committee to disregard his first 3 OWI offenses. As a result, the committee did still have the discretion to deny his license application if it so chose.

The committee ended up voting 3-1 to recommend Miguel’s license application for approval with Alderperson Chris Croatt (District 14) casting the dissenting vote.

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

Assistant City Attorney Buruin started out by providing his legal analysis to the committee. Since the previous meeting he had determined that the committee’s discretion in this matter was broader than he had initially thought. State statute listed certain ways in which rehabilitation could be demonstrated and was required to be accepted by licensing boards. Evidence of having completed probation was one of those. Miguel had completed probation for the two most recent OWI offenses his was convicted of, and as a result the committee was statutorily required to disregard those crimes as a factor in their decision about the license. His first three OWI offenses had not included any sort of parole or other elements that could have allowed Miguel to document proof of rehabilitation. As a result, the committee could still factor those into their decision on whether or not to grant the license.

Some of the committee members were inclined to place less weight on the first three OWI offenses because they took place over a decade ago when Miguel was in his early 20s. Additionally, the last two offenses had taken place in 2019 around 5 years ago.

Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) commented, “I would hate to be penalized for the rest of my life for some things that I did when I was 21.” She thought it spoke well of Miguel that, in addition to completing his probation and a treatment program, his employer had come to the committee twice to speak on his behalf.

Miguel and Sarah, his employer, both spoke to the committee.

Miguel told the committee that he was working on his mental health and he had gotten to a place in his life where he was stable financially and emotionally. He said he was a hardworking person who had only worked in the service industry since he was 16. He continued to attend AA meetings. Drinking on the job had never been an issue with him. When he did drink it had been related to socializing with friends outside of work.

Sarah told the committee that Miguel had worked at her restaurants for over a decade. “I’ve seen him grow so much over the last 10 years that if you told me he was the same person, I would I would be shocked. I think he was—I don’t want to say—more reckless, but when you’re younger, naturally, you kind of are, right? But the amount of growth that he’s had, the amount of hours he’s picking up now, the amount of shifts. And I say ‘now’ meaning like this last two years. He’s been extremely crucial for the business. So, it’s kind of fun in that aspect to see these guys grow and start to take the right decisions, and now he’s a role model for some of the younger kids that are coming in and, and maybe seeing that quick cash lifestyle and being like, look, like he has a savings that he’s built up that he never had 10-12 years ago when he was working for us. And it’s kind of exciting to see, and it’s empowering to the rest of the staff that are going to be going through the same issues and have a have a fine example to look and to train them.”

There was some concern that he would not serve alcohol responsibly to restaurant patrons, but Sarah said her restaurant had processes in place and rules on serving that were stricter than those implemented by the city.

There was also some concern that even though Miguel worked for Sarah now, the bartender license was portable and once he had a license he could take it anywhere. Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) was not overly worried about that, commenting, “I would suggest that if the employee’s been there for over a decade that that might not be, at least for me, as much of a concern that, you know, next year, he’s gonna find himself in a different work environment. I certainly think with the support structure he has here and the history as with this business that’s multiplying and now has a couple of operations, he’ll probably be there for a while.”

Alderperson Chris Croatt (District 14) said that he had a high bar for responsible beverage service and he was not able to vote in favor of approving the license due to Miguel’s conviction record.

Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) was not a member of the committee but she did attend the meeting. She told the committee, “The information provided shows that this person made some bad decisions. Should we be stuck with those bad decisions forever? No. But should we as a city and we as Council members be concerned about the potential for a slip? Yes. And those are the things that I would have to sleep with at night. I would have to think to myself is—am I allowing this person to have this license and then something happens? And I think the risk is too great for my conscience.”

She believed that alcoholics were alcoholics forever and she was concerned about the temptation that might come with serving alcohol on a regular basis.

The committee ended up voting 3-1 to approve the license with Alderpersons William Siebers (District 1), Fenton, and Alex Schultz (District 9) voting in favor and Alderperson Croatt voting against.

[I am interested to see how things work out for Miguel. As I noted in my recap of the previous committee meeting, there seem to be definite parallels between his case and that of Katie who was granted a license back in November. Like him, her last conviction was in 2019. Like him, she had completed probation. Like him she was undergoing regular treatment and counseling for her addition. Like him her boss came and spoke to the committee on her behalf and praised her for being an asset to his store. Then two months later she was charged with drug possession, criminal damage to property, and bail jumping. So, she had all the same signs of rehabilitation he has, but that didn’t end up meaning a lot in her case. Hopefully things will go better with Miguel.]

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1162735&GUID=A4D8FAB1-E835-4566-9EDE-217C5ADBAA42