The Safety and Licensing Committee met 12/11/2024. One of the items they took up was an operator/bartender license for an applicant named Kelly. This item ended up being held until the next meeting of the Safety and Licensing Committee on 01/08/2025 both at the request of the applicant and at the request of Assistant City Attorney Zak Buruin who wanted additional time to provide a legal opinion on new factors pertaining to Kelly’s license application.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
Kelly is currently is facing criminal charges of felony possession with intent to sell cocaine. Up until recently, she also had an ongoing criminal case for misdemeanor possession of cocaine and felony bail jumping. For these reasons as well as the fact that she had not mentioned she charges on the license application even though the application directs applicants to list any “pending” charges, citations, and tickets, the Police Department was requesting that the license application be denied.
The City Attorney’s Office had initially recommended that the license application be approved because the criminal cases had not been resolved and she had not been proven guilty at this point; however, prior to the committee meeting, she pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor cocaine possession charge and, as part of that plea deal, the felony bail jumping charge was read into the record. The remaining case for the felony possession of cocaine with intent to sell remains ongoing.
Alderperson Chris Croatt (District 14) asked about the conflicting recommendations between the Police Department and the City Attorney’s Office. Attorney Buruin indicated that there had been a miscommunication between himself and Lieutenant Goodin of the Police Department.
The guilty plea was entered in at some point after Attorney Buruin drafted his memo on 09/23/2024. Both Alderperson Chris Croatt (District 14) and Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) asked if the recent guilty plea changed or affected the advice of the City Attorney’s Office. Attorney Buruin had not been aware that one of the cases had been resolved and was uncomfortable providing a legal opinion off the cuff.
Beyond that, the applicant herself requested that the item be held. She spoke off microphone, so her reason for making the request was not picked up on the recording of the video. In light of both her request and Attorney Buruin’s desire for more time to provide a solid legal opinion, the committee ended up holding the item until the next meeting of the committee on 01/08/2025.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1227017&GUID=E1FFA19B-4922-4618-A273-CC1E8688F269
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