The Safety and Licensing Committee met 12/11/2024. They briefly took up the Liquor License application for Delaires, and, at the written request of Delaire’s lawyer, they voted unanimously to hold the item until the 01/08/2024 Safety and Licensing Committee meeting.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
On 10/09/2024 the Safety and Licensing Committee had initially unanimously recommended that the alcohol license be approved. The license application was then referred back to the 10/23/2024 Safety and Licensing Committee meeting during which concerns were raised that there was a possibility that this establishment might be operated as a gambling lounge rather than as a coffee house that also served a curated selection of spirits, wines, and craft beers as portrayed in the business plan.
During that 10/23 meeting, the committee voted to hold the item in order to provide time to contact the owner, David Boulanger, and ask him to attend the meeting so that they could talk to him about the allegations.
Per an article by GM Today, Mr. Boulanger had attempted to open a gaming lounge in the Village of Grafton but had been denied a conditional use permit after he refused to not have payouts from gaming machines in his business even after it was determined by the village that providing payouts from the games was illegal under Wisconsin State law.
Lieutenant Ben Goodin provided a memo to the committee summarizing the steps he had taken to investigate the allegations.
The owner of the salon next door to Delaires had a conversation with someone entering Delaires who she says indicated that Delaires was going to be a gambling machine lounge. The conversation was caught on security video; although the audio was unfortunately not as clear as clear as one might desire. Per the memo from Police Lieutenant Ben Goodin: “The video shows Jaime asking an unidentified white male what was going in the business next door. The male responded, ‘A bar but not really (unintelligible) gambling machines’. There was some background noise while the male was speaking, and I couldn’t make out all of his words. Jaime then laughed and asked, ‘like Big Daddy and all that?’ and the male said ‘yeah’.”
The man in the video was not Mr. Boulanger.
Lieutenant Goodin checked with the electrical inspector hired by Delaire’s and asked him if there was anything unusual about Delaire’s from an electrical wiring standpoint. The electrician told him there was not.
Lieutenant Goodin also contacted Mr. Boulanger, and describes that conversation in his memo. “I told David I had received complaints that his new business was going to operate as a gambling parlor instead of a bar. David stated he had no intentions of running any sort of gambling operation and was opening the business as a bar just as he indicated on his alcohol license application. I told David about the video Jaime sent me and he stated he had no idea who she spoke with that made that comment on the video. David said he did not plan on having any sort of gambling machines at all. He said in the future he may install some amusement devices that do not pay out any money but that’s it.”
At some point, Mr. Boulanger retained a lawyer and on 12/06/2024, that lawyer submitted a letter requesting that the committee hold the license application until a future date, stating, “At this time, my client needs the additional time to meet with community members and those who have special interest in the business. The additional time will further allow my client the ability to provide the Committee with more information concerning their business operations.”
The lawyer did not specify a time frame, so the committee ended up voting unanimously to hold the item until the next meeting of the Safety and Licensing Committee which will be 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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