The Safety and Licensing Committee met 01/08/2025. They had two bartender/operator licenses on the agenda, one for Kelly which had been held by the committee at the 12/11/2024 committee meeting and one for Katherine which was new. Both of the items were held until the 01/22/2025 committee meeting at the request of the applicants who indicated they needed more time to provide documentation showing proof of their rehabilitation.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
BARTENDER LICENSE FOR KELLY – At the time she submitted her application, the applicant had two criminal cases against her that were pending in the court system, one was for misdemeanor possession of cocaine and felony bail jumping the other was for felony possession with intent to sell cocaine.
Since that initial application, Kelly pled 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 with a trial date set for April of 2025. While the case that she plead guilty to can be considered by the committee as a factor for their decision as to whether or not to approve her license application, the open case scheduled for trial in April cannot be used.
Assistant City Attorney Zak Buruin drafted a memo in light of Kelly’s recent plea deal in which he told the committee, “If it is determined that this offense is substantially related to the activity to be licensed, Ms. Arndt is ineligible for a license under Chapter 125 unless she is able to provide competent evidence of rehabilitation. There is a basis to conclude that the offense is substantially related to the licensed activity in that it involves the irresponsible and unlawful usage and possession of intoxicating substances, particuarly [sic] while under enhanced legal obligations. The enhanced legal obligation comes from her status on a criminal bond versus being a holder of an Operator’s license, but it is an additional aspect of substantial relation between the offense and the licensed activity.”
This item originally appeared on the agenda for the 12/11/2024 committee and was held until this meeting at the request of the applicant and also at the request of Assistant City Attorney Zak Buruin who had been unaware of Kelly’s recent plea deal and needed time to provide updated advice based on that change.
At the 01/08/2025 meeting, Kelly told the committee that she had been in treatment voluntarily for almost 6 months. She had documents and letters from her treatment counselor and her lawyer that she could provide to the committee. She asked for another two-week hold, saying, “I didn’t currently have those because I was under the impression that you guys were granting this in my motion.” [I took her to mean she thought they were going to approve her license application, so she brought no documentation.]
Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) asked, “Based on the information provided, the—we still have the option to approve the license based on the applicant’s ability to provide rehabilitation, correct? Even though the conviction states that would make her ineligible?”
Assistant Attorney Buruin answered, “[T]he conviction that is in place in this case, that ineligibility is subject to the ability to show rehabilitation. So, at this point, not having provided any documentation regarding rehabilitation, she is ineligible. If she provides that, depending on what type of evidence it is, if it’s of the type that the statutes say the committee and the Council have to accept, then she would have to be granted the license. If it’s within the realm of the things that the committee is required to consider but not necessarily accept, then there would be a discretionary ability to grant or not.”
The committee voted unanimously to hold the item until the 01/22/2025 committee meeting to give Kelly the opportunity to provide documentation demonstrating her rehabilitation.
BARTENDER LICENSE FOR KATHERINE – Katherine has three Operating While Intoxicated convictions on her records, one from an incident in 2011, one from an incident in 2012, and one from an incident in 2021. While 9 years of no OWI convictions is commendable, the Police Department believes her third arrest in 2021 and conviction in 2022 indicate she “has not shown she has learned her lesson from the first two arrests, and her pattern of drunk driving behavior is concerning.” They believe through her “prior OWI convictions that she has not demonstrated the necessary maturity and decision-making capacity to be allowed a bartender’s license in the City of Appleton.”
Katherine asked for the item to be held. The original denial letter she had received from the city had been for a different applicant, and she had only recently received her denial letter. She told the committee that she had gone through several Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse assessments related to her third drunk driving conviction and had also been on probation and followed all of the steps and guidelines associated with that. She also currently had a bartender license in the Village of Hortonville which she said she had maintained since her last conviction without an incident or police contact. She had documentation regarding these things but had not known that she was supposed to bring them to the meeting.
The committee voted unanimously to hold the item until the 01/22/2025 committee meeting in order to give Katherine time to provide documentation demonstrating her rehabilitation.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1237592&GUID=44C848DE-932E-4BC3-9443-E3F5FAEB985C
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