The Safety and Licensing Committee met 02/12/2025. The agenda item that took up the vast majority of the meeting was the discussion on the alcohol license application for Delaire’s. The fate of this license has been in limbo since October as the committee has reviewed and wrestled with concerns that the owner, David Boulanger, intends to operate illegal gambling machines on the premises.
During the meeting, the committee reviewed video footage of a discussion that Chad Reichelt, a contractor and part owner of the building, had with Jamie Papenfuss the owner of The Violet Social Club salon which is next door and in the same building as Delaire’s. In that video Mr. Reichelt indicated to Ms. Papenfuss that gambling machines were going to be installed in Delaire’s. Additionally, they reviewed a memo from the Police Lieutenant Goodin in which her reported that he had interviewed Mr. Reichelt who “stated David [Boulanger] asked him to set up some electrical outlets in the business and while David did not explicitly say he was going to have gambling machines, Chad said it was understood that the gambling machines were being installed. Chad mentioned that David had other establishments he ran that also had gambling machines. Chad stated he would cooperate with the Safety and Licensing Committee if they needed any further information from him.”
The committee ended up voting to recommend the license for denial. It was, however, noted that even if the license was denied the business could still open. It just wouldn’t be able to serve alcohol.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
Neither Mr. Boulanger nor his attorney were in attendance at the meeting because the weather was bad and impacted the drive from West Bend and Milwaukee. Mr. Boulanger had asked that the item be held until the next committee meeting, but a majority of the committee members were not in favor of that. The item had been before the committee since early October and the general feeling seemed to be that Mr. Boulanger had been given much latitude throughout the process and there was nothing that he or his attorney could add at this point that could not be provided to the Common Council on 02/19/2025.
The video that Ms. Papenfuss had provided and the memo from Lieutenant Goodin were both fairly straightforward.
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) made the motion to deny the license. She told the committee, “[O]ur latitude in granting a license is really far greater than in revoking a license, and so I think that we should do our due diligence before we grant a license. And I will be honest with the chair and my colleagues on the committee, I have no confidence that the applicant is telling us the truth about his intentions. These machines are against our city code […] This is a residential building that we’re in. It’s populated by businesses that are really not compatible with what I call a gambling establishment. We’ve all seen on our own, not withstanding that I’ve been told I wasn’t allowed to do my own research, that the bar that he used as an example advertises the amount of their gambling payouts, owned by a relative. He—the applicant said he wanted to have a board game establishment like the Boardroom in West Bend. So, I’ve heard everything that I need to hear, and I don’t think we need this gentleman operating this business in our town.”
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) was in favor of denying the license sand said, “I think the other extraordinary thing is, when this was first brought to this committee, the applicant appeared with an attorney who specializes in gambling law, which I guess to me, is something of a red flag. Why would you [have a gambling attorney] come before this committee if this was a typical application for a liquor license? […] I, like many of my committee members and council members, like to defer to and give the opportunity for businesses, give them the benefit of the doubt. And we know that we have policies and practices in place where, if they violate the law or conduct business not according to what they said they were set out to do, that we can assess demerit points and pull that license. But at the same time, the initial granting of the license is, much easier to manage than trying to pull it once that license has been granted to a licensee.”
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) was not a member of the committee but she was present. She pointed out Mr. Reichelt “is a part owner of this building and a contractor. There’s no reason for him to make up a story that he doesn’t truly believe is what is to be expected. So again, up to this point, I’ve been very understanding and wanting to say, we as a city should be very open to granting a license because: be a business and do what you what you want to do, provided you stay within the demerit point system, and don’t, you know, defy all those rules, but this gives much more solid evidence to me to say I can’t—the benefit of the doubt is now beyond me a little bit, and I think this actually potentially warrants a denial.”
Alderperson Martyn Smith (District 4) who was also a non-committee member in attendance agreed with her, saying, “[W]e don’t have to prove intent, but we can have the preponderance of evidence, ‘more than a mere scintilla’. We can put together a narrative of what’s happening. And I don’t feel comfortable with the testimony of the person on video, with the past attempts to open gambling establishments. You know, I think we have plenty of evidence to say this is not going in the right direction, and I would like to not approve this.”
Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3) was another non-committee member in attendance. He agreed with not holding the item regardless of the applicant’s request. “I have to believe at this point you’ve all seen enough and heard enough to make a decision. I can understand wanting to have the applicant here to give them one last chance, but at every given opportunity up to this point in the last five months, it’s hard to say that this applicant has been honest with you, any of us. You’ve all seen the video that I was presented to five months ago when I made the refer back originally. You’ve all seen the stories of the applicant’s conduct when trying to get a approval from the Village of Grafton. […] I don’t know what else you want to see, other than maybe to give the applicant another opportunity to be less than honest with you.”
Even Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) who doesn’t talk very often commented, “I think there’s been a remarkable amount of evidence and dedication to this to get a good, solid answer on what we’re dealing with. So, I think that we should vote on that tonight.”
Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) was in favor of denying the item but he did point out that denying the alcohol license “doesn’t necessarily prevent the business owner from opening an establishment and still installing gambling machines anyway.” He thought gambling and alcohol consumption were closely connected, so not being able to serve alcohol might make operating a gambling business more challenging, but he did want to point out that denying the license would not necessarily solve the overall problem.
The committee ended up voting 3-1 to recommend the license for denial. Alderperson William Siebers (District 1) cast the dissenting vote; however, he explicitly said, “In regards to my vote, I just want to make sure that it does not imply that I’m necessarily in favor of the license. My no vote would imply that I’m asking that it’d be held for two weeks. So, I’m not implying that I’m in favor of the license.”
View full meeting detail and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1254915&GUID=CA5FE7B8-46D7-4A0A-A83F-58984B187DB4
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