The Safety and Licensing Committee met 02/26/2025. The agenda included three items that pertained to a gentleman named Satbir Singh. One of them was a demerit point violation appearance, one of them was an application for a mechanical amusement device license which was denied, and one was for a class B Beer and reserve class be liquor license application which was approved by a vote on 4-1 with Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) casting the dissenting vote.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
DEMERIT POINT VIOLATION APPEARANCE:
Mr. Singh is the owner of the Badger Mobil gas station and convenience store at 1201 N Badger Avenue which recently received 120 demerit points. 40 of those points were for having no licensed operator on the premises and 80 of those points were for dispensing alcohol to a minor.
The microphone that members of the public used during this meeting was not functioning well so it was a little difficult to understand everything that Mr. Singh told the committee. Broadly speaking, it sounded like the employee who has an operators license needed to deal with a family issue. Mr. Singh asked an employee without a license to manage the store and told him to not sell liquor, beer, or tobacco products. During the time this employee was managing the store, a person who was underaged purchased some sort of product that the employee did not recognize as being something he should not sell and he rang it up as if it were a grocery item instead of alcohol. It sounded like Mr. Singh was taking steps to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future by purchasing an ID scanner for the store. Given the poor quality of the audio, I’m not sure if he was doing anything beyond that.
At any rate, the committee seemed satisfied with the measures he had taken.
Additionally, Assistant City Attorney Zak Buruin noted that the 80 demerit points for dispensing alcohol to an underaged person was, per state law, not something the city could count unless the business had another violation for dispensing to an underaged person within 12 months of the first incident.
MECHANICAL AMUSEMENT DEVICE LICENSE FOR PIZZERIA PUB AND BAR:
Mr. Singh was opening the Pizzeria Pub and Bar which would be located in a building that was attached to the Badger Mobil gas station and convenience store. As part of that business, Mr. Singh had applied for an amusement device license which the recommended be denied. The reason for the denial was that 4 of the 5 amusement devices Mr. Singh indicated on the application he was going to install were gambling devices that were illegal under state law and also not allowed under Appleton’s Municipal Code, and even if the license were granted, they would be illegal to operate.
The one legal item on the application was a dart board. The question was asked if it would be possible to amend the item to grant a license for the dart board while denying license for the 4 gambling machines. Attorney Buruin was not sure if it was possible for a committee to amend an application in that manner, and Alderperson Chris Croatt (District 14) expressed a preference for having an up or down vote on the item rather than amending it. It was confirmed that even if the license was denied, the applicant could submit another application for only the dart board; although that would entail paying a $25 application fee.
Mr. Singh did not present a case or speak on his own behalf; however another member of the public did speak. Again, the microphone sound quality was not good, but it sounded like Jason Lachance was an amusement device operator in the City of Appleton. It wasn’t clear to me if he was associated specifically with the pizzeria or if he was just generally concerned with licensing and gambling machines. He pointed out that there were many other bars in Appleton who had been granted licenses for gambling machines. He wanted to know what would happen when those licenses came up for renewal. Would the renewal application be approved or would businesses lose their licenses?
Attorney Buruin indicated that license application had only recently been changed to include a request for information on the devices that were going to be installed. He was well aware that there were illegal gambling devices being operated in the city. He stated, “[T]hey are illegal, and nothing we can do in the licensing process changes that.”
He also noted that the issue of enforcement was not something that could be addressed during that meeting. Additionally, Alderperson Croatt said the committee could only base their decisions on the information in front of them. He did not know how they would vote on hypothetical license applications in the future.
The committee ended up voting 5-0 to deny the amusement device license application.
CLASS “B” BEER AND RESERVE “CLASS B” LIQUOR LICENSE APPLICATION FOR PIZZERIA PUB AND BAR:
The final item pertaining to Mr. Singh was the alcohol license for the Pizzeria Pub and Bar. Alderperson Doran felt that it would be warranted to deny the application in light of the fact that the establishment’s owner had 120 demerit points on the license for his other business and that he had just tried to get a license for illegal gambling devices. When asked, Attorney Buruin confirmed that these issues were things that the committee could legally consider as they reviewed this license application.
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) was inclined to show grace to the applicant. She pointed out that he had filled out the amusement device application honestly which suggested he had intended to follow the law, although he may not have been aware of the classification of some of the machines. She also thought it was a good sign that he had shown up for the demerit point violation appearance given that multiple previous establishments had refused to come of the committee meeting after they were assessed demerit points.
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) was comfortable using the existing demerit point system to deal with violations and did not see a need to deny the license outright.
The committee ended up voting 4-1 to recommend the alcohol license be approved with Alderperson Doran casting the dissenting vote.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1255179&GUID=E082084C-9492-46DF-84EC-319DC0491260
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