The Safety and Licensing Committee met 05/28/2025. Mr. Frogs, the demerits on its alcohol license, and the renewal of its alcohol license were a subject of discussion during the meeting. The owner, Vanessa Alvarado, had a demerit point license violation appearance scheduled that she did not attend, and the license for the establishment was up for renewal that evening. The committee had little latitude to not renew the license at that time, but Assistant City Attorney Zak Buruin informed the committee that there was a case associated with the business that was making its way through court and if it resulted in a conviction the business would receive demerits that could result in suspension or revocation of its license.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
This is the second demerit point violation appearance before the committee that Ms. Alvarado has not attended. The first was in January of this year when she was asked to appear before the committee to discuss the violation of having an underage person on the premises (an 80 point violation), but she did not attend. In March she then received 50 demerit points after being convicted for being open after hours and was again asked to appear before the committee to discuss the violation and explain what steps she was taking to reduce the risk of further violations. That appearance was scheduled for 05/28/2025, but, again, she did not attend.
Additionally, at the 05/28/2025 meeting her alcohol license renewal application was up for consideration. This jumped out at the committee because of the demerit violation appearance that she had earlier in the meeting not shown up for. Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) asked Attorney Buruin if the committee had any latitude on the actions they could take for the renewal of the license.
Attorney Buruin responded, “If there is any, it is extremely limited.” However, went on to say that there was a criminal court case still pending pertaining to a third party. The situation in the case was such that if a conviction occurred, under Appleton’s licensing code, the violation could be attributable to Mr. Frogs it would result in demerit points being assessed against their license which would cause them to face either suspension or possibly revocation of the license.
Mr. Frogs currently has 130 demerits on their license. If they accumulate between 150-199 they would be subject to license suspension of between 10 and 90 days. If demerits reach 200 or more, their license would be subject to revocation.
Ms. Alvarado is not the first license holder to not appear before the committee to discuss demerit points made against their licenses, and Attorney Buruin indicated he was “looking at options for dealing with the increasingly rampant non-appearance for the committee summons,” although he did not have any solid answers on that for this meeting.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1281686&GUID=6DBFE569-09BE-4D70-8984-9D594C9B3E17
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