Municipal Services Committee - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call to order this meeting of the Safety and Licensing Committee for Wednesday, September 23, 2026. It's 534, actually. Please rise and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance.

All right. Roll call of membership. I am Denise Fenton, the alder from District 6. And the vice chair of the committee, Chair Krote, is excused tonight. So I will be trying to take his place. And from my left.

Viya Jones, District 10. Josh Lambert, District 1. Patrick Hayden, District 7.

All right. We have our first item is approval of the minutes from our previous meetings, the first of which is from September 9, 26-1229. Move to approve. All right. We have a motion and a second. Are there any updates or changes to those minutes? Seeing none, let's go ahead and vote. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. That passes 4-0. Now to our next meeting minutes of September 16th, item 26-1238. Move to approve. All right. We have a motion and a second. Any updates or corrections to those? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye. That passes 4-0. All right. Public hearings and appearances, 26-1137. We have a demerit point violation appearance from Antijitos Mexicanos. Is there anyone here from Antijitos? Please come on. I will turn the podium microphone. So we ask, excuse me one second. So this was from two convictions on the 19th and the 26th, one for dispensing alcohol to a minor and one for having no licensed bartender on premises. Those two together were 120 demerit points. And at this time, the license for this establishment has a total of 200 demerit points assessed within the last 24 months. So we ask, when

OK, thank you. Just if I may, just a question to the city attorney. And you're on. So in terms of the number of points, can you explain, while the establishment has 200 points, the situation in terms of the license? Sure. Oh, thank you. Of course I got it wrong.

Thank you. Are there any questions from any other committee members?

Excellent. All right. Thank you for coming before us. And obviously you're aware of the situation and do remember that the police department at any time can offer you that training. Thank you.

Yes, yes, you may. You do not have to stay. All right. 26-115A, we have a demerit point violation appearance for Sairam Indian Cuisine. Is there somebody here? All right. Please come to the microphone and, again, state your name and address for the record.

Thank you. And again, as I said before, always be aware that the police department offers free training for your staff. All right, thank you for coming to appear before us tonight, and you're free. Thank you. All right, moving to our action items, 26-1219. We have a special event application for hands off our vote, information fair and celebration event. Can we get a motion to get it on the floor?

All right, we have a motion and a second, and there's somebody who wants to talk to it? Hang on one second. Let me get your podium mic back on. OK. Name and address for the record.

So just a quick question. So I understand this organization has had a special event permit before. So what was the reason for missing that 45-day window?

Okay. Thank you. I think it said 32 in the letter, but anyway, thank you for that. And I would just ask Clerk Molitor, what is the status of the approvals? All right, clerk Molitor.

Thank you, and we'll bring it up here now. All right, thank you very much. All right, I see Alder Hartzheim. And you're on 13. That's correct.

All right. Anyone else? Anyone from up here? Oh, Alder Hayden. I remembered that.

No problem, Chair. Yeah, I would like to make the approval contingent upon getting the insurance and getting the approval from the Department of Health. I think that's what we've done in most cases like this. And to Autor Hartstein's point, I think consistently getting these late from multiple groups, there's work that's being done. I believe Clerk Molitor is leading up some work that's being done. for us to look at some solutions so that we're not seeing groups coming with these weights. So hopefully that can stem the tide of these things coming for this committee in the future.

understood. And that is how we've done it in the past. And I know we've had some discussions about while this is a normal process and there are appeals that can be done for other administrative issues, we are just about at two years now. Am I correct? Seems like it was October of 2024 that Am I fairly close?

2020. OK. So we're not quite at two years yet. But I do think that, I mean, we've approved quite a few of these. I do think that just in terms of the staff time, et cetera, This is something we might want to consider by enacting a late charge. But I will go along with the motion contingent. All right. Anyone else? So we're voting on recommending approval of the application contingent on all department approvals being in place. And the next council meeting will be October 7. So that'll be 10 days before. All right.

Point of order. Not just approval of the departments, but also the insurance as well.

Okay. Well, I said all. I'm sorry. I was thinking insurance would be risk management.

All right. So we have a motion and a second. All in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. That passes 4-0. And again, this will come before the full council with a recommendation of approval contingent on all of the steps being completed. OK. We're done. Thank you. All right. Moving to our next action item, item 26-1226, resolution number 13R-26, requesting state review of intentional disruptive motor vehicle noise and driver demerit point penalties.

All right, we have a motion and a second. I think one of the authors is present, so we would hear from him. What mic are you on, Alder Meltzer? All right, Alder Meltzer.

Thank you. Any questions? Alder Hayden. And I see you, Alder, part time. I just saw him first. Alder Hayden.

May I direct a question to the author of this legislation? Alder Meltzer, I really like that you're directing this at the Department of Transportation. Can you explain why you're directing this at the Department of Transportation directly and not the legislature?

And I like that specifically because normally I'm against advocacy-based legislation that goes towards the state legislature just because it's met with such mixed results. And if we were to go straight to the state legislature with these concerns right now, my biggest issue is the timing would be terrible. So going straight to the Department of Transportation where there's not an election coming up in a month where it can get lost or A third of the people who are in won't be there. I think this has the potential to be much more effective because the Department of Transportation has the ear of

So just a brief comment from me. I'm not as loath to support advocacy resolutions as my colleague. However, when state policy or state statutes interfere with the city's ability to legislate what we believe is appropriate for our municipality, I think it is advisable to reach out to the state in terms of home rule. So in this occasion, I'll be voting for this, and I would support it when it goes to council. So if there aren't any other comments, we'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

All opposed? Nay. All right. That passes 3 to 1. All right, moving to our next action item, 26-1227, resolution number 14-R-26, increasing penalties for unnecessary noise. Can we get a motion?

Move to approve. All right. I will second for conversation.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. And Alder Meltzer is also an author on this resolution, so I'll call on him again.

Thank you. Any questions? Alder Hartzheim. Thank you, Chair. Are you all ready for this?

Yes, I'm happy to withdraw. And so can we get a motion? And I expect that we'd want to refer this to the legal department.

Okay, so we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on this motion, Alder Hayden?

I do want to get my point in that, The thing I find concerning about this is these citations and fines don't happen in a vacuum. And when you look at the other fines and citations that we have out there on the books, there are very few at the $1,000 level. In fact, I counted four or five, depending on how you count them. Most of those are around serving minors or prostitution or soliciting prostitution. When I think about the problem of noise in our community, I agree that it's an issue. It's not one that I see at that level. So I think if we're going to look at this, we have to ask ourselves,

So I'm going to defer to Attorney Berwin on what might be a reasonable...

Okay. So we have a motion and a second to refer to the legal department. with the expectation that we would have a recommendation back from them for our meeting on October 14th. All right. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. That passes 4-0. I just want to take just a second to thank everybody involved for their work on this. I mean, clearly this is an important issue to our community, and I think everybody is working really hard to address it. All right, so we have a whole slew of license applications. Do we need to sep

All right. So we have a motion to approve the balance of the agenda. Is there anything that needs to be separated? Yes.

Okay. I'll call on you, Alder Jones, first. 261129, temporary Class B beer and Class B wine license application for the Mary Beth Neenhouse Activity Center.

Okay. Okay. All right, I've got that one. And Alder Hayden, did you have one as well? Or I'm sorry, Alder Lambert.

Okay, so let's go ahead and take that one up first. Temporary Class B wine license application for, I am reading the wrong thing. Class B beer and Class B wine license application for the Mary Beth Neenhouse Activity Center.

All right. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Abstentions. Okay. So that passes 3-0, and we will note Alder Jones' abstention. All right. So we have a motion and a second on the balance of the agenda. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. That passes 4-0. The balance of the agenda is approved, and those are items 26-1171, 26-1198, 26-1168, 26-1169, 26-1173, and 26-1131. All right, so we're moving to our information items. We have alcohol license violation convictions.

Point of order. I see Alder Meltzer. Oh, Alder Meltzer.

I did see somebody, and he was standing up. But he did not give me any indication that he wanted to speak. So if that is true, then apologies on my part. Because I was watching, but I didn't see a hand go up or anything.

Thank you, Alder Meltzer, for that. All right. So violation convictions, dispensing alcohol to a minor. We had Appleton Axe, Appleton Yacht Club, the Daily Pint, Apollon. So we would expect to see those. And we have a sale to an intoxicated person from Rascal's Bar and Grill. 26-1197, the notification of $20,443 allocated to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant for Appleton and Outagamie. Does any PD have anything to add on that? Okay. Special events. Good morning, Chair.

OK. If we could, please. So we'll take it back to the police department for a brief. You're on District 5?

Thank you. Okay. Thank you. All right. Okay. Special events. Lots of things. It's that time of year. Lots of things going on. Director's reports, we don't have anything from the city clerk or the Alder Smith. What mic are you on?

I was hoping to ask just about how to interpret a couple things with the directed patrol East College document, if you get there.

I'm getting, okay. Okay. I am definitely going to get there. Thank you. Okay. We have nothing for the clerk, the fire chief, but under the police chief, we have the combined focus report and the directed patrol on East College. So, Assistant Chief Lewis, you're on.

Okay. So we have the list of citations and warnings, and that's pretty self-explanatory, but this is a new type of document, the reduce the noise east college avenue, and I don't understand how to read this. So I guess I'm just looking for for guidance on that. As I move to page 3, in particular, I get 9-2, 9-3, 9-4, and I'm assuming those are dates, September 2nd, September 3rd, September 4th, 12 of 15 vehicles stopped for speed or exhaust. Does that mean out of 15 vehicles on that day on East College, 12 of them were for speed or exhaust, i.e., for noise-related stops? Is that what that mean

Thank you. And I am really heartened to hear that and some of the thinking behind this. That's really helpful. And I also noticed on the citation and warning report that more of those had moved up into the PM, these 8 o'clock to midnight hours and I thought that was great to see that that was happening. If I could just ask, just again on the interpretive side, the graph that's there with the pie chart, that represents out of all those stops during these special enforcement times, that's how they broke down. That's like the total for all those days, and then those are the citations.

on these different days, but those are the times across those days when there were different, when different people were on patrol. So thank you. That answers my questions, and thanks for these, for this data.

Thank you for asking that, because I will confess that when I first looked at it on Monday, I was also a little bit confused. So, and thanks for the explanation. Any other questions? Comments on that? Alder Jones.

I just, in this larger noise discussion, more of a comment. I have spoken with APD, and I have worked on this, so this is not a cut at you, but more awareness of the situation. I think a lot of people in this discussion forget that noise doesn't just come into downtown Appleton from the east side. We in West Appleton also have a problem with this. I've seen your team out, and I appreciate that. However, my constituents do not have the time or the means to advocate like this. They are in a different situation than some of the other individuals behind this. And seeing East College in this and he

That's a good point. I think about Richmond as well. Yes.

All right, we have a motion and a second. All in favor?