00001
 1                       CITY OF MILWAUKEE
 2                   LICENSES COMMITTEE HEARING 
 3                                                            
 4        In the Matter of:
 5        QUESTIONS ENTERTAINMENT
          3041 West North Avenue
 6   
                                                             
 7   
     
 8                     COMMITTEE MEMBERS
     
 9                ALD. JAMES WITKOWIAK - Chairman
                ALD. JAMES BOHL, JR. - Vice Chairman
10                     ALD. JOSEPH A. DUDZIK
                         ALD. ROBERT PUENTE
11                        ALD. WILLIE WADE
         
12          POLICE DEPARTMENT by SERGEANT CHET ULICKEY            
             CITY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE by BRUCE SCHRIMPF
13         ALDERMAN HINES' by CAROL KIMBALL - 15 District
         MARJORY S. STEWART, Attorney at Law, appeared on 
14       behalf of the Applicant.
15                 Proceedings had and testimony given in the 
16       above-entitled matter before the LICENSES COMMITTEE OF 
17       THE CITY OF MILWAUKEE on the 23rd day of January, 
18       2007, before Terese M. Schiebenes of Milwaukee 
19       Reporters Associated, Inc. 
00002
 1                          PROCEEDINGS
 2                 (All City Personnel were previously sworn.)
 3                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Also in the 15th, Devon 
 4       Reid, agent for Questions, Inc., Class B Tavern and 
 5       Tavern Amusement (Cabaret/Night Club) renewal 
 6       application for Questions Entertainment at 3041 West 
 7       North Avenue.  Good afternoon.
 8                 (Speakers duly sworn.)
 9                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Name and address for 
10       the record, please.
11                 MR. REID:  Devon Reid, 4629 West Fond du 
12       Lac.   
13                 MS. STEWART:  Majory Stewart, attorney for 
14       Mr. Reid.  
15                 MR. FIELDS:  State Representative Jason 
16       Fields.  
17                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Mr. Reid, do you admit 
18       to receiving notice in the mail there's a possibility 
19       your application could be denied because of items 
20       contained on the police report and neighborhood 
21       objections to gunshots, racing, loud vehicles, loud 
22       music, noise, loitering, littering, illegal drug 
23       activity, cruising, fighting, public urination, 
24       trespassing, vandalism, damage to private property, 
25       parking on private property, disturbing the peace, 
00003
 1       causing the normal flow of traffic on roadways to be 
 2       impeded, excessive and inappropriate use of police 
 3       resources, neighborhood problems due to mismanagement, 
 4       endangering safety by exceeding capacity, premises is 
 5       operated in such a manner that it causes a public 
 6       nuisance, and conduct which is detrimental to 
 7       the health, safety, and welfare of the neighborhood?  
 8                 MR. REID:  Yes.  
 9                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Health Department?  
10                 HEALTH DEPARTMENT:  Health has no objection.  
11                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Neighborhood Services?  
12                 DEPARTMENT OF NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES:  No 
13       objection.  
14                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Sergeant Ulickey, the 
15       police report, please.
16                 SGT. ULICKEY:  On 3/4 of '06 at 2:00 a.m.,  
17       Milwaukee police conducted a capacity check on 
18       Questions at 3041 West North Avenue.  Officers entered 
19       the tavern and found people from wall to wall.  As 
20       patrons were leaving, officers used a hand counter to 
21       count them.  Capacity for the tavern was 340.  At 
22       about 400, officers informed the licensee, Devon Reid, 
23       that he was over capacity.  The final count was 597 
24       patrons, which did not include any of the security or 
25       tavern staff.  A citation for over-capacity was issued 
00004
 1       to Reid.  No other violations were observed.  He was 
 2       found guilty in Municipal Court and fined $1,000.
 3                 On 5/6 of '06 at 1:40, Milwaukee police 
 4       observed a large crowd at Questions Tavern and began 
 5       counting patrons as they were leaving the bar.  
 6       Officers knew the capacity was 320 people and had 
 7       found the tavern had 516 patrons in the tavern.  This 
 8       did not count the 20-plus staff that was working 
 9       inside the tavern.  The owner, Devon Reid, was cited 
10       for patrons over capacity, he was found guilty, and 
11       fined $3,515.
12                 On 6/3 of '06 at 1:15 a.m., officers 
13       observed 50 citizens running out the back door of 
14       Questions Nightclub, 3041 West North.  Officers were 
15       approached by several patrons who stated there was a 
16       fight inside the tavern.  Officers looked inside and 
17       observed approximately 200 people fighting.  Back-up 
18       was called, and 13 squads from three different 
19       districts responded to break up the fight.  Several 
20       patrons received citations for disorderly conduct, and 
21       the licensee, Devon Reid, was cited for disorderly 
22       premises.  The guilty finding you have on your 
23       paperwork is incorrect.  It's actually set or was 
24       reopened and set for a pretrial on 2/5 of '07.
25                 On 9/1 of '06 at 1:00 a.m., officers 
00005
 1       observed approximately 175 vehicles parked in the area 
 2       of Questions.  Officers canvassed the area to see if 
 3       there were any businesses open or house parties going 
 4       on and found nothing.  Officers had received an 
 5       anonymous tip from a subject that Questions may be 
 6       over capacity.  Officers notified the licensee, Devon 
 7       Reid, that they would be counting patrons as they 
 8       left.  Capacity is 340.  Final count of patrons that 
 9       had been in the tavern was 404.  Security also stated 
10       there was a fight earlier but that security had broken 
11       it up.  Two more fights broke out inside the tavern as 
12       the crowd was dispersing from the tavern, resulting in 
13       officers breaking up the fight.  Two citations were 
14       issued to Reid for posting of occupancy capacity and 
15       disorderly premise.  Both of those cases are set for 
16       pre-trial on 2/5 of '07 and 2/13 of '07.
17                 On 9/8 of '06 at 12:03, Milwaukee police 
18       were dispatched to 31st and West North for shots 
19       fired.  Investigation revealed that security at 
20       Questions stated they refused entry to a male subject 
21       who became angry.  Security stated as the subject 
22       walked away they heard shots fired in the area but did 
23       not see who was shooting.  Officers did observe a male 
24       subject who had entered a vehicle nearby throw 
25       something into the bushes.  A handgun was later 
00006
 1       recovered and a casing found nearby.  Officers were 
 2       unable to find any witnesses regarding this incident.  
 3       The gun and the casing were placed on inventory.
 4                 10/20 of '06 at 1:40 a.m., Milwaukee police 
 5       were sent to 31st and North Avenue for a subject with 
 6       a gun.  Investigation revealed that security for 
 7       Questions Nightclub was trying to disperse the crowd 
 8       that was leaving from the tavern, when one male patron 
 9       threatened one of the security guards saying he had a 
10       gun and made threats to shoot the security guard.  
11       This male patron was later arrested after a brief car 
12       chase, and no gun was found.  A routine wanted 
13       check revealed that the subject was a convicted felon.  
14       He was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting 
15       an officer.
16                 On 11/3 of '06 at 1:26 a.m., police were 
17       dispatched to 3041 West North for a fight.  Officers 
18       spoke with security guards who work for Questions who 
19       stated that several women were involved in multiple 
20       cat fights.  Security broke it up and removed the 
21       women from the club.  The dispatcher advised officers 
22       that there were numerous calls of shots fired, with a 
23       security guard at the scene as a witness.  Officers 
24       spoke to the guard who works for Questions, who stated 
25       he observed a black male and a white four-door Chevy 
00007
 1       Suburban with tinted windows fire shots up into the 
 2       air as the vehicle sped off.  Officers did find 
 3       casings at 3140 West North, We Energies parking lot, 
 4       and placed them on inventory.  Security was unable to 
 5       provide a description of the shooter.
 6                 11/25 of '06 at 1:52 a.m., officers observed 
 7       Strategic Agency security personnel, which is employed 
 8       by Questions Tavern, attempting to pull an individual 
 9       from an auto.  Investigation revealed the fight had 
10       taken place in Questions, with one patron being hit in 
11       the head with a gun allegedly by a security guard and 
12       another patron who had fled the scene with security 
13       chasing said patron.  Officers were told by security 
14       they had chased the patron because they believed he 
15       was armed with a gun.  Strategic Security advised the 
16       officers that the gun was under the seat in the 
17       passenger side of the car.  Officers found a gun under 
18       the seat, and the subject was taken into custody.  
19       This subject was charged with felon in possession of a 
20       firearm, the other patron was treated for his head 
21       injury, and investigation is still pending regarding a 
22       substantial battery charge.  The licensee, Devon Reid, 
23       was cited for disorderly premises.  That citation is 
24       set for pretrial on 3/5 of '07.
25                 On 12/8 of '06, Milwaukee police conducted a 
00008
 1       tavern check at Questions, 3041 West North Avenue.  
 2       Officers observed several patrons that looked to be 
 3       younger than 21 years of age.  Two patrons were under 
 4       the age of 21, and one stated he gained entry by 
 5       giving the doorman an extra $10 to let him in.  During 
 6       the investigation, a fight broke out, and officers 
 7       observed several patrons fighting with each other and 
 8       security.  While officers were writing citations for 
 9       the disturbance, another fight broke out, with bottles 
10       being thrown.  These patrons were separated by 
11       security and police and escorted out of the tavern.  
12       One individual refused to corporate and continued to 
13       engage the other patrons to fight.  This subject was 
14       arrested.  A small bag of marijuana was found on the 
15       floor of the tavern and placed on inventory.  Several 
16       citations for disorderly conduct, presence of 
17       underage, resisting/obstructing were issued.  The 
18       licensee, Devon Reid, received citations for presence 
19       of underage and disorderly premises.  Those cases are 
20       set for arraignment on 1/31 of '07.
21                 On 12/14 of '06, Milwaukee police were 
22       dispatched to Questions to meet security officers who 
23       were detaining a subject who was possibly armed with a 
24       gun.  Investigation revealed security was not allowing 
25       any more patrons into the bar due to reaching the 
00009
 1       bar's capacity.  A patron who was not allowed in the 
 2       tavern began yelling obscenities and refused to 
 3       cooperate with security.  At one point this patron 
 4       threatened he was leaving to get his gun.  Security 
 5       attempted to detain this patron who began to run, who 
 6       was eventually caught and decentralized to the ground.  
 7       Subject sustained minor injuries when decentralized by 
 8       security.  Officers spoke to a witness, the subject's 
 9       friend, who stated his friend did make a threat to get 
10       his gun that he shouldn't have.  This subject was 
11       cited for disorder conduct, and the security who 
12       decentralized the subject to the ground was charged 
13       with battery.
14                 On 12/31 of '06 at 11:09, Milwaukee police 
15       were flagged down by security at Questions for trouble 
16       with subjects.  Investigation revealed two patrons 
17       were asked to leave a private party that was going on 
18       at the tavern that night.  These patrons began to make 
19       threats to harm security.  The patrons were arrested 
20       and issue disorderly conduct citations.
21                 On 12/31 of '06 at 11:33 p.m., Milwaukee 
22       police responded to Questions for a subject with a gun 
23       complaint.  Investigation revealed no one was armed 
24       with any guns.  Caller was uncooperative with police.  
25       The staff at Questions was advised of the nature of 
00010
 1       this call.
 2                 On 1/1/07 at 12:37, Milwaukee police were 
 3       dispatched to a fight at the Questions Nightclub.  
 4       Police arrested three subjects and issued citations 
 5       for disorderly conduct.  While there, officers 
 6       reported shots fired just west of their location with 
 7       a stray bullet hitting a vehicle near the scene.  A 
 8       report was filed regarding that incident.
 9                 And on 1/1 of '07 at 1:52 a.m., Milwaukee 
10       police were dispatched again to Questions for another 
11       reported fight in the tavern.  As officers arrived 
12       they called for more back-up due to a large fight at 
13       this location.  At least 14 squads responded and a 
14       total of eight people were arrested and cited for 
15       disorderly conduct and/or resisting/obstructing.  Two 
16       police officers were injured during this incident.  
17       Captain James Harpole was on the scene and ordered 
18       Questions to be shut down, and officers were needed to 
19       get the patrons to leave the premises.  
20                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Thank you, Sergeant.  
21       Do you have any questions about the police report?  
22                 MS. STEWART:  No.  I understand that it was 
23       correctly pointed out that one of the disorderly 
24       premises cases has been reopened, and so there are 
25       actually two disorderly premises convictions.  
00011
 1                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Questions by members of 
 2       the committee?  Can I see a show of hands, is there 
 3       anyone here to testify relative to 3041 West North 
 4       Avenue?
 5                 (Whereupon, all speakers were affirmed.)
 6                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  I would like the people 
 7       that will speak in opposition to come to the 
 8       microphone first, stand by the microphone here, state 
 9       your name and address and give us some testimony.   
10                 MR. INGVOLDSTAD:  My name is David 
11       Ingvoldstad, and I live at 3117 West North Avenue.  
12                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  How far is that away 
13       from the premises?  
14                 MR. INGVOLDSTAD:  I'm in the middle of the 
15       block right across the street from the WV parking lot.  
16                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  So you're within a 
17       block, half a block away? 
18                 MR. INGVOLDSTAD:  I'm within a block.  
19                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Your testimony.  
20                 MR. INGVOLDSTAD:  Well, I think the police 
21       reports speak really loud to what me and my family 
22       have been dealing with.  This stuff has been occurring 
23       a lot.  The parking is a really serious problem.  I 
24       don't believe that they have a parking lot.  I'm not 
25       sure if they have permission to use WE Energy's 
00012
 1       parking lot or not.  The parking lot is crowded all 
 2       the time.  There's parking in the bus stop there.
 3                 I have found it very difficult to get access 
 4       to my driveway in my alley because of parking in the 
 5       alley either by patrons, sometimes the security, and 
 6       other times the police.  I've found it very difficult 
 7       on a number of occasions where the streets had been 
 8       barricaded because of cruising and too much traffic, 
 9       and I've had to make detours.  It's just been an 
10       inconvenience.  I expect every time that I'm out or 
11       have to be out around the hours of 11:00 to 2:00 on a 
12       Friday, Saturday, sometimes on a Thursday that I might 
13       not be able to put my car away.  It's not always the 
14       case, but I've been living with this for some time 
15       now.
16                 People get really loud at closing time.  It 
17       keeps us up.  I have two children.  We worry about the 
18       gunfire.  I haven't noticed that to be an occurrence 
19       that happens every weekend, but it happens often 
20       enough.  More of the fighting on the street, the  
21       arguing, people being loud.  What else.  There's 
22       litter that comes from all the promotions that get put 
23       on all the cars.  They get put on all these cars all 
24       over the place, and the next morning the stuff is all 
25       over the street.  No one keeps that stuff, and it 
00013
 1       blows around, it's in my back yard.  People park 
 2       illegally in the neighbor's yard right next door.  I 
 3       even have video documentation of people breaking into 
 4       cars over there.  Sometimes there's three or four cars 
 5       parked there blocking part of the driveway or the 
 6       alleyway.
 7                 I'm concerned for my safety, my own safety.  
 8       I'm not opposed to the idea of the club, but maybe if 
 9       it had a smaller occupancy, something like 150 or 
10       something, where the traffic wouldn't be as big.  
11                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Any questions by 
12       members of the committee?  
13                 ALDERMAN WADE:  Sir, have you had the 
14       opportunity to go and speak with the ownership or 
15       management of Questions about any of your concerns?  
16                 MR. INGVOLDSTAD:  I have not spoken with 
17       management or the ownership at all.  I do not know who 
18       owned it and who that was.  I have spoken to the 
19       police, I have spoken to some of the security 
20       requesting removal of a vehicle so that I can park my 
21       car.  But no.  We made one call to Alderman Hines' 
22       office one time and was not able to talk to him.  
23       There was no follow-up or anything or call back, 
24       nothing.  
25                 ALDERMAN WADE:  If I can just ask, what's 
00014
 1       the reason why you never tried to speak with 
 2       ownership, what was your reason?   
 3                 MR. INGVOLDSTAD:  Well, I really felt like I 
 4       did not want to make waves in that neighborhood.  
 5       Where I am in that location and for as long as I've 
 6       been there, I haven't really had too many problems.  
 7       There's a lot of prostitution.  I guess I've been a 
 8       really tolerant person, maybe scared to speak up.  
 9                 ALDERMAN WADE:  Thank you.
10                 MR. SCHRIMPF:  Mr. Chairman.  
11                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Mr. Schrimpf.
12                 MR. SCHRIMPF:  Thank you.  Couple of 
13       questions.  First of all, is there any other tavern or 
14       lounge that's operating, say, between the hours of 10:00 
15       p.m. and 2:00 a.m in the area that could account for 
16       any of the things you've testified to?   
17                 MR. INGVOLDSTAD:  No, not on this scale.  
18       There's the Rainbow Inn, I think it is, and that's 
19       east of us on North Avenue -- or the Rainbow Tavern, I 
20       think.  I'm not sure what their hours are.  Sometimes 
21       they're open in the morning even, but I wouldn't say 
22       that they would be attributing to that.
23                 MR. SCHRIMPF:  So the people, for example, 
24       that are causing the cruising and the people, for 
25       example, that are causing the parking problems in your 
00015
 1       alleyway, how do you know that they're associated with 
 2       this particular bar?  
 3                 MR. INGVOLDSTAD:  Well, I can see them 
 4       entering and exiting.  I mean that's the only thing 
 5       around there that time of night.  I can understand why 
 6       that location was chosen.  I happen to be one of two 
 7       residents on that block between 31st and 32nd.  Most 
 8       of it is industrial or manufacturing or something 
 9       else.
10                 MR. SCHRIMPF:  And how long have you lived 
11       there did you say?  
12                 MR. INGVOLDSTAD:  About 10 years, nine, 10 
13       years.
14                 MR. SCHRIMPF:  And this is a single-family 
15       residence you live in?  
16                 MR. INGVOLDSTAD:  It is a storefront with an 
17       apartment above.
18                 MR. SCHRIMPF:  That's all I have, Mr. 
19       Chairman.  Thank you.  
20                 ALDERMAN WADE:  I just would like to ask 
21       maybe one or two more questions.  So you did state 
22       that you weren't in opposition to the business 
23       operating there, your major concern is the impact that 
24       some of the activities are having on your quality of 
25       life; is that correct?  
00016
 1                 MR. INGVOLDSTAD:  In the capacity of which 
 2       it is being run, yeah, I am opposed ti it, but I'm not 
 3       opposed to the idea of someone pursuing their dreams 
 4       or aspirations of owning a business and running a 
 5       club.  
 6                 ALDERMAN WADE:  In that location?  
 7                 MR. INGVOLDSTAD:  Yeah, in that location, 
 8       that would be fine.  It's the capacity and the fact 
 9       that it's so out of hand, it is out of hand, and it's 
10       making my life difficult.  I've been living with it 
11       for some time, you know, feeling it out and figuring 
12       it out, but really, for me, it's getting to be too 
13       much, where I start wondering about having to move, 
14       having to relocate, which is something that I really 
15       don't believe that I can do under my financial 
16       situation.  So it's jeopardizing my life.  
17                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Stay there.  Does the 
18       applicant have any questions of this witness?  
19                 MS. STEWART:  I just discussed with my 
20       client whether or not he was aware that this resident 
21       did live in the neighborhood, and he immediately 
22       offered to make it -- he was not aware that this 
23       resident lived in the area and offered to make any 
24       kind of accommodation that needs to be made in terms 
25       of the parking.  But Questions has put in place a 
00017
 1       fairly elaborate system for eliminating cruising, 
 2       controlling parking, et cetera, and one more measure 
 3       to make sure that a resident that we didn't know 
 4       about, that my client didn't know about, could be 
 5       accommodated would not be a problem.  
 6                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Thank you.  Any other 
 7       questions by members of the committee of this witness?  
 8       Thank you David for your testimony.  Next person to 
 9       testify, please.   
10                 MS. LEE:  My name is Ting Hong Lee, and on 
11       behalf of what my husband had just said and due to the 
12       officer's record, I think everybody can see Question 
13       Question has brought on a major concern for us.  And 
14       we have two children who also live with us.  I hear 
15       it, I see it from my window what's going on outside.
16                 And I have spoken to the security people who 
17       parks in the driveway, who ignore my plea to let me 
18       into the alley.  They ask me to take a detour.  I 
19       thought that was very rude.  In front of the house is 
20       a bus stop, but people constantly park illegally.  I 
21       have telephoned police basically on the noise level 
22       and the illegal parking, and they have told me that 
23       they have better or more important things to attend to 
24       than to come to my neighborhood and attend to things 
25       that I was complaining about, and that's very 
00018
 1       upsetting.  I work for MPS, and if a child comes up to 
 2       me and says somebody's beating up on me, I can't tell 
 3       them I have better things on my agenda.
 4                 I think it's important that just based on 
 5       the violence --  From the police record I didn't even 
 6       know all those things happened.  I observed what 
 7       happens when people let out between 2:00 and 3:00 in 
 8       the morning.  Now, to be disturbed from 2:00 to 3:00 
 9       in the morning and having to get up at 5:00 in the 
10       morning to go to school to teach, that is very, very 
11       difficult.  And Question Question is operating on 
12       Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so that's very hard 
13       for me to work on Friday to teach mentally-challenged 
14       children.  For the sake of the neighborhood and the 
15       safety of people, I don't think we should wait until 
16       somebody gets shot and murdered to actually do 
17       something.  And these are people who have gone to this 
18       establishment and came out under the influence of 
19       alcohol.  So I would really ask the Council to 
20       consider renewing Questions Questions' alcohol 
21       license.
22                 And I want to remind the Council that the 
23       owner of Question Question had a previous location 
24       that he had to close due to some other violence 
25       problems, and now he's relocated onto North Avenue and 
00019
 1       31st Street, and he has brought the violence with him.  
 2       I really plead the Council reconsider renewing this 
 3       liquor license.  
 4                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Thank you.  Stay there 
 5       a minute.  Any members of the committee have any 
 6       questions of this witness?  Does the applicant have 
 7       any questions of this witness?  
 8                 MS. STEWART:  This wasn't the time that I 
 9       was going to try to make this a record, but we did 
10       prepare for your review a printout that reflects some 
11       of the crime in the surrounding area as a rebuttal to 
12       the point that Mr. Reid might have brought all the 
13       trouble to the North Avenue community.  We can 
14       certainly enter this into the record and show that the 
15       area around Questions is not concentration.  Far from 
16       it.  It's more of an oasis from some of these types of 
17       crimes.  And the infusion of extra security and extra 
18       precautions for a large 7,000 square foot club that 
19       has a capacity of 340 takes an enormous amount of 
20       control, and given the community, the age, the 
21       geography of the location of the area and the timing 
22       of operation, that being shortly after two other 
23       substantially similar types of clubs have been closed 
24       in Milwaukee, the record is arguably remarkable for 
25       the lack of violent crimes or anything that would give 
00020
 1       someone pause, and I think we're going to hear on the 
 2       positive side a number of supportive statements as to 
 3       why the club is making a positive contribution to the 
 4       area, and that being an area that our Mayor has 
 5       designated as one that he wants to revitalize.  
 6                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  What is the content of 
 7       your map here?  
 8                 MS. STEWART:  These maps reflect the 
 9       incidents of theft, aggravated assault, burglary, 
10       motor vehicle theft, robbery, shootings, and shots 
11       fired in this district.  
12                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  What's the origin of 
13       that, where did you get that information from?  
14                 MS. STEWART:  It's police record.  
15                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  So it's a print-off 
16       from the police record?.
17                 MS. STEWART:  Yes, it is.  
18                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Alderman Puente would 
19       move to make that statistical map part of the 
20       permanent record in this hearing, and hearing no 
21       objections, so ordered.  That's one set?  
22                 MS. STEWART:  One item.  
23                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Did you get those from 
24       COMPASS?  
25                 MS. STEWART:  Yes.  
00021
 1                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Does anybody have any 
 2       questions of this witness?  Thank you for your 
 3       testimony.  Is there anyone else here to testify in 
 4       objection, anyone else here to testify in objection?  
 5       Okay.  Now I'd like to hear from the people to testify 
 6       in support.  I'd like you to come one at a time to the 
 7       microphone, and if you could please have the people 
 8       just sit in the front row over here so you can get to 
 9       the microphone next.  Let me hear from everyone else, 
10       and then we'll give you a chance --  Go ahead, just 
11       identify yourself and give us your testimony.  
12                 MR. FIELDS:  Thank you, Mr. Chairman and 
13       Committee Members.  I'm State Representative Jason 
14       Fields here to testify on behalf of Questions 
15       Nightclub, and I'll make this quick and brief.
16                 I've known Devon Reid for several years now 
17       and have worked with him, worked with him in the 
18       community as far as mentoring young men, volunteering 
19       at community youth organizations as it relates to 
20       trying to get people on a right positive track.  And I 
21       do appreciate the lady and the gentleman's objection 
22       and their concerns, is but I'd be remiss if I didn't 
23       express this because I think what we're looking at is 
24       we're looking at a city-wide problem, and as elected 
25       officials we tend to want to address things from the 
00022
 1       back end.
 2                 For example, let's say we shut down 
 3       Questions.  Theoretically, we're not solving the 
 4       problem, we're just moving it go to another area.  
 5       Devon didn't bring crime to the neighborhood, crime 
 6       brought itself.  As an elected official, if I can't 
 7       make people obey the law, then neither can a business 
 8       owner, neither can the police.  So we have to start 
 9       questioning ourselves and looking at what is it we're 
10       really doing here.  His business is in the community, 
11       it's a viable business, it pays $9,000 in property 
12       taxes.  I think that's worth a lot.  He's a mentor to 
13       a lot of young African-American men, he has a staff of 
14       20, he's providing jobs in the community.  We can look 
15       at all of those tangible items and see what a positive 
16       effect it has.
17                 As an elected official, though, we have to 
18       look at the negative and really, really be honest with 
19       ourselves and say this is a city-wide problem.  Crime 
20       and the way people choose to disobey the law is a 
21       city-wide problem.  As elected officials, if we don't 
22       take the necessary step to make sure that we are 
23       making sure that there are businesses spread out in 
24       the City of Milwaukee for people to do things, then we 
25       are part of the problem.  I find it odd that we listen 
00023
 1       to kids -- we blame children and we blame these people 
 2       when they do bad things, but yet we don't hear them 
 3       when they say you're not providing something for us to 
 4       do, and if we're not as elected officials in the 
 5       business of providing opportunities and recreational 
 6       activities for our constituents, then what are we 
 7       doing here?
 8                 We have to be honest with ourselves, and 
 9       people don't like to hear the truth when it comes to 
10       politics.  I can't stop crime, and neither can you, 
11       neither can the police, neither can a business owner 
12       because crime is committed by morons who choose to do 
13       criminal activity.  That's the bottom line.  Now, 
14       outside of any policies or ordinances that would get 
15       people the opportunity to choose a different path, we 
16       can't stop a person making a choice to do something 
17       stupid.  And if we as elected officials can't do that, 
18       then we shouldn't look at business owners and expect 
19       them to be able to do something we can't do.
20                 It's a good business.  I think the city 
21       would be remiss if we ignore the fact that we need to 
22       come with the plan to answer the question of what are 
23       we going to provide for the people who will live in 
24       the city.  Mr. Reid took proactive steps in 
25       approaching the police, approaching the Common 
00024
 1       Council, approaching the Mayor and saying listen, 
 2       we're going to experience some issues because we're 
 3       shutting down other businesses, and theoretically, if 
 4       we're shutting down other businesses, more people are 
 5       going to come in his establishment.  That's a good and 
 6       bad, and that's something he can't control, that's 
 7       something we can't control.  He has a good business.  
 8       Many people respect and admire what's Devon's done.  I 
 9       frequent his business, and I found it to be a very 
10       viable business outside of the factors that he can't 
11       control, which I think later on you'll see that he's 
12       taken great steps and measures to provide balance and 
13       restore the faith in the community.
14                 There are things that we have to do as 
15       elected officials that are bigger than just Questions 
16       Nightclub.  We have to look at a city-wide initiative 
17       agenda, make sure Questions isn't out there by itself.  
18       We have to make sure that these people, our kids and 
19       these children and people have a place to go, 
20       something to do, and if we shut down other 
21       corporations and businesses and expect Devon or 
22       Questions to maintain it at all, then we're not being 
23       good fiduciaries of the city here.
24                 So I want to support what he's doing, and I 
25       do support it, and I think the bigger problem, the 
00025
 1       bigger solution to this is looking at how do we work 
 2       with Questions and all the other nightclub owners and 
 3       liquor and bar establishments to say what's our vision 
 4       for the city.  If we don't do that, then this 
 5       thankless job that we all hold is going to get a lot 
 6       more thankless.  So I would offer that to the 
 7       committee members and hope that you take into 
 8       consideration the positive outlooks that Devon's done, 
 9       the good things his business is capable of doing and 
10       really come up with a city-wide plan to help address 
11       this bigger issue because that's what we're dealing 
12       with, we're dealing with a bigger issue.  We just 
13       happen to be one small piece of the pie with Questions 
14       now, but it's bigger than that.  I would like to ask 
15       for the committee's support and that we give him a 
16       favorable vote, as we say on a state level.  Thank 
17       you, Mr. Chair and Committee Members.  I'll take any 
18       questions you got for me.
19                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Thank you, 
20       Representative.  Any questions of this witness before 
21       he leaves?  
22                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Mr. Chair.  Not a question 
23       but a statement.  If we don't believe we can stop 
24       crime, I feel really bad for the 27-1/2 years I spent 
25       on the Milwaukee Police Department in an effort to 
00026
 1       stop crime.  As a district commander, I did stop 
 2       crime.  So your statement that we can't do it is, I 
 3       believe, not true.  I would say that making a 
 4       statement like that, you don't give hope to anybody in 
 5       this city.  All the men and women on the Milwaukee 
 6       Police Department who put their lives on the line day 
 7       in and day out to stop crime, why are they doing it if 
 8       it ain't going to happen?
 9                 The other thing is all the men and woman who 
10       work in this city other than the police department, 
11       all my block watch groups, all those people who do 
12       this stuff voluntarily to make their neighborhood a 
13       little better, to enhance the quality of life, to stop 
14       crime, to make their life a little better, why are 
15       they doing all that if you're telling them it's 
16       hopeless, that we cannot stop crime?  I totally do not 
17       believe that because if I did believe that, I wouldn't 
18       be sitting here, I wouldn't have spent 27-1/2 years 
19       putting my life on the line, I wouldn't have been a 
20       commander directing almost 150 officers daily to do 
21       their job to stop crime.
22                 I agree with you that there are other things 
23       we have to do to help the people in this city to get 
24       jobs and such.  You refer to the situation as kids and 
25       children.  These aren't kids and children, these are 
00027
 1       adults.  Hopefully they're responsible.  They should 
 2       be responsible adults.  And this owner is responsible, 
 3       too, because he has a license in the City of 
 4       Milwaukee.  With that license comes responsibility.  
 5       Thank you, Mr. Chair.  
 6                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Thank you.  
 7                 MR. FIELDS:  Thank you, Alderman.  Let me be 
 8       clear.  When I say stop crime, one only needs to look 
 9       at the statistics to understand where I'm going with 
10       this.  We can deter crime, but if we could really stop 
11       crime -- and I understand all the officers who risk 
12       their lives every day -- when I say we can't stop 
13       crime, I mean we can't stop a person who's going to 
14       choose to do something wrong.  Now, if you believe 
15       that you can stop that person, that's fine.  I think 
16       it's false.  But I can't stop a person who wants to 
17       get a gun, go and rob a place if that's what they 
18       choose to do.  I can't stop that, and last time I 
19       checked, no elected official could stop that because 
20       if we could, you wouldn't have the incarceration rate 
21       of many African-American men if we could stop it.  Not 
22       putting it all on them, but the reality is you can't 
23       prevent somebody from choosing to do something wrong.  
24       You can't do it.  If God can't teach us to obey his 
25       laws, where do we get off thinking we can force 
00028
 1       somebody to choose to do what's right?  We can't do 
 2       it.  So when I say stop crime, I'm specifically 
 3       talking about the people who choose to do wrong, who 
 4       choose to do wrong.  Most people when they choose to 
 5       do wrong when they break the law, they know that, in 
 6       fact, they're breaking the law, but they continue to 
 7       do it, and whether you're there or whether I'm there 
 8       isn't stopping them.
 9                 You got people that shoot at the police, 
10       they see the police cars.  That didn't stop them, so 
11       the boys in blue didn't stop them, because they chose 
12       to do that, so that's what I mean.  
13                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  I appreciate everyone's 
14       comments on this.  We're getting beyond the scope of 
15       the hearing.  
16                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  I'd like to be allowed, I 
17       have to say something.  How do you measure something 
18       that's stopped when you don't see it?  You're saying 
19       about all the things you see when people go on 
20       shooting.  How many young men and women in this city 
21       don't do exactly what you say?  How many young men and 
22       women go to taverns and don't cause disturbances?  How 
23       many young men and women in the city decide to be 
24       responsible and not do criminal activity for whatever 
25       reason, whether it's somebody who influenced them 
00029
 1       through the church, through a positive role model, 
 2       through their grandparents, whatever?  You don't know 
 3       that.  Thank you, Mr. Chair.  
 4                 ALDERMAN DUDZIK:  Mr. Chairman.  I happen to 
 5       agree with Alderman Puente not only on the crime idea 
 6       but the idea that these are not children.  I don't 
 7       even believe that this is a city-wide problem, 
 8       Representative.  I'm counting my blessings today 
 9       thinking I'm only an elected official because at this 
10       level we do have the ability to stop crime, and one of 
11       the things I'm hoping to stop is the over capacity of 
12       this particular club at some point in the future.  So 
13       if you think you don't have the ability to have an 
14       effect on crime, I think you're wrong, and I think you 
15       do -- as Alderman Puente points out -- you do a great 
16       disservice to not only other elected officials 
17       but to the men and women, whether they're police 
18       officers or whether they're in neighborhood block 
19       watch, what have you, when you say that sort of stuff.  
20       I can't agree with him more strongly.
21                 You're not the first state elected official 
22       that has come up here and told this committee how it 
23       should address a problematic bar in the City of 
24       Milwaukee, but I can guarantee you you're not the guy 
25       that's getting the calls.  That's all I'm going to 
00030
 1       say.  I think it's wonderful that you're here, by the 
 2       way, but I think it's real disingenuous that you 
 3       should dictate to this committee what we can and we 
 4       can't do, what we should, what we shouldn't do when 
 5       you're not the guy getting the calls.  
 6                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  We will continue the 
 7       committee meeting.  We're going to try and stay right 
 8       on the subject.  Alderman Wade.
 9                 ALDERMAN WADE:  Representative, I just want 
10       to get some facts out of this.  You said a lot of 
11       things.  One of the things that you said -- and I'm 
12       looking at the history here on my computer of what has 
13       happened when his renewal has come around.  In 2003 it 
14       was a new location, 2004 it was granted with a change 
15       of entertainment, 2005 it was an automatic renewal, 
16       which from this committee's standpoint means there 
17       wasn't any criminal activity or police record.  And at 
18       any point if anybody disagrees with the facts that I'm 
19       presenting, please step forward and correct me.  In 
20       2006, which was last year, it was granted with a 
21       warning letter.  So that means one, two, three, four 
22       years of operation has been pretty much non- 
23       problematic, according to what I'm seeing as facts.
24                 What you're saying is that there have been 
25       some closings of some other licensed establishments 
00031
 1       that cater to a similar crowd as Mr. Reid and that has 
 2       had an impact this last year on things that have 
 3       occurred with his establishment.  Anyone would like to 
 4       comment on what those facts are, what clubs closed, 
 5       what do you think it was?  Because looking at this 
 6       record, it would say for four or five years he's been 
 7       a good corporate citizen, it's just been the last year 
 8       that it's been extremely problematic.  So what do you 
 9       feel, what do you think, or what were you talking 
10       about when you made those indications?  
11                 MR. FIELDS:  Thank you, Alderman.  I want to 
12       get back on-message here.  If we expect a person -- 
13       Devon has run a good business for the past several 
14       years, and when clubs close, for example, The Jungle 
15       downtown, it's only logical to expect more people to 
16       come to a good establishment, and unfortunately, you 
17       have to deal with the larger numbers, and 
18       theoretically, some person who chooses to do wrong, 
19       which we can't prevent, it will only surface, it's 
20       only a matter of time.  If you look at the facts, 
21       Devon's operating the club has been a consistent 
22       operating -- it's been a good business, it's viable to 
23       the community, and so I think we just need to be 
24       honest with ourselves and understand that when you 
25       shut down or you don't give opportunities for 
00032
 1       recreational activities, when it's not spread out, 
 2       then inadvertently we're going to put some clubs or 
 3       some people in a position where they bear the brunt of 
 4       all the activities.  
 5                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Thank you. 
 6                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Mr. Chair, if I may.  How 
 7       does that impact when his responsibility for checking 
 8       IDs and whoever fails not to do it and you have 
 9       presence of underage, you have over-capacity, what 
10       does that have to do with what you're saying, Mr. 
11       Fields?  
12                 MS. STEWART:  If I could just interject 
13       briefly here.  
14                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Please.  
15                 MS. STEWART:  In light of some of these 
16       closings, Mr. Reid met with his alderman, met with 
17       Police Chief Harpole, was part of a North Avenue 
18       Community Development Committee, he took some 
19       proactive steps in light of the anticipated problems 
20       that were expected to escalate with having to deal 
21       with the extra crowds.  Among these -- and I have a 
22       list of all the steps and policies that the club has 
23       put in place -- but among these, he's spent about 
24       $4,000 on a card system at the door, screens for -- 
25       now he can catch underage people, he can catch people 
00033
 1       that have caused any trouble whatsoever at the club 
 2       before, and when they run their ID it will say that 
 3       they're banned from the club.  These are some of the 
 4       people that get put out into the parking lot that the 
 5       security people have to deal with if they're angered 
 6       at not being admitted to the club.
 7                 But as an establishment owner, he's taking 
 8       proactive steps to avoid these kinds of problems 
 9       happening at his establishment.  This also helps -- it 
10       gives a firm count.  There's security cameras at the 
11       back door, there's security cameras inside and out as 
12       well as a hired security staff inside and out.  There 
13       are a number of steps that have been taken to control 
14       these types of activities.
15                 And maybe in light of what Mr. Fields has 
16       said, you know, I think there are some things that are 
17       very difficult to control with the very best efforts 
18       of the very best police force, including people 
19       driving by on New Year's Eve shortly after 12:00 
20       firing guns into the air.  And maybe there is some 
21       sort of a solution for this, but these kinds of 
22       problems are exceedingly difficult to control, and in 
23       an area like this with the type of problems that it 
24       has constituitively had, an establishment owner that 
25       puts in all these measures to control cruising, 
00034
 1       capacity, underage, fighting activity, that sort of 
 2       thing, this is what you would hope someone would do in 
 3       opening and trying to run an establishment like this 
 4       and to create an area that is a beacon of control in 
 5       an area that lacks it.
 6                 And that's what I think he has done.  I 
 7       don't know really very many more steps that an owner 
 8       of an establishment like this can take.  I was 
 9       impressed when another attorney told me about Mr. 
10       Reid's case, I was impressed by all the steps he had 
11       taken because I know how strict this committee is 
12       about approvals.  So that's my point there.  
13                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Thank you.  We're going 
14       to continue with the testimony.  
15                 ALDERMAN WADE:  I have some questions.  
16                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  All right, Alderman 
17       Wade.  
18                 ALDERMAN WADE:  Your statement was that in 
19       anticipation of other clubs closing that Mr. Reid 
20       proactively met with the alderman of the area, the 
21       police chief of the area, and sat down and tried to 
22       have dialogue regarding how these closings may impact 
23       his business and what he could do to deal with the 
24       impact of these closings on his business; is that what 
25       you're stating?  
00035
 1                 MS. STEWART:  That's exactly right.  
 2                 ALDERMAN WADE:  And out of those meetings, 
 3       did some type of points of attack or -- 
 4                 MS. STEWART:  Absolutely.  
 5                 ALDERMAN WADE:  -- a game plan come out of 
 6       those meetings, and whatever that agreement was among 
 7       the people in that meeting, were those agreements 
 8       honored by all parties, or what's the situation there?  
 9       Let me just say I got to give Mr. Reid credit for 
10       being proactive and understanding how this could 
11       impact your business and trying to be on the front end 
12       of it.  I mean, I wish that some of the business 
13       owners in my district could read the tea leaves, as 
14       well.  But I want to know exactly what was agreed upon 
15       and what happened with that agreement.  
16                 MR. REID:  Thank you, Alderman Wade.  We met 
17       with Alderman Hines' office with Carol, we discussed 
18       what may happen with the closings, some of the things 
19       I was concerned about with maybe an escalation in 
20       violence or other things that closed these other clubs 
21       down.  They were very supportive.  They said if we had 
22       any questions we could meet, we could communicate, 
23       just let them know what was going on.
24                 We also met with Captain Harpole of the 3rd 
25       District to also let him know our concerns before we 
00036
 1       had any violent incidents.  He stated that we can keep 
 2       the lines of communication open.  My biggest concern 
 3       was that while we're weeding out the undesirables that 
 4       we wouldn't, I guess, get gigged for it and end up 
 5       here upon a committee thing where I'm sitting in front 
 6       of you here right now.
 7                 We did not want to prepare to be a bad club.  
 8       Captain Harpole said up until maybe the last four or 
 9       five months that we were a model club that he used as 
10       an example for other clubs in this area.  That's a 
11       quote by him, and we try to adhere to that.  With the 
12       closing of these other places, we had new faces we 
13       didn't recognize, new people that didn't know our 
14       policies, our rules.  We couldn't just talk to them to 
15       kind of talk them out of their angry states, we had to 
16       really deal with some elements that we weren't 
17       familiar with.  
18                 ALDERMAN WADE:  Thank you.  
19                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Alderman Puente.
20                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  You mentioned these things 
21       that he implemented such as the cameras, ID scanners.  
22       When did that take place?  
23                 MR. REID:  The ID system we ordered, it took 
24       awhile for us to get in, but we didn't get that in 
25       until the first week of December.  
00037
 1                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  2006?  
 2                 MR. REID:  Correct.  It was ordered two 
 3       months before that.  We spent a lot of time taking 
 4       fake IDs.  I used to shred them, but what I started 
 5       doing was collecting them.  This is actually a month's 
 6       worth right here, where I have almost 60 either fake 
 7       IDs or someone's cousin, brother, or whoever they want 
 8       to use that's of the same size or height.  This is 
 9       what we go through on a weekly basis with people 
10       trying to get in either underage or someone that may 
11       not have an ID.   We've done this all the time.  We've 
12       always shredded them, but what I wanted to do is just 
13       bring them because this is just things that not only I 
14       but other bar owners deal with I'm sure that you're 
15       aware of.
16                 Some people do slide through the cracks 
17       because we can't, without any facial recognition 
18       software, be able to say you and your sister look     
19       alike but this is not you.  It's almost impossible for 
20       us to do sometime, but we do try our best.  
21                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  In talking with Captain 
22       Harpole, did you discuss the fake IDs that you 
23       confiscate and what to do with them and getting the 
24       police involved?  
25                 MR. REID:  Yes, I did.  
00038
 1                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  What did he say?  
 2                 MR. REID:  I told him that we did keep them, 
 3       that I could turn them over to the police department, 
 4       but I do shred them.  Don't quote me on this, but I 
 5       thought his response was just continue to do what you 
 6       do with the IDs.  But if you want to take them right 
 7       now, you can have them.
 8                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  I don't personally want 
 9       them, no.  I see on December 8th you were cited for 
10       presence of underage, of '06.  
11                 MR. REID:  That is correct.  In my defense, 
12       let me explain how that works.  That was out 
13       there, they came in apparently looking for some 
14       underage individuals.  These individuals use -- 
15       there's two of them -- they use fake IDs.  One of them 
16       admitted to the police that they used a fake ID, and 
17       the other one admitted to myself and another police 
18       officer that they used a fake ID.  The police officers 
19       that wrote up a ticket for some reason didn't put that 
20       on there.  I still have to go to court on that, and I 
21       do have the police officer as a witness because I was 
22       very verbal in the fact that this was an admitted 
23       offense, it was something we couldn't catch.  That is 
24       something that that individual should be ticketed for, 
25       and it should not reflect back up on the club.
00039
 1                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  I assume you did not have 
 2       your ID scanner on that date?  
 3                 MR. REID:  No, I did not.  But we did bring 
 4       it along with us, if you want to see an example of how 
 5       it works.  It's a very efficient tool.
 6                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  I've seen them.  I don't.  
 7       I don't know if other members do.
 8                 ALDERMAN WADE:  I haven't seen it, but I'm 
 9       hungry, too.  Let's keep that one on hold.
10                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  You can go to his 
11       establishment and see it, too.  
12                 ALDERMAN WADE:  I can do that, I could do 
13       that.  
14                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Mayor Pratt.  
15                 MAYOR PRATT:  Thank you very much, Mr. 
16       Chair.  I was pleased to see the couple that lived in 
17       the neighborhood appear today, and based on my 
18       experience with Devon Reid, I know that Devon will 
19       respond to your concerns.
20                 In my experience, it's been this:  About 25 
21       years ago, both Devon and I served in the US Army 
22       Reserves 34th Division on 51st and Silver Spring, then 
23       approximately 15 years later he called me and said he 
24       wanted to open a club in then my aldermanic district, 
25       the 1st District, which he did, 5300 block on North 
00040
 1       Green Bay, the club was called Juniors.  He operated 
 2       the club for 10 years, and I'm going to say for nine 
 3       years there were very few, if any, problems, and that 
 4       last year there were some problems.  He chose to close 
 5       the club.  There was some neighborhood objections, but 
 6       he chose to sell the club and sell it to Eastbrook 
 7       Church and School.
 8                 I do know Devon as a young man who's above 
 9       board, will respond, neighbors, to your concerns and 
10       is a person who employs 20 folks in his club and is 
11       concerned about not just the neighborhood but the City 
12       of Milwaukee.  So I can testify to the character of 
13       the man, that he's a very positive person, not just 
14       for the neighborhood in which he lives but for the 
15       City of Milwaukee.  
16                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Thank you.  Any 
17       questions of Mayor Pratt?  Thank you.  Sir, name and 
18       address for the record, please.  
19                 MR. RAMEY:  Lanelle Ramey, my address is 
20       4749 North 49th Street, 53218.  
21                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  How far away are you 
22       from the bar?  
23                 MR. RAMEY:  Probably about a mile from 
24       actually the club itself.  Me and Devon do a lot of 
25       community work together.  I'm an executive director 
00041
 1       with the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee.  
 2       Devon has been actually to my club several times to 
 3       talk to the kids to talk about entrepreneurship and 
 4       things like that.  We've also come in the club area 
 5       and do things like community service work, clean up in 
 6       the area, and he's talked about the importance of 
 7       establishing a community base and how you have to 
 8       clean up after yourself.  We've also done toy drives, 
 9       where people who will come to the club actually bring 
10       toys for the Boys & Girls Club or fund raisers to help 
11       fund certain programs.  I know recently we've sat and 
12       talked, and Devon had actually began to purchase homes 
13       in the neighborhood to help revitalize the 
14       neighborhood and the community.  He's working very 
15       hard to make some changes over there visually, as 
16       well.
17                 To the family that was here earlier, he had 
18       no clue that there were any residents in that area, or 
19       he would have brought them to the table to discuss   
20       how -- 
21                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Mr. Chair, a point of 
22       order.  As discussed in a previous incident, I don't 
23       think anybody here is denying Devon, that he's a good 
24       guy and that.  I think what the notice here is about 
25       is gunshots, racing, da, da, da, and I think we need 
00042
 1       to stick to that agenda again just as we did in that 
 2       last incident that you pointed out.  
 3                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Thank you for your 
 4       comments.  Stick to the point of the items that this 
 5       is noticed for.  
 6                 MR. RAMEY:  And I also frequent the area, as 
 7       well.  And a lot of times, I'm there maybe once or 
 8       twice a week.  My wife goes, never have any problems.  
 9       Even when there's a small altercation, the security 
10       team that they have in place deal with those 
11       circumstances right away.  The problem is when, as he 
12       mentioned earlier, when these other clubs began to 
13       close, things began to change drastically.  People 
14       wanted to be in the hot spot, people wanted to go to 
15       what was new and what was hot.  So the corrective 
16       action plans that he put into play to deal with those 
17       situations began --  He couldn't control some of those 
18       issues.  But that's what I really wanted to say.  
19                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Thank you.  Any 
20       questions of this witness?  
21                 ALDERMAN DUDZIK:  Sir, what's the latest 
22       you've ever been at this club?  
23                 MR. RAMEY:  I've been there as late as 2:00 
24       a.m.  
25                 ALDERMAN DUDZIK:  And your wife, as well?  
00043
 1                 MR. RAMEY:  Yes.
 2                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  So, sir, is your testimony 
 3       to say that you have not seen any type of disorderly 
 4       conduct, any of the things that are on the notice?  
 5                 MR. RAMEY:  No.  What I'm saying, the things 
 6       I've seen they've dealt with right away.  I know in 
 7       particular he read one where there was 200 people 
 8       fighting, and I think I was there that night when he 
 9       mentioned the date.  There was a couple people 
10       fighting, everybody saying let's get away from the 
11       fight so security can do their jobs.  I've been there 
12       when somebody starts to argue and security has to come 
13       during the arguments to end the situations.  
14                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  I believe that was over- 
15       capacity.  
16                 MR. RAMEY:  No.  I think it was another 
17       incident where they mentioned they noticed someone 
18       running out the back and then when they came in, they 
19       noticed 200 people fighting in the club.  I think that 
20       was the verbage they used.
21                 LEGISLATIVE AIDE:  No. 15.  
22                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Have you ever been there 
23       when it was over capacity?  
24                 MR. RAMEY:  I think once when it was like 
25       350, that's when it was brought up.  
00044
 1                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  If it is the incident No. 
 2       16, it does cite it for capacity, so that was 9/1 of 
 3       '06.  
 4                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Thank you.  Next person 
 5       to testify, please.  
 6                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  My name is Joe Schneider, 
 7       Strategic Protection Agency, 1930 South 4th Street.  
 8                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  How close do you live 
 9       for the establishment?  
10                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  Personally I live on the 
11       south side of Milwaukee so not that close.  
12                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  And your testimony.  
13                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  Basically, from all the 
14       places that I work at, Devon has the best security 
15       team out there.  We work very close with in-house 
16       security, I myself who is a uniformed armed guard 
17       outside along with three other uniformed armed guards 
18       implement their strategies on how to keep order on the 
19       outside.  But a lot of the problems that happen 
20       outside are usually further down the street.  In such 
21       case of New Year's Eve, all the shots fired were down 
22       the street.
23                 I'm the supervisor for the account, so I'm 
24       constantly aware of what's going on at that specific 
25       location.  We have a good rapport with the police 
00045
 1       department, work hand in hand with them.  And as far 
 2       as the neighbors, the parking problems and things of 
 3       that nature, I can give them my word that I will 
 4       implement something to make sure that their life is 
 5       more pleasant.  But like I said, as far as the new 
 6       card system that we got with IDs, it could be 20 
 7       degrees below zero and we have a line outside waiting 
 8       to get in because the IDs have to be checked and the 
 9       pictures have to be taken.  So that's the first time 
10       I've seen this in my line of work.
11                 So again, all I can say is that Devon is 
12       going above and beyond to try to make it a safe 
13       environment for everybody.  And the actions of others 
14       that choose to be ignorant and make dumb decisions, I 
15       really can't see how he should be accountable for 
16       that.  
17                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  I have a question for 
18       you.  You talked about the shots being fired down the 
19       block.  Was that New Year's Day?  
20                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  Yeah, New Year's morning.  
21                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Any of those people 
22       that were down the block involved in this shooting or 
23       hanging around or actually firing, were they in the 
24       bar previously?  
25                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  None of them were.  I didn't 
00046
 1       see any of the faces.  It was always --  As far as I 
 2       could see, I seen a couple guys come on to the porch, 
 3       fire off the shots, then go back inside.  Everybody at 
 4       that time -- no shots were being fired, I moved 
 5       everybody close against the wall, take cover because 
 6       nobody could see where the shots were coming.  And the 
 7       one stray bullet that did strike the car, I was 
 8       standing next to the car, and again, nobody knows 
 9       where they came from.  It's just all random gunfire 
10       around the whole neighborhood.  
11                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  So you don't know 
12       whether it was or was not caused by people that had 
13       frequented the bar?  
14                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  I say it wasn't.  
15                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Any other questions of 
16       this witness?  
17                 ALDERMAN DUDZIK:  Mr. Chairman.  Sir, how 
18       long have you been employed at this location?  
19                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  This location, six months.  
20                 ALDERMAN DUDZIK:  For the last six months?  
21                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  Correct.  
22                 ALDERMAN DUDZIK:  Was your security company 
23       employed before that?  
24                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  I don't know how long we had 
25       the exact account with Questions.  
00047
 1                 MR. REID:  If I may, once we saw that there 
 2       was a shift getting ready to happen with our 
 3       clientele, we decided to employ an outside perimeter 
 4       security force to ensure that it was a lot safer 
 5       outside as well as the crew we had inside.  So once we 
 6       knew that these other places were closing down, I took 
 7       the steps to make sure that we added some security, 
 8       the corrective steps to make sure we added security to 
 9       really patrol the perimeter, to watch the cars, to 
10       actually make sure the neighborhood was safe.  
11                 ALDERMAN DUDZIK:  So he's been employed 
12       since, what, October last year, August?  
13                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  It was August.  
14                 MR. REID:  I believe so, August.  
15                 LEGISLATIVE AIDE:  Mr. Chair.  The shots 
16       that were fired were a totally different incident in 
17       the district.
18                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  So what is your position 
19       of responsibility?  What do you do there besides what 
20       you've already testified to?  Do you check IDs prior 
21       to them getting this ID scanner?  
22                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  Not really.  That was solely 
23       on the in-house security.
24                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  You do outside security?  
25                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  We mainly focus on the 
00048
 1       outside.  The cruising, when somebody is escorted out, 
 2       we make sure that they get off the property safe, that 
 3       the altercation doesn't spill out into the streets, at 
 4       closing we pretty much shut down 30th Street so that 
 5       there's limited cruising and eventually everybody 
 6       disperses.  But if there's a question about an ID, it 
 7       might be fake or not them, there's times that we look 
 8       at them, give them our opinion on it.  But other than 
 9       that, that's the extent of our ID checks.
10                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  So who's checking the IDs 
11       then?
12                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  The security that works     
13       in-house.
14                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Which is not connected to 
15       you at all?  
16                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  No.  We're subcontracted.
17                 MR. SCHRIMPF:  Mr. Schneider, I thought I 
18       just heard you say that you shut down 30th Street?  
19                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  We'll use a barricade so 
20       that traffic is only leaving out of 30th Street -- 
21       31st.
22                 MR. SCHRIMPF:  And how do you get the 
23       authority to shut down a street?  
24                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  I guess we don't have the 
25       authority to shut down the street, but it keeps us 
00049
 1       clearing out pretty good so the police can get in if 
 2       they have to and if there's an emergency, we get 
 3       people out of there.
 4                 MR. SCHRIMPF:  What happens if there's a 
 5       resident that needs to go down 31st to their house?  
 6                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  They get let in.  We shut 
 7       down pretty much half the street.  If we don't shut it 
 8       down, pretty much the cars pile up and it gets 
 9       congested.  So we use a barricade just to shut down 
10       basically traffic coming in from North Avenue.  
11                 MR. REID:  If I may, Detective.  What we do, 
12       we shut down half the street so we don't have 
13       basically the cars going against each other, and what 
14       we try to do is control the flow so we move the 
15       patrons out of the area as quickly as possible when we 
16       close.  We had a problem with cruising in the 
17       summertime, and I know that was a city-wide issue.  We 
18       worked with Alderman Hines' office in the 3rd District 
19       to come up with solutions on how we could probably not 
20       stop it but help to eliminate it, and we came up with 
21       a solution of having my guys outside with the 
22       flashlights having cars turn right, going in a certain 
23       direction instead of trying to turn left and blocking 
24       traffic and just moving them out of the area as 
25       quickly as possible.
00050
 1                 MR. SCHRIMPF:  These vehicles that you're 
 2       talking about at closing time, these were vehicles 
 3       that were operated by the patrons of your 
 4       establishment?  
 5                 MR. REID:  Correct.  Not always, actually.  
 6       When it comes to closing, there's cars that come from 
 7       all over because they know the clubs are going to let 
 8       out, so they come from all over the city or wherever 
 9       and start to cruise.
10                 MR. SCHRIMPF:  Sometimes I use North Avenue 
11       on Friday nights at about that time.  I would be real 
12       irritated.  
13                 LEGISLATIVE AIDE:  It's a dead end.  It's an 
14       industrial park and a dead end where they are, to keep 
15       them from going into a residential area.  And 
16       originally they had permits, as well.  
17                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  So sir, during your tour 
18       of duty, have you seen the things that were on the 
19       notice, the disorderly, the littering, the loitering, 
20       the cruising, did you witness all that, the 
21       overcrowding?   
22                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  I can't say I witnessed the 
23       overcrowding because I don't know.  
24                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Tell me what you have 
25       witnessed on the notice.  
00051
 1                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  The disorderly conducts and 
 2       loitering you can get on right away, make everybody 
 3       constantly if they're coming in the club and standing 
 4       in line, if you're not coming in the club, leave the 
 5       property.  We don't allow anybody to stand out front 
 6       and just stand around not doing nothing.  We're very 
 7       strict on that, and we always have been.  As far as 
 8       disorderly conducts, they are told once or twice to 
 9       leave the property.  If not, then the police are 
10       called in.  Usually if there's anything going on 
11       outside, we try our best to neutralize it.  We can't 
12       --  We have no choice --  
13                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  On the notice it says 
14       causing the normal flow of traffic on roadways to be 
15       impeded.  You obviously said that you barricade the 
16       roads, so you must have witnessed that, hum? 
17                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  I barricaded 30th.
18                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  But that has to do with 
19       the normal flow of traffic.  
20                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  On North Avenue, correct.
21                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  You've never been there 
22       when the police were there and they were counting 
23       people as they are coming out?  
24                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  Usually when the police are 
25       there, they go inside.  I feel that's a police matter, 
00052
 1       so I let them do whatever they're doing in there.
 2                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  I thought you had a close 
 3       relationship with them.  
 4                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  I do, but I don't ask them 
 5       their business.
 6                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  You're not aware of any 
 7       incident where the officers went into the tavern and 
 8       counted the people as they came out?  
 9                 MR. SCHNEIDER:  I know they went in there a 
10       couple times to count them, but I never knew the 
11       results.  
12                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Thank you for your 
13       testimony.  Next person to testify, please.  
14                 MS. KIMBROUGH:  Hi.  I'm Darlene Kimbrough, 
15       I live at 3450 North 99th Street, northwest side, and 
16       I'm the door person at Questions, so I do the counting 
17       and checking IDs when they come inside.
18                 Basically, what we do to try to control the 
19       disorderliness is if we do have someone that we have 
20       to put out, we're able to go into the system, pull up 
21       their ID and then ban them so they can't come back and 
22       cause another problem.  And the machine also can count 
23       the number of patrons per night.
24                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  You must have forgot to 
25       put your batteries in there.  
00053
 1                 MS. KIMBROUGH:  No.  We just recently got it 
 2       to make sure that we do control everything.  
 3                 MR. REID:  If I may, we purchased that 
 4       system in order to establish some controls.  Before 
 5       the first time it happened, I guess it was out of 
 6       control, the second time we had some incidents with 
 7       employees doing some back door issues.  We decided to 
 8       purchase this to establish controls, not only to help 
 9       us with a mechanical clicker but technologically get 
10       some things in line so if the police or anything came 
11       in we can show them a count.  Of course there's people 
12       going out and coming in, but we try to keep a count of 
13       who's going out, who's coming in.  The count on the 
14       computer may be different, but it gives us a better 
15       angle on what to go by, then we kind of can use it as 
16       a gauge to see how many people we have in there.  So 
17       we did put it into place after those capacity tickets.
18                 And I researched on the different kind of ID 
19       scanners, and it took me about three or four months to 
20       choose this particular one.  I chose it because of the 
21       different features that it has.  We can go back and 
22       look for someone that came in last month, if they were 
23       a witness to an incident here, they were here on 
24       December 16th.  We actually scan their IDs, they stand 
25       in front of the system, we take pictures of them.  So 
00054
 1       basically, we can go back and pull up their picture 
 2       and say that's the person that did whatever the 
 3       incident may have done and put banned for fighting, 
 4       banned for drugs, banned for disorderly conduct or 
 5       whatever it is.  Being in place in a month, we do have 
 6       a few people that's been banned already, and it will 
 7       take a little while to really get people to understand 
 8       that we have a way of catching them now, we have a way 
 9       of reporting them to the police.  If we need to print 
10       something out to give to the police officers when they 
11       come, we can do that.  
12                 ALDERMAN WADE:  Mr. Reid, you spoke about 
13       the overcrowding and you said one of the incidents 
14       dealt with some employees letting folks in the back 
15       door.  Is that what you're insinuating, that the 
16       overcrowding may have come from that?  And if so, 
17       could you elaborate on that, please.  
18                 MR. REID:  On the second incident, we found 
19       out there was an employee that was actually taking 
20       money because we were at capacity and it was a 
21       poppular place to be on some particular nights.  There 
22       was an employee that was actually taking money to let 
23       someone in the back door.  Actually have a security 
24       camera focused on the back door, and I started to 
25       review the camera, and sure enough, he's letting 
00055
 1       people in left and right.  Really I'm stationed at the 
 2       front door, I basically greet almost all the customers 
 3       that come in just to make sure we're not over capacity 
 4       because truthfully, I can't afford another ticket, and 
 5       I don't want to sit here in front of you guys next 
 6       year.  And we find out this guy was back there taking 
 7       money, letting people in, adding to our capacity.
 8                 We found that out.  I had to show it to him 
 9       because, of course, he denied it because he had no 
10       idea that camera was there.  I showed him letting in 
11       numerous amounts of people, and I had to terminate 
12       him, of course.  
13                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  When did you set up 
14       this machine and start using it?  
15                 MR. REID:  December, almost the first to the 
16       second week in December.  Then we started saving these 
17       IDs, then we started -- the people we started 
18       catching.  So this is really a month's worth of    
19       fake -- 
20                 ALDERMAN WADE:  That's a month?  
21                 MS. KIMBROUGH:  This is just a month's 
22       worth.  We've been doing this regular.  We've been 
23       catching people by eye, but I used to shred them, but 
24       now I figured I'd just save them.  
25                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Thank you.  
00056
 1                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  When did you become the 
 2       door person, at the time they had the machine?  
 3                 MS. KIMBROUGH:  The whole two years they've 
 4       been open, I've always been the door person.  
 5                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Then I have a question.  
 6       Did you ever use a counter?  
 7                 MS. KIMBROUGH:  Yes.
 8                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  You must have been 
 9       there on the over-capacity nights.
10                 MS. KIMBROUGH:  I have a hand counter, hand 
11       clicker that I use, and I watch and make sure we don't 
12       go over, I have a little sign that I put up, no one 
13       else comes in.  
14                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  So you're telling me 
15       then that those 100-some people over came in through 
16       the back door?  
17                 MR. REID:  I believe so.  And if I may, too, 
18       what I've also noticed, because she's at the door, 
19       she's taking the money, she's actually scanning.  We 
20       do basically almost a two- or three-point check.  We 
21       have the person outside looking for your ID, we'll 
22       check them again right before we line them up to take 
23       a picture, and then she'll scan the IDs.  We 
24       implemented that three-point step just to make sure we 
25       try to catch as many IDs as we can.  I've also noticed 
00057
 1       she's at the door doing all these things by herself, 
 2       so that's why I station myself at the door, to make 
 3       sure I can lend any assistance that was necessary.  
 4                 ALDERMAN DUDZIK:  Mr. Reid, you've been in 
 5       this business for some time, it appears.  Now I'm 
 6       starting to become concerned because apparently you 
 7       can't tell the different between a room with 300 
 8       people and a room with 600 people.  And I can tell 
 9       you, I realize that this room is far smaller than the 
10       one that you deal with, I can tell the difference when 
11       this room's got 20 people in it versus when it's got 
12       40 people in it.  
13                 MR. REID:  Alderman Dudzik, in the beginning 
14       when we started, we have actually 7,000 square feet of 
15       space, our capacity is 340.  You can put that whole 
16       capacity on the dance floor while they're dancing and 
17       the rest of the place will look empty.  I did not 
18       realize that in the beginning, and that accounted for 
19       the first incident.  Once we realized that something 
20       went wrong, then we implemented controls right away.  
21       The dishonest employee was something I could not 
22       control, I had to terminate him right away.  
23                 ALDERMAN DUDZIK:  What do you mean?  Your 
24       second incident, you were 200 people over capacity.  
25       I'm going to say it again.  I know the difference in 
00058
 1       this room when there is almost twice as many people in 
 2       here, 80 percent more people in here than when there's 
 3       not, and somebody that's been in the business as long 
 4       as you have has a very weak veil in between those, as 
 5       far as I'm concerned, if you're sitting here telling 
 6       me you can't tell the difference between 540 people 
 7       and 300 whatever.  
 8                 MR. REID:  Let me explain that.  I'm at the 
 9       front door.  I cannot see the entirety of the club 
10       from where I was stationed.  I'm assisting her at the 
11       front door.  
12                 ALDERMAN DUDZIK:  When you're at the front 
13       door, you never leave the front door? 
14                 MR. REID:  Not after that first incident.  I 
15       try to stay at the front door, that's correct.  I may 
16       walk through, but that night, I didn't, so if someone 
17       came in the back door, there's not too much I can do.  
18                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Any other questions of 
19       this witness?  Thank you for your testimony.  Next 
20       person to testify.  Name and address for the record.  
21                 MS. KEETON:  Hi, my name is Zora Keeton, I 
22       live at 9611 West Hampton Avenue on the northwest 
23       side, 53225.  
24                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  And your testimony.  
25                 MS. KEETON:  And my testimony is this:  I've 
00059
 1       been going to Questions now for over a year, and I 
 2       love the spot.  I mean, I'm a working professional 
 3       corporate.  I like to go there and relax.  I don't go 
 4       there for no confrontations.  It's always been a 
 5       wonderful place for me to go.  My friends have started 
 6       to go, and even if they don't go, I go by myself.  
 7       Devon and his staff are very respectful, they check 
 8       everything.  I've been coming there going over a year, 
 9       and they still ask me for my ID, and they still scan 
10       it, and I still have to get my picture taken.
11                 And security, they are on top of it, if you 
12       ask me.  If something is to happen, they are 
13       immediately on top of it.  They treat you like family 
14       over there.  I love what Devon has done.  I frequent 
15       other venues and clubs and what have you, and I 
16       respect what Devon and his team and Scott are doing at 
17       Questions and the changes that they've implemented.  I 
18       was there when it was quiet and nothing was going on, 
19       and we saw the shift, and I've even -- I mean, I said 
20       oh, I see a change here in our crowd.  The system came 
21       in where they were scanning cards, and he brought in 
22       extra security staff, and they do make sure you get to 
23       your car safe, and they will make sure you're okay if 
24       something does go down.
25                 I think that is a wonderful venue.  I love 
00060
 1       going there even just to go sit back on Tuesday nights 
 2       and just have tacos and enjoy the karaoke, but I love 
 3       going to Questions and I think it's an awesome venue 
 4       and that Devon and his staff is doing an awesome job 
 5       at trying to maintain and keep things on a calm level.  
 6       Even as far as parking, and I'm not sure if it's 
 7       Devon's or if it's the gentleman down the street, but 
 8       they do offer you parking where the guy will take your 
 9       car and park it and to protect it and watch it.  There 
10       are other measures that are being taken to keep 
11       Questions a nice place to go.  If you go on-line and 
12       you're looking for night places, Questions come up as 
13       one of the places that would be a nice night life 
14       place to attend.
15                 I just wanted to give my peace on what I 
16       experience when I do go there and how I'm treated and 
17       I see the attitude and the treatment with other 
18       people, as well.  
19                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Thank you.  Any 
20       questions of this witness?  
21                 ALDERMAN DUDZIK:  Just so I'm clear, how 
22       close do you live to this establishment?  
23                 MS. KEETON:  Oh, I'm on the northwest side, 
24       I'm at 9600 block of Hampton.  But I'm at Questions, 
25       I'm there until they close.  And even if there's 
00061
 1       chaos, I sit back, I take it easy, I sit there.  I get 
 2       there as early as when they open, and I'm there when 
 3       they close.  I think that they're doing a fantastic 
 4       job and try to maintain a wonderful place for a person 
 5       like myself that I'm conservative, but I like hip-hop, 
 6       too.  I like blues and other things, but I don't want 
 7       to have to feel like I've got to go and sit with the 
 8       old crowd to enjoy or I got to go somewhere where I 
 9       don't feel very comfortable, which is other 
10       establishments.  When I'm in a place that's well 
11       decorated inside and a calm place to go and have a 
12       nice drink and go home for the evening.
13                 MR. SCHRIMPF:  Mr. Chairman, one quick 
14       question.  Ma'am, did I hear you say there are times 
15       when you've seen chaos there?  Did you use that word?  
16                 MS. KEETON:  No.  I said if there is chaos 
17       there.  For instance, if women get to arguing or 
18       something on the outside, I mean I'm there until 
19       close, I'm always there.  So I'm there very frequent, 
20       and if something happen, the security staff, they step 
21       up immediately and they get in the middle and they 
22       control it and they take care of it.  I like that.  
23       You want to be somewhere where you feel you're safe 
24       and it's controlled.  What if something was to happen 
25       and there wasn't anyone there?  I don't want to be in 
00062
 1       that type of environment, but I like it that it's 
 2       controlled.
 3                 MR. SCHRIMPF:  Okay.  Thank you.
 4                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  So have you been there and 
 5       noticed any disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, 
 6       anything that's on the notice here, normal flow of 
 7       traffic being rerouted, anything like that? 
 8                 MS. KEETON:  Like I said, the majority of 
 9       the time when I get there, I'm there and I enjoy 
10       myself and I'm there until it's closed, and by the 
11       time I'm leaving out, the flow of the traffic is going 
12       down the street.  And I mean you see the traffic, it 
13       goes backwards and forwards, and there are other 
14       venues that are down the street that you see cars 
15       passing.  I pass them when I'm leaving from the other 
16       establishments that's down the street, so you don't 
17       know which way these cars and automobiles are coming 
18       and which way they're going, but the flow is normally 
19       just a regular flow by the time I'm coming out.  
20                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  You've never noticed any 
21       disorderly conduct or any type of disturbing the peace 
22       or no fights, over capacity, you've never been there 
23       during any of that?  
24                 MS. KEETON:  Well, I can't say that I know 
25       how to look at the people to count how many is in 
00063
 1       there or what their capacity level was or is, but 
 2       sometimes Questions is really nice.  Everybody likes 
 3       to come there.  So yes, some nights it's crowded and 
 4       some nights it's a handful of people that's there just 
 5       for entertainment purposes.  
 6                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Were you ever there the 
 7       night police did a count?  
 8                 MS. KEETON:  I can't say that I recognize 
 9       police.  I can say that I think it was, was it New 
10       Year's Eve or New Year's night that they came in and 
11       was going to do a count, and that was the only time 
12       that it was ever brought to my attention.  
13                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Have you ever been there 
14       when there was a fight inside the place?  
15                 MS. KEETON:  I have seen females fight.  
16                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Thank you, Mr. Chair.  
17                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Any other questions by 
18       members of the committee?  Thank you.  Anyone else 
19       here to testify in support?  Name and address for the 
20       record, please, sir.  
21                 MR. WASHINGTON:  Walker Washington, Jr., 
22       1424 East Oklahoma.  I've been working under Devon for 
23       two years.  I'm a security, I do outside security.  I 
24       mean, I'm inside security, but we also -- as inside 
25       security we also go outside.  If someone comes to us 
00064
 1       saying, for instance -- we're outside, we check people 
 2       outside -- if someone comes gives us a tip that people 
 3       are vandalizing people's cars down the block, we also 
 4       go down there and try to see if there's anything we 
 5       can do, get license plate number, where the person 
 6       inside, we'll go on the mike, tell them their car has 
 7       been broken into.
 8                 I mean, there's tons of people that come to 
 9       me on a daily basis, they say they love this place.  
10       There's no one that ever came to me that said that 
11       they do not like Questions.  That is very good 
12       establishment.  I love it as an employee.  As a club, 
13       I can't even think of anything better than Questions.  
14                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Questions of this 
15       witness?  
16                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Same question, sir.  In 
17       your capacity of security, have you seen the premises 
18       disorderly conduct?  
19                 MR. WASHINGTON:  Yes, I have. 
20                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  What about the flow of 
21       traffic, have you seen the barricades out there?  
22                 MR. WASHINGTON:  Yes.  
23                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  What about littering?  
24                 MR. WASHINGTON:  Littering, yes.  And after 
25       the night, we also go outside and we go around the 
00065
 1       block, we go through We Energies, we clean that up.  
 2       We always come with garbage bags full.  We do clean 
 3       up.  We try our best in order to make that community 
 4       look as great as it came.  
 5                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  What about drug activity?  
 6                 MR. WASHINGTON:  No.  I pat search.  Say if 
 7       someone does come through, I do a very, very thorough 
 8       pat search.  If someone does try to sneak in there 
 9       with marijuana, whatever, I stop them from there, I 
10       tell them they can't come in.  The rules apply to 
11       every club.  Everybody knows, first of all, that's an 
12       illegal substance, you can't have it.  Trying to bring 
13       it to an establishment that we're trying to do 
14       positive for the community, that's just wrong, and I 
15       won't let them in, period.
16                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  How long have you been 
17       employed there?  
18                 MR. WASHINGTON:  Two years.
19                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Thank you.  
20                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Thank you for your 
21       testimony.  Next person to testify, please.  Name and 
22       address for record, please, ma'am. 
23                 MS. FEGAL:  Tiffany Fegal, 6133 North 40th 
24       Street.  I've been employed with Questions under Devon 
25       since the end of March of 2006.  Prior to being 
00066
 1       employed at Questions, I attended a couple of times.  
 2       I'm a single parent.  I decided to come to Questions 
 3       to help, of course, support my household.  Since then, 
 4       Questions is more than a place of employment, it's a 
 5       family.  I always feel comfortable there.  On days 
 6       that I'm not working, I'll stop in.  There's never 
 7       been a place where when I've been waitressing that I 
 8       felt uncomfortable to where I can't do my job.  It's 
 9       just an enjoyable place to work.  
10                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Thank you.  Any 
11       questions of this witness?
12                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Same question.  Have you 
13       witnessed any type of disturbance, disorderly conduct, 
14       fighting, over capacity?  
15                 MS. FEGAL:  I witness arguing, and you know, 
16       I continue to do my job, and that's what the security 
17       staff is there for, they take care of what they need 
18       to take care of.  
19                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Your answer is yes?  
20                 MS. FEGAL:  I've seen arguing and women 
21       quarreling, yes.
22                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Thank you, Mr. Chair.  
23                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Any other questions of 
24       this witness?  Thank you for your testimony.  Next 
25       witness, please.  Name and address for the record, 
00067
 1       please.  
 2                 MR. BARRON:  My name is Michael Barron, I'm 
 3       at 2017 West Juneau.  I'd just like to say that I'm 
 4       one of the newer securities over at Questions, and 
 5       before I was an employee, I used to come I mean 
 6       frequently from Aurora, Illinois all the time, and I 
 7       was very impressed with the security staff and the way 
 8       things are run.  That's what made me apply for a 
 9       position.   
10                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Any other questions of 
11       this witness?
12                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  How long have you been 
13       employed there, sir?  
14                 MR. BARRON:  I've been there three weeks, 
15       this will be my third week, but I've been coming to 
16       Questions for a long time.  By Greyhound bus I come.  
17                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  When you came up, did you 
18       see any type of disturbance, any disorderly conduct, 
19       fights?  
20                 MR. MICHAEL:  Yes, sir.  I did see 
21       altercations, and security was like right there, I 
22       mean every time.  
23                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Were you ever involved in 
24       over capacity, where the police were counting the 
25       people inside?  
00068
 1                 MR. MICHAEL:  I was there a couple of times 
 2       when I did see them clicking or whatever.  
 3                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Couple times, okay. 
 4                 MR. MICHAEL:  No.  Once, it was only one 
 5       time.  
 6                 ALDERMAN WADE:  Let me just ask this 
 7       question of Devon, because the last several people who 
 8       have come up have been employees of yours.  How many 
 9       people do you employ at your establishment?  
10                 MR. REID:  Approximately 20.  That doesn't 
11       include the outside security personnel.  
12                 ALDERMAN WADE:  So how many of those is it?  
13                 MR. REID:  It's four.  
14                 ALDERMAN WADE:  About 24 people actually get 
15       money from you?  
16                 MR. REID:  Correct.  
17                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Thank you for your 
18       testimony.  I see there's no one further to testify on 
19       this.  Is there someone yet to testify? 
20                 AUDIENCE MEMBER:  I already have.  I just 
21       wanted to know if I can add something.
22                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  No, I'm sorry, but we 
23       appreciate the offer.  Everybody would get a round 
24       two, and then we'd start round three.  In closing, 
25       before we take this matter into committee?  
00069
 1                 MS. STEWART:  Well, if I could just 
 2       reinforce one or two points.  The security -- and I'm 
 3       sure Devon has one or two things that he'd like to 
 4       add, as well -- one of the security people 
 5       referred to the security measure of patting down to 
 6       make sure that there's no drugs entering the 
 7       establishment.  They also have a wand system for 
 8       making sure that there are no weapons.  I've prepared 
 9       -- and I'll pass these on for the record -- a list of 
10       all the measures that have been taken with the police 
11       guidance and aldermanic guidance to improve and to set 
12       up --  
13                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Mr. Chair, real quick.  Is 
14       there a time frame on when those things were 
15       implemented on there?  Do you have dates?   
16                 MS. STEWART:  I don't have a date in every 
17       case.  Some of them were prior to opening, some of 
18       them have been in response to some of the issues that 
19       have arisen since the closing of some of other clubs 
20       in Milwaukee, so I don't have a date for every one of 
21       these steps.
22                 Just a point of clarification.  The club 
23       doesn't really focus on hip-hop music.  It's invited 
24       national acts in the rhythm and blues area, so that's 
25       more their genre.
00070
 1                 With regard to cruising -- just running down 
 2       the list here -- Mr. Reid met with the 3rd District 
 3       police captain, and they've come up with a system that 
 4       gets traffic out of their cul-de-sac area and 
 5       eliminates a lot of cruising problem that might have 
 6       started from or might be related to the closing time 
 7       of the club.  You've heard about the systems for 
 8       dealing with the capacity issues and the investment in 
 9       a computer ID scanning system.  There's also periodic 
10       supervisory checks through the night to ensure that 
11       there aren't any human or technological errors with 
12       the count.  They've hired additional personnel to 
13       ensure that the back door is secured at all times.  
14       They review the surveillance system to verify the 
15       honesty of the staff on that point.
16                 With regard to underage patrons, there's the 
17       three-point identity check that Devon referred to, Mr. 
18       Reid referrred to earlier, and the bartenders -- a 
19       couple of bartenders have been here today -- but the 
20       issue of having bartenders also check identification 
21       is also part of that system.  They've got systems in 
22       place for fighting, criminal activity, they have 
23       inside and outside closed-circuit cameras, they've got 
24       the contracted outside security system, and they've 
25       got 10 inside security personnel, they have regular 
00071
 1       meetings with the security staff to address the 
 2       procedures.
 3                 This is a large club, 7,000 square feet, 340 
 4       occupancy permit.  You know, it's not a corner bar.  
 5       And Mr. Reid has taken substantial steps to set up a 
 6       whole system of security and to meet with people on a 
 7       regular basis.  If there is a confrontation, the staff 
 8       has been trained to only let one of -- if a fight 
 9       breaks out, only one person is allowed out, the other 
10       person is to be kept in for 15 minutes, then escorted 
11       to their car, and there's a system for making sure 
12       that they leave the area with a minimal chance of any 
13       kind of flare-up once they're outside.
14                 Mr. Reid has regularly scheduled meetings 
15       with the 3rd District Police Department to discuss 
16       what else can be done, and there's regularly scheduled 
17       meetings with his aldermanic office.
18                 With regard to littering and noise, they 
19       have four people at close to do a clean-up, there's 
20       another clean-up in the morning by light of day.  If 
21       there's any trash remaining, it's taken off the 
22       premises.  There's an outside staff that looks after 
23       whether or not are there any noise issues, any car 
24       radios, people are instructed to turn their car radios 
25       down, and remember with this standing system people 
00072
 1       can be banned from the venue if they aren't compliant 
 2       on any issue that would raise problems for the 
 3       establishment.
 4                 The club has taken initiatives with regard 
 5       to community clean-ups and organizes two of these 
 6       annually.  The club refuses admission on the issue of 
 7       intoxication, they refuse admission to any individual 
 8       that arrives impaired, and they refuse to serve anyone 
 9       that has had too much to drink, and they will offer to 
10       call them a cab and pay for a cab if the patron has 
11       had too much to drink.
12                 All in all, this is really about as 
13       proactive and controlling an environment as I think a 
14       business owner could be asked to put in place.  If 
15       this doesn't work in an environment like North Avenue, 
16       I'm not sure what else you can ask someone to do.  But 
17       I've never met a more ambitious business owner willing 
18       to take steps to make sure that things succeed, and I 
19       would urge the committee to permit him to continue his 
20       operations.  
21                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Thank you.  A couple 
22       matters of housekeeping before we proceed.  Alderman 
23       Puente moves to make the entire police report part of 
24       the permanent hearing in this matter, and hearing no 
25       objection, so ordered.  Alderman Bohl wishes to make 
00073
 1       the written -- how do you want to describe that -- the 
 2       steps taken -- was that a two-page item.
 3                 MS. STEWART:  It's two pages.  It's 
 4       proactive and responsive measures, I suppose.  
 5                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Proactive and 
 6       responsive measures that they've given to us in 
 7       writing as part of permanent record in this hearing, 
 8       and hearing no objection, so ordered.  I'd like to 
 9       hear from Carol from Alderman Hines' office at this 
10       time.  
11                 LEGISLATIVE AIDE:  Mr. Chair and Committee 
12       Members, just wanted to let you all know just a few 
13       points of clarification, and I appreciate and beg your 
14       patience.  Mr. Reid opened up Questions in November of 
15       '04, and that was something that I don't believe 
16       Alderman Dudzik had asked previously or somebody 
17       asked.  He opened in November of '04 -- might have 
18       been Alderman Wade -- and didn't have any problems.  
19       He approached our office and District 3 Police 
20       Department to meet in August of '06 and again in 
21       October of '06 around some subsequent closings of at 
22       the time two other establishments, and he saw a kind 
23       of sway in the business, he saw a downward shift in 
24       age of his customers.  That was the first thing that 
25       he called our office about, whereas he was seeing a 
00074
 1       general 25 to 27 and above, he was seeing 21 and 
 2       younger, he was seeing a lot more people using fake 
 3       IDs, and then he also noticed a lot more, in quotes, 
 4       "rowdie and aggressive" crowd.
 5                 So subsequently we were to have had three 
 6       meetings, we had to reschedule the third, but we had a 
 7       meeting in August and we had a meeting, as I stated 
 8       previously, October 20th of '06.  And a couple of 
 9       things.  One of the precursors to choosing the 
10       location was that he felt that there was a lack of 
11       resident impact in that area where Questions is.  It's 
12       kind of a juxtaposed blighted former industrial park.  
13       The two residences, as the gentleman stated, are 
14       actually mixed use that are opposite that industrial 
15       park.  So he is kind of an island unto himself left in 
16       this area, and then there's a dead end and a ditch, if 
17       you will, a cavern, if you will.  And one of the 
18       things that Alderman Hines was looking for was the 
19       lack of hardship, of course, on neighbors because the 
20       venue is so large.
21                 And the 340 capacity, it's a 7,000 square 
22       foot former auto repair and it was a car wash, if I'm 
23       not mistaken, and auto repair place, so it's a huge 
24       wide open space that he has created smaller areas, 
25       kind of conversation areas, if you will.  So there's a 
00075
 1       bar, there are kind of nooks and crannies, so it's not 
 2       wide open expanse that you can see everywhere as 
 3       clearly, to address Alderman Dudzik's point about 
 4       capacity.  It's a little bit difficult to gauge how 
 5       large this space is and to be able to gauge the amount 
 6       of people for the capacity.  It's a smaller capacity 
 7       for the amount of square footage according to the city 
 8       standard.
 9                 With that in mind, there were some specifics 
10       that Alderman Hines, that we brought to the table in 
11       our two meetings in August and October.  The police 
12       report is what the police report is, and it is 
13       undeniable.  He had issues with capacity, and we were 
14       like you have to address your capacity issues, you are 
15       not addressing it to our satisfaction.  The alderman 
16       was not pleased with the continuous capacity -- there 
17       were three at the time of our meeting -- and he 
18       challenged Devon you come up with a plan; I don't need 
19       to hear about the plan, I need to see the results 
20       thereof.  And from our meeting, there has not been 
21       another capacity issue since our meeting, he's not had 
22       one citation for capacity.  
23                 MR. REID:  If I may, Carol.  We've been 
24       counted approximately 12 times after that where 
25       they've actually come in and did counts, they had us 
00076
 1       stop one night completely, turn the lights on, turn 
 2       off the music -- it was kind of comical -- but 
 3       attempted to count people as they were milling around, 
 4       and then they just kind of left, so we were counted.  
 5                 LEGISLATIVE AIDE:  And trust you me, we 
 6       asked District 3 because of the size and challenges 
 7       that Questions has presented, and we asked Devon to 
 8       address that issue, and he changed his capacity 
 9       control.  And what he didn't state -- and he kind of 
10       sold himself short -- he had three separate security 
11       guards that he had to let go of for making -- one tape 
12       that we watched the gentlemen made almost $500 in one 
13       evening taking money off the back door of people 
14       slipping him money.  That answers the 100 to 200 extra 
15       people; people sliding him a 10, a 20, a 50 to let 
16       them in because they had a national artist in, and 
17       they're sliding him money to get in the back door, and 
18       they ended up over capacity, after the first security 
19       guard after he told them I have now two cameras on 
20       that back door, so I'm watching you and I'm aware that 
21       you're letting people in.  So he had three security 
22       guards who he let go, he only stated one previously.  
23       We asked him to address that issue, he addressed it.
24                 The second was we needed him to effectuate 
25       change -- and I actually took that out of order -- we 
00077
 1       needed him to effectuate change with cruising.  That 
 2       was the issue this summer, the August meeting.  We 
 3       additionally did permit issue to try and block off 
 4       because of the issues with prostitution and that kind 
 5       of blind dead end, people were sneaking down into this 
 6       kind of cavern and this ditch alley that we have down 
 7       there, sneaking off and kind of creating a backlog of 
 8       cars, and it was causing a large problem for 
 9       businesses, also, 24-hour laundromat, et cetera, in 
10       the area, church not too far away with evening 
11       services.  It was causing a great deal of cruising 
12       issues.
13                 He addressed it.  They put up the 
14       barricades.  That was the impetus for the barricades, 
15       and we did establish a permit system back then.  I'll  
16       have to check the updating and the frequency of 
17       updating the permits and stay on him about his 
18       veracity of eating up the permits.  But that was put 
19       in place with District 3's advising on how to control 
20       the crowds, and his security was trained how to move 
21       the crowds to avoid cruising.  Hadn't been cited since 
22       then for the cruising.
23                 And another issue was to catch the underage.  
24       When he said he saw this sway and this shift, once 
25       again, we don't need to hear about the sway and the 
00078
 1       shift, we need you to sway and shift them out of your 
 2       club because you're going to continue to get cited, 
 3       and once again, the least of your most important 
 4       concerns -- and Mr. Reid can tell you, I sat at the 
 5       table, and I said, "Devon, the least of your most 
 6       important concerns should be the Milwaukee Police 
 7       Department, the most of your most important concerns 
 8       should be the License Committee for the City of 
 9       Milwaukee."
10                 And he put things in place to catch the 
11       underage and the fake IDs to the tune of a $4,000 
12       security system that he had us come and see -- not 
13       security system but scanning system that he invited 
14       the captain, Captain Harpole, and myself to come and 
15       witness, and when he finally got it in, it took six 
16       weeks longer than they initially told him when he 
17       ordered it.  He ordered it back in August or 
18       September, if I'm not mistaken, and it was supposed to 
19       have been there in October, and they kept kind of 
20       putting him off.  It finally was delivered the first 
21       week in December, installed and up and running second 
22       week in December.  Hadn't had the issues, but we asked 
23       him in the meantime while you're waiting for this 
24       system, implement something, we need results, man, we 
25       need things done because your interaction with the 
00079
 1       police is an issue.
 2                 And so, again, litter issues, we understand 
 3       that they're security, but they are not above picking 
 4       up the trash.  So he spoke to that issue, and he went 
 5       out and he had them every night start picking up 
 6       trash.  So the things that we have approached Mr. Reid 
 7       with consistently in the meetings that we had he did 
 8       respond to, and if you look at the dates of 
 9       interaction with the police again on the issues that 
10       we requested of him, our requests found audience with 
11       him, and he did respond.  And the fact of the matter 
12       is, we have done everything short of saying shift your 
13       -- per ordinance -- shift your age of who you let in 
14       the door.  But he's tried to do so, in quotes, and 
15       within the limit of the law and the spirit of the law 
16       he has done so.
17                 But outside of the fights, which we asked 
18       him to beef up security when he saw this shift in 
19       paradigm in his club and we started to see the 
20       pick-up, we asked him beef up security.  If you see a 
21       shift, respond to it.  It was the request of Captain 
22       Harpole and the officers there, and he did so.
23                 So I would just submit to Mr. Chair and to 
24       the Committee Members, after this really, really, 
25       really long day, that the requests that we have made 
00080
 1       of Mr. Reid, quite frankly, he has responded to.  And 
 2       on some of them, unfortunately, the horse was out of the 
 3       gate or out -- isn't it -- out of the barn.  There you 
 4       go, thank you.  I'm not a farm person.  The animal was 
 5       gone.  Whatever it was and from wherever it was, it 
 6       was out there, but he did respond, and we saw the 
 7       animal come back afterwards, and that's all that 
 8       President Hines was concerned about.
 9                 We wanted to see change, wanted to see a 
10       reversal in the kind of, if you see that time frame, 
11       if you will, of when his stuff was just off the chart, 
12       we wanted to see a reversal of that, and there has 
13       been such, outside of the New Year's Eve incident, 
14       which we spoke to him about, and Captain Harpole, we 
15       actually had him come in a week ago and we met 
16       specifically about it in absentium of Mr. Reid because 
17       we didn't want another meeting with him, we wanted to 
18       hear specifically from the district.  In absentium of 
19       Mr. Reid, we met with Captain Harpole to speak to it, 
20       and again, the shooting was not related to Questions, 
21       and as he stated, he closed the club because of a 
22       number of fights in a row, but each one he said was 
23       contained.
24                 So that's all I would like to state at the 
25       time, and I'll answer any questions that you may have.  
00081
 1                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Does anybody have any 
 2       questions of Carol from the alderman's office?   
 3                 ALDERMAN BOHL:  Carol, I know that you're 
 4       not necessarily in a position to answer for Alderman 
 5       Hines.  Is it the contention then from your office 
 6       that problems have been responded to adequately?  And 
 7       also, second question, is there a belief that from the 
 8       perspective of Alderman Hines' office that Mr. Reid 
 9       should continue to operate as a club?  
10                 ALDERMANIC AIDE:  Answer the second first.  
11       He definitely believes that Mr. Reid, I mean he knows 
12       that the police report is outstanding and that it 
13       warrants attention from the committee, and he does not 
14       deny nor would he ask you all to change precedent in 
15       not paying attention to the -- it's not like him to 
16       ask you to not warrant special attention to the police 
17       record, but he does believe the addition to all of the 
18       development that's going on in the area, Mr. Reid has 
19       been an addition to that.  He has sunk thousands upon 
20       thousands, upwards of 30 to $50,000 in this 
21       establishment and in this area, he is part of the 
22       business district, planning district in the area, he 
23       is who we would consider a business partner in the 
24       area.
25                 Alderman Hines would implore the committee 
00082
 1       to keep Mr. Reid and the establishment open.  He does 
 2       serve many purposes outside of just an entertainment 
 3       venue.  He's been a site for public officials to have 
 4       fund raisers, et cetera, he has, as stated by the Boys 
 5       & Girls Club, they've had events there, so he is not 
 6       just a club.  So above and beyond that, to answer the 
 7       second question, he would implore you to keep him 
 8       open.
 9                 He does also believe that Mr. Reid has 
10       responded to the request that he has made to speak to 
11       the issues that I stated.  The new challenges, the 
12       fighting challenge, we're working with District 3 to 
13       try and figure out some way to respond to it, because 
14       there has been an exact correlation among some clubs 
15       that have closed subsequently and have had, for 
16       instance, cabaret and tavern dance pulled in our 
17       district and immediately around our district the exact 
18       dates, oddly enough, of when their closings and 
19       license pulling have occurred to when his kind of 
20       jack-up has occurred.
21                 We did have to give that, as ridiculous an 
22       argument we thought it was, quite honestly, at first, 
23       we had to give it some merit because there are exact 
24       correlations to his police report and those closings.  
25       And in all fairness, to hold him responsible for 
00083
 1       people seeking a venue, and we hold him responsible to 
 2       respond to keeping control in his venue, but we do not 
 3       hold him responsible for controlling their actions, we 
 4       hold him responsible to moving them along and to 
 5       continuing to provide a safe environment and respond 
 6       to any request we have of him in response to any 
 7       further, hopefully not, interactions with the police 
 8       and to continue an open dialogue with Captain Harpole, 
 9       which he has done.  
10                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Any further questions?  
11                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Mr. Chair.  As you stated, 
12       this warrants attention after the police report?  
13                 LEGISLATIVE AIDE:  Yes, sir.
14                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  What attention would the 
15       alderman like to see?  
16                 ALDERMANIC AIDE:  You could frown really 
17       hard at it.  
18                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Does he have a 
19       recommendation, Carol?  
20                 ALDERMANIC AIDE:  He does not, did he not 
21       give me a recommendation, he would leave that to the 
22       discretion of you all.  He respects you eminently in 
23       your positions.
24                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  He appointed us to these, 
25       so I should hope so.  
00084
 1                 ALDERMAN WADE:  We didn't volunteer for 
 2       these.  
 3                 ALDERMANIC AIDE:  It wasn't a punishment, it 
 4       was out of respect.  He knows that you are well 
 5       qualified.  Again, he implores you all to know that in 
 6       response to and in the kind of reading of the tea 
 7       leaves and seeing the writing on the wall, Devon did 
 8       approach us in District 3, and we did put some things 
 9       in place, and we did ask him to respond, and not only 
10       did he respond in a timely fashion and was he 
11       proactive, but he went above and beyond, and you will 
12       see that in response to all the requests that were 
13       made of him by District 3 and by by District 15 
14       Aldermanic they stopped, the police incidents of 
15       question stopped, with the exception, again, of fights 
16       of any physical altercations that they were able to 
17       then maintain and call police in for help.
18                 So the cruising, the loitering, the 
19       capacity, the underage, all of those things stopped at 
20       the dates of our subsequent meetings.  So with that in 
21       mind, what you feel befitting, given your precedents 
22       in the past, he would respect, but he would just ask 
23       you all to be consistent and lenient and respectful of 
24       other clubs in the same situation.
25                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Thank you, Mr. Chair.  
00085
 1                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Any further questions?  
 2       This matter is in committee.  
 3                 ALDERMAN DUDZIK:  Mr. Chairman, given the 
 4       totality of the police report and the neighborhood 
 5       objections, I would move to approve this license with 
 6       a 90-day suspension.
 7                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Motion by Alderman 
 8       Dudzik is to recommend approval of the renewal of this 
 9       license with a 90-day suspension, based on 
10       neighborhood objections and items contained in the 
11       police report.  Discussion on the motion?  
12                 ALDERMAN DUDZIK:  Mr. Chairman.  Insomuch as 
13       the alderman for the area, I did, in fact, have a 
14       meeting back in August or October of last year, and 
15       there's been seven incidences since then.  I happen to 
16       agree with his legislative aide, this place is wide 
17       open, and it's not a good wide open.  I can appreciate 
18       the efforts that have been made, and I can appreciate 
19       where Alderman Wade comes up with the idea that this 
20       place has been open since 2004 and nothing happened in 
21       2004, they only had two incidents in 2005, and they've 
22       had 11 or more since then.  Some of these are still 
23       pending, so I'm not even counting everything.  I think 
24       this is the next scene of a shooting.
25                 I think it's deplorable that my constituents 
00086
 1       have to be without police services because you are 
 2       making big money.  You can pay $5,000 in over-capacity 
 3       fees and not bat an eye about it, and it's just 
 4       amazing to me that you can continue to operate.  I 
 5       would like to have Captain Harpole contact my office.  
 6       I want to hear him tell me that this place has been 
 7       run appropriately for the last five or six months, 
 8       because that's not what I'm seeing right here.  That's 
 9       my motion.  I hope I get support on it.  I won't be 
10       surprised if I don't, but that's my motion.  
11                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Motion by Alderman 
12       Dudzik is to recommend renewal of the tavern, tavern 
13       amusement cabaret/nightclub renewal applications with 
14       the issuance of a 90-day suspension, based on items 
15       contained in the police report and neighborhood 
16       objections.  Discussion on the motion?  
17                 ALDERMAN WADE:  Mr. Chair.  With all due 
18       respect to my colleague, I happen to know for a fact 
19       just being from the community that when you close down 
20       establishments in the black community that people out 
21       of the black community frequent or even out of a 
22       certain age level, it has an impact on the existing 
23       businesses that are still in operation.  I'm quite 
24       sure that -- I haven't been there, but I bet you have 
25       a line outside much longer now than you had prior to 
00087
 1       this.  Because of the capacity issue, you can't let 
 2       these people in, they're outside, they're rowdie, and 
 3       then these people who don't know you don't respect 
 4       your business.  I've seen it a million times.  So I do 
 5       applaud you on your proactivity of being wise enough 
 6       to see that coming and to sit down and do the things 
 7       that you need to do.
 8                 Overcrowding.  Definitely an issue, but it 
 9       seems that you've put some things in place to deal 
10       with the overcrowding.  The litter.  I've been to a 
11       lot of establishments where you inside the club and 
12       you come out and there's five flyers on your car about 
13       an activity that's coming up.  I don't see you guys 
14       being able to stop that, but I'm going to hear that 
15       you send your staff outside to clean up afterwards.
16                 The underage thing.  The new machine and the 
17       digital equipment that you put in place, I think by 
18       the stack of cards that's sitting in front of you now 
19       has been proactive, has been something that's been a 
20       help to you.  When I think about what has gone on 
21       inside the club, there have been some fights, but they 
22       are fights in a lot of clubs -- and I know we say this 
23       all the time -- there's fights at Summerfest, there's 
24       fights at the Bucks game, there's fights at the 
25       Brewers game.  Sometimes we disagree.  I'll be honest 
00088
 1       with you, there's a couple of times I wanted to fight 
 2       with some of my colleagues in this room.  So 
 3       disagreeing is normal, that's normal, but I didn't see 
 4       anywhere in the poice -- not you Bohl -- I haven't 
 5       seen anywhere -- Puente -- I haven't seen anywhere --  
 6                 On a more serious note, I haven't seen 
 7       anything -- gunplay, shootings inside of the club, 
 8       knifings, stabbings, that type of thing, I haven't 
 9       seen that go on according to the police report in this 
10       establishment, yet we see that in a lot of other 
11       establishments that we're a lot less severe on, so I 
12       got to give you credit for having that type of 
13       capacity, those type of people, dealing with the 
14       clientele and the circumstance for even keeping the 
15       lid on that, because that could happen.
16                 I do have to admit that the police record is 
17       -- man, that's long, I mean it's long, and there 
18       should be some attention paid to that.  One of the 
19       things that I'm really impressed with is that you're 
20       employing a lot of people, a lot of people, and 
21       unemployment is a huge problem in my district, in my 
22       community.  For your employees to come and speak about 
23       how happy and glad they are and what family about the 
24       type of atmosphere that you're presenting to them an 
25       opportunity, I think that's something that some other 
00089
 1       business owners could pay attention to.  I do say that 
 2       the thing that's probably the most disturbing to me -- 
 3       and it may not be not any fault your own Devon -- is 
 4       that the residents that live in the area have been 
 5       dealing with some semi-traumatic situations, and I 
 6       think those situations may have been able to be 
 7       addressed if the communication would have got 
 8       together.  I would implore you to step to those people 
 9       and find out who those other people are on the block 
10       and sit down with them and come up with something that 
11       can help their quality of life, and I feel comfortable 
12       that you would do that.  That's very important.  Those 
13       people live over there, they have children, they want 
14       to be able to park, go through their alley, they want 
15       to be able to do these things, and I'm sure you with 
16       your effort would have the ability to allow them to do 
17       that.  So I look forward to that happening.
18                 90-day suspension?  I definitely can't 
19       support that at this point, based on your proactivity, 
20       based on the lack of violence that has gone on in your 
21       place, based on the record that you have had over the 
22       years prior to the closing of The Jungle, The Lyric, 
23       The Armistad, I can go on and on all of the people who 
24       will shift down to your place and have some problems.  
25       In light of all that, I think you have done a good 
00090
 1       job, and I appreciate you putting forth the effort and 
 2       putting your money where your mouth is.  So a 90-day 
 3       suspension is something I definitely, definitely could 
 4       not support, but I will say I am prepared to support 
 5       some type of disciplinary measure.  Thank you.  
 6                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  The motion on the table 
 7       is for renewal with a 90-day suspension of all the 
 8       licenses.  Any further discussion on the motion?  
 9       Let's call the roll.  
10                 THE CLERK:  Alderman Bohl.
11                 ALDERMAN BOHL:  No.
12                 THE CLERK:  Alderman Puente.
13                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  No.
14                 THE CLERK:  Alderman Wade.
15                 ALDERMAN WADE:  No.
16                 THE CLERK:  Alderman Dudzik.
17                 ALDERMAN DUDZIK:  Aye.
18                 THE CLERK:  Mr. Chair.
19                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  No.
20                 THE CLERK:  Motion fails one to four.  
21                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Motion fails one to 
22       four.  The matter is still in committee.  
23                 ALDERMAN BOHL:  Mr. Chairman.  I'm going to 
24       take a shot at this.  Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the 
25       concerns that Alderman Dudzik brought forward, but 
00091
 1       when I initially looked at the police report, my 
 2       initial reaction was wow, 16 items I think in the past 
 3       year.  Too many.  And the thing that really struck me 
 4       as problematic, in part, was the fact that someone 
 5       could have the capacity problem not once but two, 
 6       three times.  To me, it just sort of struck me as an 
 7       arrogance, in particular because the first time over 
 8       capacity of 200.  You may have nooks and crannies, but 
 9       that's an awful lot of nooks and crannies that's being 
10       covered.  So that concerned me tremendously.
11                 I will tell you when I actually revisited 
12       and took a look at these again, I don't want to say 
13       that a number of these other things outside the 
14       capacity weren't severe, but I will say that I did 
15       take a look at it from a different perspective, and 
16       the perspective really was when you have a large club, 
17       clearly you're going to draw certain patrons.  I have 
18       no doubt that with some of the timing issues that you 
19       were drawing rougher crowds that were creating 
20       problems elsewhere.  I joke about this back on this 
21       side of the table, but I always say when you start 
22       drawing the ruffians in your place, you ought to have 
23       some CDs of Barry Manilow and Neil Diamond in the 
24       background, you throw those on, and you just kind of 
25       let all your good customers know to stick through 
00092
 1       that, let everybody else shuffle out causing trouble, 
 2       then you get back to what everyone else enjoys, I 
 3       guess.
 4                 Seriously, when I look at security reacting 
 5       and denying somebody entrance and somebody then 
 6       threatening to go back perchance to their car and 
 7       threaten to shoot up so that you're calling police, I 
 8       don't know that I want to hold you accountable to the 
 9       same level of somebody who's creating a much, much 
10       more intense disturbance in a club.  There's no 
11       denying that there's problems because of some of the 
12       fights that are occurring there, there's no denying 
13       that there are certainly other problems, but I see a 
14       fair number of proactive measures here where your 
15       security is actually denying somebody entrance, who 
16       then turns around and wants to do something.
17                 For example, the issue on New Year's morning 
18       or shortly after New Year's Eve on New Year's Day, I 
19       can't tell you how disturbed I am at times when I've 
20       opened my own door and I've heard idiots around 
21       shooting off gunshots, as well, too.  You can shoot 
22       off in the air.  Does anybody realize that that bullet 
23       comes down at exactly the same pace that it's leaving 
24       your gun, and it's coming down somewhere.  We always 
25       hear of the occasional person that winds up getting 
00093
 1       injured or killed because it happens to fall on the 
 2       wrong spot.
 3                 I don't know that I can necessarily hold you 
 4       accountable for one or so of the incidents such as 
 5       that, because it even says in the police report that 
 6       it was down the way.  I think there's a lot of idiots 
 7       that are on the streets that are firing off weapons 
 8       all over the place.  So when I revisited a number of 
 9       things, I at least found a good handful-plus that I 
10       would say I don't necessarily want to attribute 
11       negatively toward your establishment.  There certainly 
12       were others that I did.
13                 As I said, I'm, in part, disturbed by the 
14       three incidents of over capacity.  I do think that it 
15       warrants something that has a fair punch to it in 
16       terms of a suspension.  I don't believe 90 days was 
17       sufficient.  What I'd like to say is I feel that given 
18       the fact that you've had a track record and haven't 
19       had the level of problems, but I do believe that you 
20       can take those steps, I do believe that what Carol is 
21       saying here is true and that you are taking some 
22       proactive measures and working with the alderman's 
23       office and with the police department, and I encourage 
24       you to continue that, but ultimately, it boils down to 
25       you haven't take proactive steps when you're drawing 
00094
 1       the rough crowds.
 2                 I'll say it once, I'll say it again, if your 
 3       issue is drawing younger crowds that are causing 
 4       troubles, I will encourage every single tavern in my 
 5       district if they come to me to put up a sign and hold 
 6       it up to it that says 30 and over, and I will 
 7       personally go testify on their behalf to say I don't 
 8       want people that are 21, 22 years old that are young 
 9       going into clubs in my district.  I just don't want it 
10       because I don't want the problems.  They can go 
11       elsewhere, they can go to another community, frankly, as 
12       far as I'm concerned.  I will support any tavern that 
13       does that, and frankly, because you're dealing with 
14       those difficulties, you have your livelihood at stake 
15       and you're also dealing with some of the neighbors 
16       there that have issues.
17                  My final point was I will reiterate what 
18       Alderman Wade said, and I think that if the couple is 
19       still around here, that's the first -- when you get 
20       done here today, that's the first stop that I make 
21       right there is go over and talk to them, get their 
22       information, and see what you can do with your 
23       security staff to ensure that their peace of mind is 
24       something that's being held in their own security.  
25       But with that being said, given some of the problems 
00095
 1       and given, in particular among other things, what you 
 2       saw as an early blatant disregard before, I think you 
 3       finally hit it right with your security measures on 
 4       the IDs and scanning in and out, I would move for 
 5       approval and renewal of the licenses with a 45-day 
 6       suspension, based on matters contained in the police 
 7       report.  
 8                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  The motion by Alderman 
 9       Bohl is to recommend renewal of the Class B Tavern, 
10       Tavern Amusement (Cabaret/Nightclub) renewal 
11       applications for Questions Entertainment at 3041 West 
12       North Avenue with a 45-day suspension, based on items 
13       contained in the police report and neighborhood 
14       objections.  Is there any discussion on that motion?  
15                 ALDERMAN DUDZIK:  I won't be supporting the 
16       motion, and I would only ask that if this motion goes 
17       through that the applicant be encouraged to contact 
18       Representative Fields so he can work to get more 
19       state-shared revenue to the City of Milwaukee so 
20       that when my constituents have no police officers in 
21       my district that perhaps we could get a couple million 
22       bucks for additional police officers so that the parts 
23       of the city that don't have clubs such as yours have 
24       some police officers to curtail some of the other 
25       criminal activities that he doesn't feel he can 
00096
 1       address.  Thank you.  
 2                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Is there any further 
 3       discussion on the motion?  Any further discussion on 
 4       the motion?  Let's take a roll call on the motion.  
 5                 THE CLERK:  Alderman Bohl.
 6                 ALDERMAN BOHL:  Aye.
 7                 THE CLERK:  Alderman Puente.
 8                 ALDERMAN PUENTE:  Aye.
 9                 THE CLERK:  Alderman Wade.
10                 ALDERMAN WADE:  Aye.
11                 THE CLERK:  Alderman Dudzik.
12                 ALDERMAN DUDZIK:  No.
13                 THE CLERK:  Mr. Chair.
14                 CHAIRMAN WITKOWIAK:  Aye.
15                 THE CLERK:  Motion is approved four to one.
16                 MR. SCHRIMPF:  Ms. Steward, the committee is 
17       going to be doing findings of fact and conclusions of 
18       law recommending renewal of this license with a 45-day 
19       suspension.  You will receive a copy of that.  You'll 
20       have an opportunity to submit written objections to 
21       that finding of fact, and if you submit written 
22       objections by the close of business February 1st, 2007 
23       to the City Clerk's Office on the second floor of this 
24       building at 4:45 p.m. then you will also have the 
25       opportunity to appear before the Common Council when 
00097
 1       it meets on this matter on February 6th, 2007 at 
 2       approximately 9:00 a.m. in the Common Council Chambers 
 3       of this building.  Will you accept service on behalf 
 4       of the licensee?  
 5                 MS. STEWART:  Yes.
 6                 MR. SCHRIMPF:  Thank you.  
 7                             * * *
00098
 1   STATE OF WISCONSIN )
 2                      )
 3   MILWAUKEE COUNTY   )
 4   
 5                 I, TERESE M. SCHIEBENES, of Milwaukee 
 6       Reporters Associated, Inc., 5120 West Blue Mound Road, 
 7       Milwaukee, Wisconsin  53208, certify that the 
 8       foregoing proceedings is a full and complete 
 9       transcript of my stenographic notes taken in the 
10       foregoing proceedings. 
11   
12   
13   
14   
15   
16                                                           
17                              TERESE M. SCHIEBENES
18                              Certified Shorthand Reporter
19   
20   
21   Dated this      day of               , 2007.
22   
23   
24