* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * In the Matter of: ASIAN MOON Class "B" Tavern License MAY XIONG "ASIAN MOON" 3419 West Forest Home Avenue * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Proceedings had and testimony given in the above-entitled matter before the COMMON COUNCIL CITY OF MILWAUKEE on the 4th day of May, 2010. 1 * * * * * 2 I N D E X 3 4 Examination: Page 5 Mr. Sweeney........................................ 6 Mr. Schrimpf....................................... 10 6 7 Exhibit Identified: (None) 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 1 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS 2 PRESIDENT HINES: We'll continue with 3 the Committee's report. And with that, for the 4 next several items, we will use the services of the 5 court reporter. Let the record reflect that the 6 court reporter has been sworn in. Will the city 7 clerk please identify the next items before the 8 Council? 9 CITY CLERK: Item No. 5: The Licenses 10 Committee recommends approval of File No. 091488 11 motion to approve the recommendations of the 12 Licenses Committee relative to licenses.Renewal 13 with a 60-day suspension of the Tavern Amusement 14 License and renewal with a 30-day suspension of the 15 Class B Tavern License based on a police report and 16 an agent and aldermanic testimony of May Xiong, 17 agent for Asian Moon for the premises at 3419 West 18 Forest Home Avenue known as The Moon in the 8th 19 Aldermanic District. Written objections have been 20 filed. 21 PRESIDENT HINES: Have the members of the 22 Common Council read the report and recommendations 23 of the Licenses Committee and the exceptions filed 24 in this matter? Roll call, please. 25 CITY CLERK: Alderman Hamilton. 1 ALDERMAN HAMILTON: Aye. 2 CITY CLERK: Kovac. 3 ALDERMAN KOVAC: Aye. 4 CITY CLERK: Bauman. 5 ALDERMAN BAUMAN: Aye. 6 CITY CLERK: Bohl. 7 ALDERMAN BOHL: Aye. 8 CITY CLERK: Coggs 9 ALDERWOMAN COGGS: Aye. 10 CITY CLERK: Wade. 11 ALDERMAN WADE: Aye. 12 CITY CLERK: Donovan. 13 ALDERMAN DONOVAN: Aye. 14 CITY CLERK: Puente. 15 ALDERMAN PUENTE: Aye. 16 CITY CLERK: Murphy. 17 ALDERMAN MURPHY: Aye. 18 CITY CLERK: Dudzik. 19 ALDERMAN DUDZIK: Aye. 20 CITY CLERK: Witkowiak. 21 ALDERMAN WITKOWIAK: Aye. 22 CITY CLERK: Witkowski. 23 ALDERMAN WITKOWSKI: Aye. 24 CITY CLERK: Zielinski. 25 ALDERMAN ZIELINSKI: Aye. 1 CITY CLERK: Mr. President. 2 PRESIDENT HINES: Aye. 3 CITY CLERK: 14 ayes, 1 excused. 4 PRESIDENT HINES: 14 ayes, 1 excused. 5 CITY CLERK: Are any of the following or 6 their counsels present, and if so, do they wish to 7 address the Common Council: Michael Kozak? 8 Counsel is present; Stojan Coralic? No response; 9 May Xiong? Counsel present. 10 PRESIDENT HINES: Alderman Bohl moves 11 that the Common Council resolve itself to the 12 Committee of the Whole for the purpose of hearing 13 oral arguments on behalf of the licenses and 14 opposition to the report and the recommendations of 15 the committee report and the statement presented by 16 the city attorney. Is there any objection? Seeing 17 and hearing none, we are now in the Committee of 18 the Whole. 19 Each side shall be limited to five 20 minutes and the arguments shall be limited to the 21 subject matter in the report and recommendations 22 and the written exceptions. 23 CITY CLERK: The second item is the 24 recommendation of the Committee regarding the 25 establishment at 3419 West Forest Home Avenue known 1 as The Moon. 2 MR. SWEENEY: Good morning, Mr. 3 President, Council Members. My name is Shawn 4 Sweeney, representing May Xiong and the Asian Moon 5 LLC. 6 We have submitted written objections, a 7 two-page written objection, regarding the Licenses 8 Committee recommendation of a 30-day suspension of 9 The Moon's Class B Tavern License and a 60-day 10 suspension of its Cabaret License. 11 Last year The Moon received a suspension, 12 15 days on the Class B and 30 days on the Cabaret 13 License, but since that time, has made a lot of 14 strides towards improving its conduct and being a 15 safer establishment. These things are outlined in 16 my written objection. Some of the important 17 aspects were increased security, especially 18 outside, and I think this is something that we were 19 lacking in the past, that they have created an 20 outside security presence by having specific 21 security guards out there on the busy nights to do 22 crowd control, traffic control and they've even had 23 private squads, for lack of a better term, out 24 there for additional visibility to keep the patrons 25 in order. There has been also added security 1 cameras. While there were no actual complaints 2 about sound, Ms. Xiong has taken steps to improve 3 the soundproofing by adding double doors to the 4 front door. So when the door is open, the music 5 doesn't pour out in the neighborhood, there is a 6 double door creating a barrier for that. 7 Another big aspect was improved relations 8 with Aurora. They use the parking lot behind the 9 bar to cut down on the street parking, which is 10 certainly a nice benefit for the neighborhood. And 11 there were complaints about litter, although nobody 12 from Aurora came to complain about that. We did 13 even include in our objection a written letter from 14 a representative of Aurora indicating that since 15 Ms. Xiong has taken over and addressed those 16 issues, there haven't been any problems at all. 17 Upon recommendation of the Council, Ms. 18 Xiong has also gone to each of the neighbors in the 19 area and given them her cell phone number to allow 20 them to contact her directly so she can address 21 issues that may arise right away. 22 The other issue is she moved into the 23 apartment above the club to try, again, to have a 24 more constant presence there. 25 The real issue in front of the Committee 1 were two police incidents reported. No neighbors 2 came to testify to complain about the club or any 3 of the activities that take place. One incident 4 occurred in March of 2009, so almost 14 months ago, 5 and the other was in July of 2009, which is almost 6 nine months ago. Since that time, there were no 7 other incidents that were before the Committee for 8 them to consider. 9 The real thing that I noticed -- I 10 watched the video of the hearing. Ms. Xiong was 11 not represented by counsel at the hearing of the 12 Licenses Committee. And I was able to watch that 13 video, by the way, that is a really neat feature, 14 and the thing that struck me, I don't think that 15 she made it very clear that she has taken over the 16 management of this company. This isn't a situation 17 where it's her and her ex-husband, Lee Xiong, who 18 was the previous license holder, simply switched 19 the name and they are both still running this LLC, 20 they are both still running this club. Mr. Xiong 21 has been fired. There was a meeting of the LLC 22 members, he was fired, and he's gone, actually 23 moved to Eau Claire, Wisconsin. So Ms. Xiong, 24 since March of 2010, has taken over the full-time 25 control of this bar. And she has put in a lot of 1 money and effort to try to improve the security. 2 I certainly understand the concept of 3 progressive discipline, and I appreciate that it is 4 appropriate in certain cases. But I think in this 5 scenario, they went from a 15-day suspension and a 6 30-day suspension to a 30-day suspension and a 7 60-day suspension when they actually improved their 8 performance in the community. And it's been almost 9 nine months since there has been any issues. I 10 think even with that improvement, since March, they 11 have taken additional steps to try to further 12 enhance the safety and security of the bar. 13 Obviously, my client would prefer not to 14 have any suspension at all, but understands that 15 the council members are going to listen to the 16 recommendation of the Committee, at least in part. 17 What we would ask is that the council members 18 consider at the very least reducing the Cabaret 19 License suspension to be on par with the Tavern 20 License suspension. 21 This bar is a nightclub, that's what 22 their clientele is. They know what the experience 23 was of the big loss in revenue that they took last 24 year with the suspension. And Ms. Xiong has 25 expressed to me that a 60-day suspension of the 1 nightclub will result in a significant loss of 2 their clientele, may even result in them going out 3 of business. 4 Thank you. And I'm happy to answer any 5 questions anybody may have. 6 PRESIDENT HINES: Thank you. Are there 7 any questions of the counsel? If not, thank you. 8 We will now hear from the representative from the 9 City Attorney's Office. 10 MR. SWEENEY: Thank you. 11 MR. SCHRIMPF: Thank you, Mr. President. 12 Bruce Schrimpf from the Milwaukee City Attorney's 13 Office. 14 Basically, this location has had a number 15 of suspensions of both its Class B Tavern and its 16 Cabaret in the past as has been alluded to. The 17 police report indicated that there were two 18 episodes in 2009 that basically entailed fights in 19 the location, and the Committee made its 20 recommendation based upon that information as well 21 as testimony from the local alderman regarding his 22 experiences with the tavern. 23 Certainly, you can take into your sound 24 discretion the fact, or the assertion, that the 25 licensee has made since she has recently taken over 1 the actual management of the place, and that she 2 has done some things to improve by beefing up 3 security. And she also provided evidence that they 4 are working with St. Luke's Hospital. And St. 5 Luke's Hospital is apparently happy with the 6 situation of the parking lot. 7 If there are any questions, I'll be happy 8 to try to answer them. And, again, as I always 9 say, whether or not you suspend this license or 10 renew it without a suspension is a matter that is 11 always reposed to your sound discretion. 12 PRESIDENT HINES: Thank you. Are there 13 any questions of Assistant City Attorney, Bruce 14 Schrimpf? If not, thank you, Mr. Schrimpf. 15 are there any additional motions or amendments 16 relative to the licenses matter? The Chair 17 recognizes Alderwoman Coggs. 18 ALDERWOMAN COGGS: Not a motion. Just 19 wanting to be consistent with my vote in committee 20 and be recorded as a "no" vote for Asian Moon. 21 PRESIDENT HINES: Let the record reflect 22 Alderwoman Coggs' consistency with her committee 23 vote. Any additional motion on the licenses matter 24 or any additional comments? If not, if there is no 25 further discussion on the licenses items, I would 1 request a vote of those council members present to 2 approve the recommendations of the Licenses 3 Committee as contained in File No. 091488. Now, 4 again, these are the Licenses Committee matters. 5 We will then subsequently go back to the items on 6 the Licenses Committee as it pertains to one, two, 7 three, and I think even four. But again, the 8 actions right now will be relative to the 9 recommendations on those licensing matters 10 contained in File No. 091488. Will the city clerk 11 please call roll? 12 CITY CLERK: On approval of the file as 13 amended, Alderman Hamilton. 14 ALDERMAN HAMILTON: Aye. 15 CITY CLERK: Kovac. 16 ALDERMAN KOVAC: Aye. 17 CITY CLERK: Bauman. 18 ALDERMAN BAUMAN: Aye. 19 CITY CLERK: Bohl. 20 ALDERMAN BOHL: Aye. 21 CITY CLERK: Coggs. 22 ALDERWOMAN COGGS: Aye. 23 CITY CLERK: Wade. 24 ALDERMAN WADE: Aye. 25 CITY CLERK: Donovan. 1 ALDERMAN DONOVAN: Aye. 2 CITY CLERK: Puente. 3 ALDERMAN PUENTE: Aye. 4 CITY CLERK: Murphy. 5 ALDERMAN MURPHY: Aye. 6 CITY CLERK: Dudzik. 7 ALDERMAN DUDZIK: Aye. 8 CITY CLERK: Witkowiak. 9 ALDERMAN WITKOWIAK: Aye. 10 CITY CLERK: Witkowski. 11 ALDERMAN WITKOWSKI: Aye. 12 CITY CLERK: Zielinski. 13 ALDERMAN ZIELINSKI: Aye. 14 CITY CLERK: Mr. President. 15 PRESIDENT HINES: Aye. 16 CITY CLERK: 14 ayes, 1 excused. 17 PRESIDENT HINES: 14 ayes, 1 excused, the 18 file is adopted. We will now -- the court reporter 19 is excused. Thank you for your services. 20 21 22 23 24 25 1 STATE OF WISCONSIN ) ) SS: 2 COUNTY OF MILWAUKEE ) 3 4 5 I, KAREN RENEE, Court Reporter and Notary 6 Public in and for the State of Wisconsin, do hereby 7 certify that the above proceedings of the City of 8 Milwaukee Common Council was recorded by me on May 4, 9 2010, and reduced to writing under my personal 10 direction. 11 I further certify that I am not a 12 relative or employee or attorney or counsel of any of 13 the parties, or a relative or employee of such attorney 14 or counsel, or financially interested directly or 15 indirectly in this action. 16 In witness whereof I have hereunder set 17 my hand and affixed my seal of office at Milwaukee, 18 Wisconsin, this 10th day of May 2010. 19 20 ___________________________ 21 Karen Renee Court Reporter and Notary Public 22 In and for the State of Wisconsin 23 24 My Commission Expires: March 11, 2012. 25