1 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * In the Matter of: THE BREW HOUSE Class "B" Tavern License STOJAN CORALIC, "THE BREW HOUSE" 2936 South 13th Street * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Proceedings had and testimony given in the above-entitled matter before the COMMON COUNCIL CITY OF MILWAUKEE on the 4th day of May, 2010. 2 1 * * * * * 2 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS 3 PRESIDENT HINES: We'll continue with 4 the Committee's report. And with that, for the 5 next several items, we will use the services of the 6 court reporter. Let the record reflect that the 7 court reporter has been sworn in. Will the city 8 clerk please identify the next items before the 9 Council? 10 CITY CLERK: Item No. 5: The Licenses 11 Committee recommends approval of File No. 091488 12 motion to approve the recommendations of the 13 Licenses Committee relative to licenses. 14 Renewal with a 90-day suspension based on 15 a police report, neighborhood testimony, police 16 department testimony and aldermanic testimony of 17 the Class B Tavern License of Stojan Coralic for 18 the premises at 2936 South 13th Street known as the 19 Brew House in the 14th Aldermanic District. 20 Written objections have been 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. 3 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. 4 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 Are there any further motions to be made 20 at this time? The chair recognizes Alderman Kovac. 21 ALDERMAN KOVAC: Thank you, Mr. 22 President. There is a motion that should be on 23 members' desks relative to licensing matters. I 24 move to deny renewal of the following license 25 application in lieu of the committee's 5 1 recommendation of renewal with a 90-day suspension 2 of the Class B Tavern License of Stojan Coralic for 3 the premises at 2936 South 13th Street, the Brew 4 House, in the 14th Aldermanic District. And I can 5 speak briefly to that matter as well. 6 PRESIDENT HINES: Go right ahead, 7 Alderman. That is an appropriate motion, and it is 8 at our desks. Please speak to it, Alderman. 9 ALDERMAN KOVAC: This is an item that the 10 Committee and Council have considered multiple 11 times in the last few months. We actually voted a 12 few months ago to revoke it. That revocation was 13 held up on a technicality; this was then the 14 renewal which came forward. We did make a motion 15 to consider in a previous record of the revocation 16 hearing, which included extensive neighborhood 17 testimony; extensive police captain's testimony 18 from District 6 saying that this was the worst bar 19 in the district, that included video footage of a 20 shooting which occurred outside the bar. There was 21 not as much evidence directly at the renewal 22 hearing, the accumulation of that evidence at the 23 renewal hearing and previous evidence, I thought it 24 was clear, and my vote has been the same that I 25 thought it should be revoked. I believe the 6 1 committee was deadlocked on a 2-2 vote on this 2 matter and then compromised for the 90-day 3 suspension. So I hope the full Council would move 4 to revoke. 5 PRESIDENT HINES: Thank you. That is an 6 appropriate motion. The chair recognizes Alderman 7 Bohl. 8 ALDERMAN BOHL: Thank you. 9 Alderman Kovac did a good job summarizing 10 the history of this particular establishment for 11 us. The item, when it appeared before Committee, 12 two changes were ultimately made and offered by the 13 applicant: One item was they agreed to voluntarily 14 surrender their Tavern Dance portion of their 15 license; the second thing was that the individual 16 who had been managing this operation here for the 17 last couple years, it was indicated that his 18 contract would be, as the manager, would be 19 terminated at the official closing of the license 20 hearing. 21 I stated at the hearing, I supported the 22 motion given the withdrawal of the Tavern Dance for 23 a 90-day suspension. And what I stated at the time 24 was that given those concessions, I was really on 25 the fence because I think the evidence was clear 7 1 and demonstrable that this was a license that, 2 frankly, could be nonrenewed. 3 What I will say is, afterwards, on review 4 of the findings of facts, on really review of the 5 statements made when the initial motion was made by 6 Alderman Kovac to nonrenew, on reflection of that, 7 I actually second-guessed the motion that I made 8 for a 90-day suspension or the motion I supported, 9 and for two reasons: One, because I think the 10 evidence demonstrated that this was a place of 11 multiple shootings, multiple beatings, was 12 extremely problematic, but to the larger part and 13 larger concern was, it is exactly this, that the 14 individual operator is hands off in terms of his 15 operation of this establishment. He's had a 16 history of hiring outside managers to run the 17 operation and even indicated that he did not have 18 plans to be heavily involved. I think it's 19 problematic when an individual -- there is a 20 problem with the manager and management that has 21 led to dramatic problems with the club. What you 22 do then is cut the ties immediately. You don't 23 wait until the end of the licensed cycle. That is 24 one thing that I did not properly reflect on. 25 The other thing is that, at this point, 8 1 he doesn't have a plan for a change. His plan is 2 to hopefully come forward and find someone else, 3 but he doesn't have a plan of action for change. 4 And to me, that is problematic. So those are some 5 of my views from reflecting that came based on the 6 evidence before us. 7 I do support the nonrenewal. I think 8 that is absolutely warranted. So I will support 9 the request for nonrenewal made by Alderman Kovac. 10 PRESIDENT HINES: Thank you, Alderman 11 Bohl. Are there any further discussions on that 12 matter? If not, we are going to take a roll call 13 vote as to the recommendation as put forth by 14 Alderman Kovac. 15 CITY CLERK: On the amendment, Alderman 16 Hamilton. 17 ALDERMAN HAMILTON: Aye. 18 CITY CLERK: Kovac. 19 ALDERMAN KOVAC: Aye. 20 CITY CLERK: Bauman. 21 ALDERMAN BAUMAN: Aye. 22 CITY CLERK: Bohl. 23 ALDERMAN BOHL: Aye. 24 CITY CLERK: Coggs. 25 ALDERWOMAN COGGS: No. 9 1 CITY CLERK: Wade. 2 ALDERMAN WADE: Aye. 3 CITY CLERK: Donovan. 4 ALDERMAN DONOVAN: Aye. 5 CITY CLERK: Puente. 6 ALDERMAN PUENTE: No. 7 CITY CLERK: Murphy. 8 ALDERMAN MURPHY: Aye. 9 CITY CLERK: Dudzik. 10 ALDERMAN DUDZIK: No. 11 CITY CLERK: Witkowiak. 12 ALDERMAN WITKOWIAK: Aye. 13 CITY CLERK: Witkowski. 14 ALDERMAN WITKOWSKI: Aye. 15 CITY CLERK: Zielinski. 16 ALDERMAN ZIELINSKI: Abstain. 17 CITY CLERK: Mr. President. 18 PRESIDENT HINES: Aye. 19 CITY CLERK: 10 ayes, 3 nos, 1 excused, 1 20 abstention. 21 PRESIDENT HINES: 10 ayes, 3 nos, 1 22 excused, 1 abstention. The matter passes. Are 23 there any additional motions or amendments relative 24 to the licenses matter? Any additional motion on 25 the licenses matter or any additional comments? If 10 1 not, if there is no further discussion on the 2 licenses items, I would request a vote of those 3 council members present to approve the 4 recommendations of the Licenses Committee as 5 contained in File No. 091488. Now, again, these 6 are the Licenses Committee matters. We will then 7 subsequently go back to the items on the Licenses 8 Committee as it pertains to one, two, three, and I 9 think even four. But again, the actions right now 10 will be relative to the recommendations on those 11 licensing matters contained in File No. 091488. 12 Will the city clerk please call roll? 13 CITY CLERK: On approval of the file as 14 amended, Alderman Hamilton. 15 ALDERMAN HAMILTON: Aye. 16 CITY CLERK: Kovac. 17 ALDERMAN KOVAC: Aye. 18 CITY CLERK: Bauman. 19 ALDERMAN BAUMAN: Aye. 20 CITY CLERK: Bohl. 21 ALDERMAN BOHL: Aye. 22 CITY CLERK: Coggs. 23 ALDERWOMAN COGGS: Aye. 24 CITY CLERK: Wade. 25 ALDERMAN WADE: Aye. 11 1 CITY CLERK: Donovan. 2 ALDERMAN DONOVAN: Aye. 3 CITY CLERK: Puente. 4 ALDERMAN PUENTE: Aye. 5 CITY CLERK: Murphy. 6 ALDERMAN MURPHY: Aye. 7 CITY CLERK: Dudzik. 8 ALDERMAN DUDZIK: Aye. 9 CITY CLERK: Witkowiak. 10 ALDERMAN WITKOWIAK: Aye. 11 CITY CLERK: Witkowski. 12 ALDERMAN WITKOWSKI: Aye. 13 CITY CLERK: Zielinski. 14 ALDERMAN ZIELINSKI: Aye. 15 CITY CLERK: Mr. President. 16 PRESIDENT HINES: Aye. 17 CITY CLERK: 14 ayes, 1 excused. 18 PRESIDENT HINES: 14 ayes, 1 excused, the 19 file is adopted. We will now -- the court reporter 20 is excused. Thank you for your services. 21 22 23 24 25 12 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