1 CITY OF MILWAUKEE COMMON COUNCIL * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * In the Matter of: Clybourn Supermarket Class A Malt License JAGDISH PATEL "CLYBOURN SUPERMARKET, LLC" 2903 West Clybourn Street * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Proceedings had and testimony given in the above-entitled matter before the COMMON COUNCIL CITY OF MILWAUKEE on the 7th day of July, 2010. 2 1 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS 2 PRESIDENT HINES: For the next items, we 3 will use the services of the court reporter. Let 4 the record reflect that the court reporter has been 5 sworn in. 6 CITY CLERK: The Licenses Committee 7 recommends approval of File No. 100062 motion to 8 approve the recommendations of the Licenses 9 Committee relative to license. Included in the 10 file are the following recommendations: 11 Renewal with a 30-day suspension based on 12 neighborhood testimony of the Class A Malt License 13 of Jagdish Patel, agent for Clybourn Supermarket, 14 LLC, for the premises at 2903 West Clybourn Street 15 known as Milwaukee Foods in the 4th Aldermanic 16 District. No written objections have been filed. 17 PRESIDENT HINES: Have the members of the 18 Common Council read the report and the 19 recommendations of the Licenses Committee and the 20 exceptions filed in this matter? Roll call, 21 please. 22 CITY CLERK: Alderman Hamilton. 23 ALDERMAN HAMILTON: Aye. 24 CITY CLERK: Davis. 25 ALDERMAN DAVIS: Aye. 3 1 CITY CLERK: Kovac. 2 ALDERMAN KOVAC: Aye. 3 CITY CLERK: Bauman. 4 ALDERMAN BAUMAN: Aye. 5 CITY CLERK: Bohl. 6 ALDERMAN BOHL: Aye. 7 CITY CLERK: Coggs. 8 ALDERMAN COGGS: Aye. 9 CITY CLERK: Wade. 10 ALDERMAN WADE: Aye. 11 CITY CLERK: Puente. 12 ALDERMAN PUENTE: Aye. 13 CITY CLERK: Murphy. 14 ALDERMAN MURPHY: Aye. 15 CITY CLERK: Dudzik. 16 ALDERMAN DUDZIK: Aye. 17 CITY CLERK: Witkowiak. 18 ALDERMAN WITKOWIAK: Aye. 19 CITY CLERK: Zielinski. 20 ALDERMAN ZIELINSKI: Aye. 21 CITY CLERK: Mr. President. 22 PRESIDENT HINES: Aye. 23 CITY CLERK: 13 ayes, 2 excused. 24 PRESIDENT HINES: 13 ayes, 2 excused. 25 Alderman Bohl moves that the Common Council resolve 4 1 itself into the Committee of the Whole for the -- 2 I'm sorry, Alderman Bohl will move that the 3 Committee now rises. Are there any motions 4 relative to this matter? Are there any motions? 5 The chair recognizes Alderman Bauman. 6 ALDERMAN BAUMAN: Yes, thank you, Mr. 7 President. I do have a motion with respect to File 8 No. 100062. Within that file, there is a license 9 recommendation, Committee recommendation for 10 renewal with a 30-day suspension for the Class A 11 Malt License for the Clybourn Supermarket, LLC, 12 2903 West Clybourn Avenue. And my motion is to 13 basically nonrenew that license contrary to 14 notwithstanding the Committee recommendation. 15 PRESIDENT HINES: Before we go further, 16 there were two members that were excused prior to 17 the reading of the finding of facts. I'd like to 18 get them on the record to see if they did read it, 19 and if they did, then allow them to participate in 20 the vote. With that being the case, Mr. City 21 Clerk, why don't you pose the question? 22 CITY CLERK: Alderman Donovan, you were 23 not present when the vote was taken as to whether 24 you read the report and the recommendations of the 25 Committee. Have you so read them? 5 1 ALDERMAN DONOVAN: I have. 2 CITY CLERK: Alderman Witkowski, have you 3 read the report and recommendations of the 4 Committee? 5 ALDERMAN WITKOWSKI: I have. 6 CITY CLERK: Thank you. 7 PRESIDENT HINES: Thank you. With that 8 being said, now, Alderman Bauman, please continue. 9 Now those two aldermen are able to vote on this 10 particular item. 11 ALDERMAN BAUMAN: Mr. President, just to 12 reiterate, the motion is notwithstanding the 13 Committee recommendation of a 30-day suspension, 14 and the motion is to nonrenew the license for the 15 Clybourn, Class A Malt License for Clybourn 16 Supermarket, LLC, at 2903 West Clybourn Street. 17 And I'd like to the speak to the motion, please. 18 PRESIDENT HINES: Is there any discussion 19 on the motion? Any further discussion by the maker 20 of motion relative to the motion? 21 ALDERMAN BAUMAN: Yes, thank you, Mr. 22 President. 23 As many of you know the Merrill Park 24 Neighborhood Association has been very diligent in 25 providing us information relative to the situations 6 1 with this license. On your desks is a letter from 2 Mr. Bob Green, who is the executive director of the 3 association. He testified before the Committee. 4 Also before your desk is a communication from James 5 Tarentino (phonetic) who owns a business directly 6 across the street of the establishment. He also 7 testified at the Committee. And also on your desk 8 is a letter from a Marquis Finch addressed to Jim 9 Fayers, he actually meant "Jim Sayers," at the 10 Neighborhood Improvement Development Corporation. 11 He also testified at the hearing. I think the two 12 letters from the citizens, Mr. Tarentino, a 13 businessman; and Mr. Finch, are perhaps the most 14 persuasive. Mr. Finch, basically, is a 15 middle-class guy. He is a family guy. He and his 16 wife purchased a home, which the city built or 17 assisted to construct about 100 feet, 200 feet 18 north of the location of this grocery store. A 19 brand new house, substantial cost, part of our 20 housing program to basically attract middle class 21 and working class families back to the central city 22 neighborhoods. The Merrill Park Neighborhood 23 Association worked very hard on putting this 24 housing development together. Mr. Finch received a 25 significant subsidy as well as the other homeowners 7 1 on that block. And partially as a result of this 2 store and the ongoing commotion, loitering, crime 3 and disorder that has been testified to 4 consistently over the last half-dozen years or more 5 at various licenses hearings, several of the 6 families have moved out. And Mr. Finch, as he 7 mentioned in the letter, is one of the very reasons 8 he cites his decision to try to get out of his 9 obligation with NIDC. Basically, he's got a loan, 10 forgivable loan, for the amount of $20,000. He's 11 paid it down to a $6,000 balance, and he's asking 12 the city to forgive the rest so he can leave the 13 neighborhood. And as he indicates, one of the 14 reasons he wants to leave this neighborhood is 15 problems with this particular liquor store, ongoing 16 problems. 17 We've invested a lot of money in trying 18 to attract people back to the central city 19 neighborhoods, families, people with children, 20 people who will be law abiding, invest in their 21 property and become stabilizing forces in the 22 neighborhood. And here we have a situation where a 23 licensee owned by individuals that don't live in 24 the neighborhood; don't even live in the city, are 25 creating a significant nuisance causing these 8 1 people to ultimately leave town. 2 We have a businessman who testified too, 3 and he basically summarizes his testimony here in 4 this letter to what he himself observed over the 5 last year. 6 It's clear from the record that our 7 normal process of suspensions and punishment and 8 carrot-and-stick have not been effective with this 9 particular establishment. Despite changes in 10 agents, despite alleged changes in ownership, 11 although the entity has remained the licensee for 12 the last at least six years, nothing seems to 13 change. It's the same exact problems as testified 14 to year in and year out as indicated by Mr. Green 15 in his testimony before the Committee. 16 So my point is very simple, let's -- the 17 neighborhood has spoken, Merrill Park Neighborhood 18 Association has spoken persuasively, let's put an 19 end to this constant merry-go-round of hearings, 20 suspensions, further continued behavioral problems, 21 further hearings, further suspensions, continued 22 behavioral problems. 23 This is a grocery store. Let them sell 24 their groceries but remove the liquor element. 25 And, clearly, they can reapply at a future date if 9 1 the neighborhood has a great need for liquor at 2 this location. But certainly, at this point, I 3 think adequate record has been made to justify a 4 nonrenewal, and I urge my colleagues to support 5 that. 6 PRESIDENT HINES: Thank you. Any 7 additional questions or any additional statements 8 relative to the motion put forth by Alderman 9 Bauman? If not, we're going to subject that to a 10 roll call vote. Because of the outcome at the 11 Committee; it was a 4-1 vote, in order to overturn 12 the Committee's vote, it will need a three-fourths 13 of a vote by this body in order to overturn it. 14 With that said, that would be 12 votes, Mr. City 15 Clerk, please call the roll. 16 CITY CLERK: On the motion to nonrenew, 17 Alderman Hamilton. 18 ALDERMAN HAMILTON: No. 19 CITY CLERK: Davis. 20 ALDERMAN DAVIS: Aye. 21 CITY CLERK: Kovac. 22 ALDERMAN KOVAC: Aye. 23 CITY CLERK: Bauman. 24 ALDERMAN BAUMAN: Aye. 25 CITY CLERK: Bohl. 10 1 ALDERMAN BOHL: Aye. 2 CITY CLERK: Coggs. 3 ALDERMAN COGGS: No. 4 CITY CLERK: Wade. 5 ALDERMAN WADE: Aye. 6 CITY CLERK: Donovan. 7 ALDERMAN DONOVAN: Aye. 8 CITY CLERK: Puente. 9 ALDERMAN PUENTE: No. 10 CITY CLERK: Murphy. 11 PRESIDENT HINES: Excused. 12 CITY CLERK: Dudzik. 13 ALDERMAN DUDZIK: Aye. 14 CITY CLERK: Witkowiak. 15 ALDERMAN WITKOWIAK: Aye. 16 CITY CLERK: Witkowski. 17 ALDERMAN WITKOWSKI: Aye. 18 CITY CLERK: Zielinski. 19 ALDERMAN ZIELINSKI: Aye. 20 CITY CLERK: Murphy. 21 ALDERMAN MURPHY: Aye. 22 CITY CLERK: Mr. President. 23 PRESIDENT HINES: Aye. 24 CITY CLERK: 12 ayes, 3 nos. 25 PRESIDENT HINES: 12 ayes, 3 nos. The 11 1 motion carries. Are there any additional motions 2 relative to the licenses hearing? Are there any 3 additional motions? If there is no further 4 discussion, no further discussion, I would request 5 the vote of those Council members present to 6 approve the recommendations for the Licenses 7 Committee as contained in File No. 100062. Will 8 the city clerk please call the roll? 9 CITY CLERK: Alderman Hamilton. 10 ALDERMAN HAMILTON: Aye. 11 CITY CLERK: Davis. 12 ALDERMAN DAVIS: Aye. 13 CITY CLERK: Kovac. 14 ALDERMAN KOVAC: Aye. 15 CITY CLERK: Bauman. 16 ALDERMAN BAUMAN: Aye. 17 CITY CLERK: Bohl. 18 ALDERMAN BOHL: Aye. 19 CITY CLERK: Coggs. 20 ALDERMAN COGGS: Aye. 21 CITY CLERK: Wade. 22 ALDERMAN WADE: Aye. 23 CITY CLERK: Donovan. 24 ALDERMAN DONOVAN: Aye. 25 CITY CLERK: Puente. 12 1 ALDERMAN PUENTE: Aye. 2 CITY CLERK: Murphy. 3 ALDERMAN MURPHY: Aye. 4 CITY CLERK: Dudzik. 5 ALDERMAN DUDZIK: Aye. 6 CITY CLERK: Witkowiak. 7 ALDERMAN WITKOWIAK: Aye. 8 CITY CLERK: Witkowski. 9 ALDERMAN WITKOWSKI: Aye. 10 CITY CLERK: Zielinski. 11 ALDERMAN ZIELINSKI: Aye. 12 CITY CLERK: Mr. President. 13 PRESIDENT HINES: Aye. 14 CITY CLERK: 15 ayes. 15 PRESIDENT HINES: 15 ayes, 0 nos. The 16 file is adopted. 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 13 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 hearing recorded by me on July 7, 8 2010, and reduced to writing under my personal 9 direction. 10 I further certify that I am not a 11 relative or employee or attorney or counsel of any of 12 the parties, or a relative or employee of such attorney 13 or counsel, or financially interested directly or 14 indirectly in this action. 15 In witness whereof I have hereunder set 16 my hand and affixed my seal of office at Milwaukee, 17 Wisconsin, this 18th day of July, 2010. 18 19 ___________________________ 20 Karen Renee Court Reporter and Notary Public 21 In and for the State of Wisconsin 22 23 My Commission Expires: March 11, 2012. 24 25