City Council Members Disagree on Renewing Bartender's License

The men of the overruled the women at the Nov. 21 meeting when they voted to give Ross Freeman another chance to keep his bartender’s license despite being indebted to municipal court for an Operating Under the Influence violation.

Alderpersons Rich Vaneslow, Randy Morrissette, John Hoggatt* and Lee Wyland* all voted in favor giving Freeman another chance to stick to the payment plan laid out by the court for his OUI offense – and said should he miss just one payment his operating bartender’s license will then be revoked.

“If we take away his license we take away his ability to work and make the payments,” Wyland said.

The outstanding bill is $379 now, down from the $579 bill cited in June.
Vaneslow was the first to speak out in Freeman’s defense saying although he was disappointed the offender wasn’t at the meeting to make a case for himself the courts had reason to reinstate a payment plan even after the man had been at least three months delinquent.

“We have given him many chances, but the courts found some reason and went to the payment plan and we should support the court,” he said. “But if he misses a payment one time, we will take it (the operator’s license) at that time.”

Alderpersons Mary Yacoub and Lori Bernard did not agree.

According to the city ordinance “no operator’s licenses shall be issued if the applicant is delinquent in payment of any taxes, assessments, forfeiture for violations of city ordinances, utility bill, or any other claims owed to the city.”

“So the questions comes down to are we going to enforce the ordinance on the books or not?” Bernard posed.

Yacoub said she thought the ordinance should be followed before the opposing vote was tallied.

In other news:

The Development agreement for a Uline distribution center was unanimously approved. The over 63 acre parcel of land on Hanley Road soon be home to a distribution center of 610,500 square feet plus 30,000 square feet of office space as construction is set to begin in April or May 2012.

A significant part of the development agreement was payment for trunk storm and sanitary sewers and trunk water systems – which totaled at $1.2. A credit would be given to Uline if they develop an equivalent storm water and sewer system on site.
There will be street dedication to the city: 0.024 acres of Hanley to Rock Street and 1.32 acres at Heiser Street for public right of way.

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* Wyland's and Hoggatt's last names were misspelled in a previous version of this post.