Liquor licenses to be renewed after appeal

NEW LONDON – The New London Travel Plaza will have its combination Class “A” liquor license and The Vault and Dragon’s Den will have its combination Class “B” liquor license renewed after the owner of the businesses appealed the New London Police Department’s original recommendation to non-renew those licenses.
The New London Common Council approved renewing the respective liquor licenses for the three business when it met June 16. The licenses were renewed by a 9-1 vote with Ald. BaLynda Croy voting against renewing the licenses.

Committee meeting
At the June 3 New London Finance & Personnel Committee meeting, New London Police Chief Josh Wilson told the committee that the city has done a good job of “eliminating discretion from the process.”
After a bartender or retail application is received, a background check is conducted by the New London Police Department, Wilson said. One of the questions on the applications is whether the applicant has been convicted of any offense in the past.

On the beverage license application for SG Petroleum, the applicant answered “no” to the question regarding past convictions, Wilson said. But the background investigation conducted by the police department found three offenses that the applicant was convicted of in Outagamie County through the Appleton Police Department. The offenses included: selling alcohol to a minor, failure to display the alcohol license, and a premise operating without an operator license.
“Granted, those businesses are in Appleton, but those offenses were not disclosed on the application,” Wilson said.
The applicant, Suyash Goel, was present at the meeting and addressed the committee. He said he did not disclose those offenses because he thought only offenses against him personally needed to be disclosed, not offenses against his business. He added that any citations against his business were immediately rectified.
“We are making all our store managers agents of the company so that they can keep close track of (things) so issues like this don’t happen in the future,” Goel said. “And all these issues have been in the city of Appleton. We’ve been operating businesses here in New London since 2022 and we have never gotten a ticket or citations or any kind of things regarding this kind of matters. So, we take our business very seriously but accidents happen and we rectified it right away.”
Ald. Tim Roberts asked for clarification as to when the past violations took place.
Wilson said the violations took place within the past two years.
Ald. David Dorsey asked if the licenses would have been recommended for renewal if the offenses would have been disclosed on the applications.
“You could make an argument that these are a disregard for licensing regulations,” Wilson said.
Wilson added that the city has created a flow chart that helps eliminate discretion when approving these licenses. The police department follows the flow chart to make its recommendation.
Later in the meeting, Roberts asked Wilson if the licenses would have been recommended for approval if the offenses in Appleton had been disclosed.
“If he would have disclosed that, I still would have went back to this flow chart and I would have went down, and the path would have been the same,” Wilson said. “Had he disclosed this, that last box reads, ‘show disregard for licensing regulations.’ So, my opinion, yes, these are disregard for licensing violations. These are convictions, so he was found guilty of what I mentioned.”
New London City Administrator Chad Hoerth said it was up to the committee as to whether it wanted to follow the recommendation of the police department and deny the licenses. Or, based on the information presented at the meeting, the committee could proceed to have the city issue the license renewals.
Ald. John Faucher asked if the committee had the authority to approve the license renewals and add a probation period.
Hoerth said he was unaware if adding a probation period was possible.
Croy recommended that the city not make a decision on the license renewals until it could consult with New London City Attorney Keith Steckbauer.
“We’re setting a precedent if we disregard this, in my opinion,” Croy said.

Council meeting
At the June 16 council meeting, Wilson told the council he researched the matter further and met with Goel since the committee meeting. He said he was able to verify that the age verification software was present at the Travel Plaza. Wilson said he also contacted the Appleton Police Department and found that Goel never had any license issues in Appleton other than failing to display the current license.
“But he’s never not had a license,” Wilson said. “Those violations by themself would not prohibit him from receiving a license next time.”
Wilson said he also stressed to Goel the importance of completing the license applications thoroughly in the future.

Croy asked Steckbauer what the recourse for the city would be if the liquor license was approved and the city had issues with any of the three businesses.
Steckbauer said non-renewing a license is a different process than revoking a license.
“Revocation, you would have to have a pretty significant violation,” Steckbauer said. “…It’s not an easy process. Essentially, they have a property right, they have a license. If you get the license, you’re expected to be able to renew it, absent significant violations.”