The Licenses Committee of the City of Milwaukee met on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, at 9:08 AM in Room 301-B of City Hall, chaired by Ald. Jocasta Zamarripa. The meeting, which was webcast live, considered a substitute ordinance regarding Department of Neighborhood Services (DNS) investigation of license applications, a motion relating to recommendations for numerous individual license applications, and two files to be placed on file. The meeting adjourned at 3:56 PM.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for your patience. I will call to order the license committee regular meeting on Tuesday, May 19th at 908 a.m. Um, I'm Alder President Joe Casta Zamaripa. I'm chairperson of the committee, and I'm joined in the following order to my right by our vice chair, Alderwoman Andrea Pratt, as well as Alderman DeAndre Jackson. Um my far left, of course, Alderman Alex Brouwer. Um Alderman Peter Bergelis just stepped out for a moment, he'll be right back. We're also joined, of course, by Yadira Melendez, our staff assistant. Good morning. Um it's Fabiola Lopez, our licensed division manager, attorney Travis Gresham from the Office of the City Attorney, and um our MPD Sergeant Um Cornejo, as well as newly minted uh and promoted Lieutenant Wadalupe Velasquez. Congratulations, uh Lieutenant. So the first item on the agenda is file number 26003, an ordinance relating to the Department of Neighborhood Services investigation of license applications. Thank you to DNS for being here, as well as our licensed division manager, Jim Cooney. Um, I will start start it off and then hand it off to you three. Um, but I introduced this file in an effort to streamline um things for our entrepreneurs, our small business owners, our business owners who come in and apply for their license. Um what this will do is essentially um change the process so that an applicant must apply for their occupancy permit first before we take up um their license, you know, for alcohol, food, etc. So with that, really want to hand it off to our experts in DNS and license division. Jim Cooney, do you want to start? Sure, I can start. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, Jim Cooney, licensed division. So I want to talk just real briefly about what the current process is, how this ordinance impacts that, what the administrative impact is, and then what the benefit will be to license applicants. So currently, when the license division receives an application, we refer it out to the Department of Neighborhood Services, and we really get back three pieces of information. Either they have an occupancy permit, they have an application in flight, or there is a situation where they need some sort of BOSA approval, and as this committee knows, uh that can hold up the process while BOSA does its own separate deliberation. There are circumstances where an applicant hasn't filed for occupancy, and so it we maybe don't have the best information to make that decision or make that referral to BOSA. Uh but in the interest of keeping the license application moving, uh DNS will use the information that's on the application. I'm sure that they can talk more to that specific part. Um what this ordinance will do is it will require a licensed applicant to go to DNS and apply for their occupancy permit before DNS will provide the license division the information to move the application on to the committee. Uh I do want to be clear, this is not requiring them to obtain the occupancy permit. This is just make applications so capital improvements that are required for inspections, all that sort of stuff, not required to advance the license application. Just the application so that they have the information uh to provide this committee the information it needs to make its decision. Uh administratively, this is really minor impact for us. So license specialists already review a checklist of action items with applicants. Uh one of those items is obtaining an occupancy permit from DNS. What we're gonna do is just reiterate reiterate that they need to do that right away after they've applied for their license and that the license application won't move until they've done that. Um and then if the applicant doesn't file within two weeks, we'll send a reminder to them. We have a process in which we remind people of outstanding stuff a couple weeks after they filed that they need to do before they can get to committee. Uh, and I think that this is gonna benefit applicants uh because it's gonna bring clarity to this process earlier in this process, particularly when you have two separate deliberative bodies, BOSA and the licenses committee that may be involved in a particular operation. Um in my experience, I've seen applicants who found out very late in the process that they need some sort of approval through BOSA, or found out very late in the process that they just need to apply for occupancy and then go through the subsequent inspections, and that has delayed closing, and I think has created probably some stress for DNS in terms of trying to get them across the finish line as quickly as possible. Thank you. Umani, would you two introduce yourselves and then go into your testimony? Sure. Good morning, Madam Chair and Committee Members Jamani Cheatham, Department of Neighborhood Services. Hi, Michael's many deputy commissioner for neighborhood Services. Thank you. And thank you. Thank you for this uh opportunity. Thank you for this file. Uh this does bring some clarity as Jim spoke about. Some of the most successful uh application processes.