11/24/1981 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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November 24, 1981 109 OLD BUSINESS IMayor Gourley said he would like an opportumity to express his ipinion on the matter of the liquor license that had been approved at the last Council meeting for Rocky's North and to be issued to a Mr. Ernest Surman and Mrs. Linda Adams. Mayor Gourley requested that someone who voted on the approval of the license make a motion to reconsider this action. Mrs. Elsenpeter moved to reconsider the liquor license approval for Rocky's North. Seconded by Mr. Jaworski. Mayor Gourley said one of his concerns was a letter he received from Mr. Surman dated October 6, 1981. There are two paragraphs in the letter that concerned hin, the first which reads, "As you know, Rocky's had been closed since July 10, 1981. Unless I can relived Mr. Seccomber of this financial burden immediately, legal action against the City of Lino Lakes will begin by him," Mayor Gourley felt that other members of the Council had received a similar letter or perhaps a carbon copy of this letter. The nex paragraph that concerned Mayor Gourley reads; "To avoid further problems regarding the business, I would ask the Council to positively consider my application and let business continue /" Mayor Gourley said he viewed these remarks as a threat of legal action if the Council didn't take affirmative action on his liquor license application. Subsequent to that letter, Mayor Gourley received a phone call in much the same tone as the letter in that he felt that he was being harrased in that IIIhe hadn't been put on the agenda. Mayor Gourley expalined that the Police investigation reprot had not been presented to the Council and no action would be taken until that report had been received. Mr. Surman did not accept the explanation. Subsequent to the phone call from Mr. Sruman, he received a phone call from Mr. Surman's Attorney much along the sake lines of the letter and Mayor Gourley considered the phone call an intimidating phone call, threatening legal action. The Attorney demanded that Mayor Gourley call him the follow- ing day and let him know if he was to be placed on the agenda. Again, phone calls that he considered intimidating and harrasing and is not the manner in which he ( Mayor Gourley) is used to doing business. "I heard of alot of discussion in the minutes, read a lot of discussion in the minutes, some supreme court cases thrown around, and the discussion seemed to center around holding Mr. Surman responsible for the actions of the pre- vious owners of the MITRA, Inc. I guess it's not those actions that I'm mainly concerned about. I think the Council is familar, maybe not officially, but I intend to make it official now, that the Chief of Police and I attended a public hearing at the St. Paul City Council meeting. The PUblic hearing was an adversary hearing called in regards to Mr. Surman's track record of doing business in a bar called Rocky and Friends in St. Pau. While we were at that hearing, we heard testimony from the St. Paul Police Department Vice Squad of numerous arrests for public urination, public drinkness, public consumption, drugs, just generally a disorder house. Mr. Surman was the, I'm Inot sure if he was the license holder, or if he was called in in the capacity of the president of the corporation that owned Rocky's, but I think I think I just named and the complaints that the Chief and I heard while attending the public hearing are very similar to the problems we've had out at Rocky's North in Lino Lakes. It's that track record that Mr. Surman has that disturbs me along with what I consider threathening letters and phone calls from Mr.