Repeated underage drinking violations at Tiki Shack have left city officials wary of granting liquor licenses to new management applicants.

Last month the Alcohol Licensing Review Committee granted potential new owners, Mijal and Caleb Percevecz, new licensing under the conditions that the Tiki Shack would be a restaurant.

However, the new applicants and establishment are being investigated for several legal issues that arose in the past month and week alone.

Assistant City Attorney, Jennifer Zilavy, informed ALRC members of three pending issues surrounding the new applicants and the establishment. One of the new applicants, Caleb Percevecz, has two pending charges of Substantial Battery and Disorderly conduct resulting from an incident that occurred at the end of October.

Also, this past weekend the Tiki Shack had an incident involving a 15-year-old and a 19-year-old, one of which had been consuming alcohol, Zilavy said.

According to a Madison Police Department incident report, the two suspects were chased down early Saturday morning following a fight inside Tiki Shack. The older suspect, Mark D. Sanders, age 19, punched an employee in the face a couple of times when employees moved to get them out after seeing one person “throwing haymakers” in a dispute with other young men.

Meanwhile the current liquor license holder, Joe Vale, is no longer involved in the establishment and his whereabouts are being questioned, as he is currently suspected of not even being in town, Zilavy said. Therefore the new owners would be unlawfully operating under Mr. Vale’s license.

Zilavy said the committee should defer the Tiki Shack’s liquor license to its meeting in December.

“I believe these issues call into question whether the new application should be granted and the issues should be more fully explored and considered,” Zilavy said.

Mark Woulf, who serves on ALRC, said he agreed with Zilavy’s recommendation to move the application regarding the Tiki Shack’s liquor license to December’s meeting with many questions surrounding the establishment’s operation.

Ald. Michael Verveer, District 4, said he finds it hard to believe current owner of the Tiki Shack Joe Vale would walk away from the establishment. Though Verveer said he can’t say one thing or another because he has not spoken to Vale, he believes Zilavy has a strong case in her belief that Vale is no longer involved in the establishment.

Neither of the current owners, Mijal or Caleb Percevecz, attended the meeting Wednesday. The committee referred the Tiki Shack’s liquor license application to its December meeting.

“If the new applicants, Caleb and Mijal, were to be granted a liquor license the earliest would be at the end of the year,” Verveer said. “At this point though, there is a rationale for them to resolve the criminal case before continuing application of the liquor license at the December meeting.”

Caleb Percevecz’s incident is  scheduled for a Status Conference December 1, 2014.