“We are lawyers and you are our clients,” James Martin said to the common council minutes before they voted to confirm his appointment as city attorney. Martin, a former assistant city attorney, came out of retirement to accept the appointment from Mayor Sue Bauman at Tuesday’s meeting.
In addition, Nick Schiavo, the owner of Café Continental and the future Club Majestic, sought approval from the common council for both an alcohol license and cabaret license.
The Majestic, 115 King St., opened as a vaudeville theatre in 1909 and had been a movie theater since the 1970s. Over the last few years, however, filling seats in the facility has been difficult, and it shut its doors for the last time several weeks ago.
Debate erupted in the City Council as to whether to approve the Majestic’s alcohol license, which contains a voluntary submission to have security cameras both inside and outside the theatre. The police would be within their rights to demand access to the tapes used in the cameras, according to the terms of the license.
“The tapes are useless [to the police],” Ald. Tom Powell, District 5, said, arguing that the common council should reject the license based on Schiavo’s agreement with the city to use security cameras.
Ald. Mike Verveer, although not in favor of the use of security cameras, asked the common council not to “hold the Majestic’s license hostage” and to grant the license.
With Powell’s the only dissenting vote, the Majestic received its licenses.
The Bassett neighborhood will have two new additions due to the council’s approval of construction of two new apartment buildings in student-dominated areas.
A complex on the 600 block of West Main Street containing 71 condominiums and a residential/retail building on the 400 block of West Main Street were both approved.
At the meeting, several ordinances were proposed, aimed at closing legal loopholes used by landlords to extract money from security deposits. The ordinances were sponsored by Verveer and endorsed by both Tom Powell, District 5, and Todd Jarrell, District 8. The common council expects to vote on the ordinances in October.
