In Buena Vista Hall v. City of Milwaukee (2017AP1943), Buena Vista Hall challenged the City of Milwaukee’s decision not to grant a liquor license. Buena Vista claimed the committee chairperson reviewing the application was biased, and thus the city’s decision was made without fair due process. The Court of Appeals District I upheld the city’s decision.

Buena Vista’s allegation of bias was based on several points from the committee hearing reviewing the liquor license application. The owner of a grocery store next to Buena Vista’s property, along with two of his employees, were the only people to testify at the hearing. The grocery store owner had also previously made an attempt to buy the Buena Vista property. Testimony from the hearing showed the grocery store owner, his wife, and two of his employees had donated a total of $1,388 to the committee chairperson’s campaign.

Despite these allegations, the court upheld the denial of the license. The court ruled the campaign donations small enough to be insignificant and dismissed Buena Vista’s other concerns about the grocery store owner because they failed to show bias in the committee chairperson or committee process. The court deemed the committee’s decision to regard the grocery store owner’s testimony as credible to be an issue outside of its review.

Overall, there was not substantial evidence that the committee acted arbitrarily or unreasonably against Buena Vista. Concerns raised at the hearing about security and parking at the Buena Vista venue provided ample evidence for the city to deny the license. The court further reasoned that that it could not order the city to approve Buena Vista’s application because liquor licenses are discretionary and not a legal right.