Owner of Club Porticello in Oconomowoc ordered to pay taxes
27.06.2008 05:01
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- Source: JS Online
Oconomowoc - Aldermen on Thursday gave the owner of a controversial restaurant on Silver Lake until the end of the day Monday to pay more than $35,500 in delinquent taxes or lose his liquor license. Asked whether he could pay the past-due real estate taxes on his Club Porticello, owner Anthony Pipito said, “No comment.” Pipito’s lawyer, Michael Krill, had urged Common Council members to renew Pipito’s license to serve beer and alcoholic beverages. Krill said that while Pipito has had the license for three years, he “has not served a drop of liquor until seven weeks ago.” Pipito opened the upscale Club Porticello bar April 28 and the restaurant May 12 without the required zoning variances and occupancy permit. The city has issued daily citations for the violations, and Pipito faces penalties of up to $1,100 a day. He has pleaded not guilty. Pipito owes unpaid real estate taxes of $35,528, plus $18,696 in reimbursement to the city for attorney fees. Krill contested the attorney fees, which were charged to Pipito when the city hired special outside legal counsel to represent the Board of Zoning Appeals in a long series of hearings and actions on Pipito’s requests for zoning variances needed to open Club Porticello. “We have a dispute here, and to strap Mr. Pipito with either paying these fees or losing his liquor license is tantamount to blackmail,” Krill told the council. In voting not to renew Pipito’s liquor license for another year if the taxes are not paid by June 30, aldermen also set the same deadline for Mayor Maury Sullivan to negotiate with Krill an agreement on how to pay the fees and whether the amount should be reduced. Seven other businesses had been threatened with nonrenewal of their liquor licenses for nonpayment of utility bills and/or taxes. Five of them, including Daley Dorf’s German Bar, paid the city what they owed or arranged with the city utility department to make payments before Thursday’s council meeting. Aldermen approved the liquor license renewals for those businesses. Last month, Pipito was granted the city zoning variances he needed to legally open Club Porticello on the shore of Silver Lake, despite opponents’ claims that the business will degrade the lake environment. The state Department of Natural Resources has sued the city in Waukesha County Circuit Court, challenging the approval of the zoning variance. The state also sued the city in 2006 and succeeded in getting overturned several zoning variances granted to Pipito by the Board of Zoning Appeals. The small shoreline restaurant/bar building, just 17 feet from the water, underwent a $1 million renovation that transformed it from a beach house to a mini-villa.
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