Haunted Attraction Owner, Officials Square Off at Council Meeting

That the operator of a popular Milwaukee-area haunted attraction and City of Greenfield officials butted heads at a Common Council Meeting at on Tuesday was not all that surprising.

What they butted heads about was.

Taj Jordan, owner of Music on the Move and operator of HauntFest, appeared before the council to discuss his application of an entertainment license for his event.

The license would include interactive games, DJ music, light displays, bounces houses and the haunted attraction itself, which would be held in the Sept. 30 through the end of October.

The application for the license was on the meetings agenda. What was not on the agenda was discussion of Community Development Manager Chuck Erickson's .

But that denial, and the reasons for it, were a major point of discussion by Jordan, alderpersons and Mayor Michael Neitzke, despite urgings by City Attorney Roger Pyzyk that it was neither the time nor place to hold such conversations.

“You’re not here to override the decision of Mr. Erickson,” Pyzyk said. “It is not before you. … You are raising these issues but you are not the deciders of this one. … I don’t know how I can make it any clearer.”

In a four-page letter dated Sept. 15, Erickson gave his reasons for denying the temporary use permit. Among Erickson’s concerns are parking, safety and a general uncertainty as to what happens at the event.

Jordan put together a letter of his own, a 13-point response that addressed Erickson’s concerns. Jordan, who has held HauntFest at State Fair Park in West Allis the past seven years, handed copies of the letter to all the alderpersons and the mayor prior to Tuesday’s meeting, where he asked to go over the letter.

Pyzyk suggested he not, stating it would be better served for a Board of Appeals meeting should the matter end up going in that direction.

But that didn’t keep city officials from weighing in.

“There were concerns within every single department regarding this event, regarding the time of this event, regarding the planning of this event, regarding parking,” Neitzke said. “We received nothing until right before this meeting in regard to what this event even entailed.

“You showed up with a bunch of semis and started building things. The fire chief and fire marshal showed up, the cops showed up, all sorts of building inspectors showed up. There were all sorts of issues. There seemed to be contradictory … I’m not going to get into this as if it were a public hearing, because it’s not, but I would be very careful. The council can do whatever it wants to, but there were concerns among all department heads.”

Jordan said all of those concerns had been or would be addressed.

“I’ve only been doing this for seven years, safely, at State Fair Park,” Jordan said.

Neitzke cut him off and said, “State Fair Park has thousands of parking stalls and exhibition halls that don’t require the same fire codes that a commercial building like this requires.”

Alderman Karl Kastner asked why the issues between Erickson’s department and Jordan were not resolved sooner than 10 days before the scheduled start of the haunt and why Jordan had not provided the necessary background information to Erickson regarding the haunt earlier.

“What, did Halloween sneak up on you?” Kastner asked Jordan.

Jordan said he received Erickson’s letter Monday and had been working behind the scenes to address Erickson’s concerns. He also said he was only informed he needed an entertainment license Sept. 13.

One of the sticking points is timing. Should Erickson stick to his decision and deny the temporary use permit, then Jordan can have his case heard in front of the Board of Appeals.

But the Board of Appeals does not meet again until late October, forcing Jordan to cancel the haunt altogether.

Erickson, however, said he would reconsider his decision based on a conversation he had with Jordan and Jordan’s letter.

“The fact that these open-ended issues as listed have been addressed or proposed to be addressed, I have a greater comfort level today than I did a couple days ago,” Erickson said.

Should Erickson reverse course and issue the temporary use permit, the Common Council will hold a special meeting sometime this week to either approve or deny the application for the entertainment license, after Pyzyk said it was premature to decide on the license Tuesday.