Work is continuing on a solution to make sure residents of Ward 4 are heard on liquor matters, even if their alderman can’t vote on them.

John Fulgenzi was forced to vote “present” Tuesday night at the Committee of the Whole Meeting on putting two requests for liquor licenses on next week’s debate agenda — this, because Fulgenzi owns a liquor license, and following controversy that the previous council pushed through a last-minute fix to city ordinance to accommodate that.  Fulgenzi says he hopes the critics will be silenced soon.

“We’re going to have something on [the city’s] website, that if anybody has a concern, it’s going to be address to Tim Griffin, the council coordinator,” says Fulgenzi.  “Then, he’s going to distribute it out to all the aldermen.”

Fulgenzi was confronted after the meeting by a resident who still claims he’s getting a full salary as an alderman but isn’t doing all the work.

Mayor Jim Langfelder says he wants the constituents’ concerns to be addressed.  “Everybody has a conflict of interest at some point,” says Langfelder.  “There’s individuals [on the Council] who work for the State.  If they owned other businesses, they have to abstain — or they should abstain — from [voting on] any conflicts of interest with regards to that.”

“We’ll how it see it works out in the end,” Fulgenzi says.  “It is what it is, and we have to make sure it works.”