LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – The fate of a Logan Square performance venue has been delayed by a week.
The decision on whether to revoke the cabaret license of the Energy Event Center has been delayed by City Council. With two absent members and outstanding questions for some members of the public body, the decision was made to table an action until Monday, Sept. 18.
Ryan Cabell, owner of Energy Event Center, says he anxious for this chapter to come to end. He’s been under increasing scrutiny after a July mass shooting left five wounded. One of the five will be paralyzed for the rest of their life because of the gunshot wound.
More than a handful of people were present at Monday’s City Council meeting to support Cabell and his business.
“We can’t be responsible for other people’s actions. we can definitely rear our kids in a way that it condones, doesn’t promote it, but respect those others who are already out there,” says Sommer Green, a mother who is supporting the event center.
That echoes what Cabell told 6 News last week.
Green says gun violence is a larger issue than just Energy Event Center. She says he daughter was safe inside the venue during the shooting because Cabell kept his guests inside when the shooting started.
In the days following the mass shooting, Lansing Chief of Police Ellery Sosebee and Mayor Andy Schor called for the cabaret license held by the venue to be revoked. The license allows the business to have music and dance and to sell food and nonalcoholic drinks.
Cabell and his attorney say the situation has not grown desperate enough to require a license revocation, but a warning, as the ordinance requires, would suffice.
“Am I in the middle of a battle between the city and Logan Square?” Cabell said from the podium at City Council tonight. “I mean y’all don’t even know me. I’m not even a Lansing citizen. I’m from Flint, Michigan, you didn’t even take the time to be a welcoming committee to myself.”
Following the shooting, the city sued the owners of Logan Square in Circuit Court. They are asking Judge Wanda Stokes to declare the property a nuisance and to appoint a receiver to oversee the property.
An administrative hearing held last month lead Human Resources Director Elizabeth O’Leary to recommend revoking the license, in part because Cabell did not have a show license. “As the event provided live artists and general and VIP admissions,” put the concert on July 29 and 30th in the show license provisions of city ordinances.
City officials say the cabaret license is specific to the location, not the Cabell, which means he could move to a separate location and seek a new cabaret license.
