DCCC Resolution Supporting Entertainment and Culture

WHEREAS San Francisco’s rich entertainment community, including nightlife, outdoor fairs, music venues, and other events, is essential to the City’s identity and contributes to the City’s economic vitality through jobs, tax revenue, and destination travel; it is therefore critical to empower the San Francisco Entertainment Commission to ensure that such entertainment is provided in a safe and responsible manner that protects participants and surrounding communities;

 

WHEREAS numerous outdoor fairs, bars, nightclubs and alternative cultural institutions in San Francisco have had their operating permits, regulations and fees (issued by the City and/or the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control) substantially altered, thereby threatening their continued existence, particularly in light of San Francisco's poorly conceived permit system that has threatened entertainment venues for more than a decade; such problems including:

• Various nightclubs and various live music venues have been threatened with closure by the ABC based on unreasonable and overly aggressive enforcement of state law;
• Various outdoor events have been threatened by either unreasonable fees or unreasonable permitting/law enforcement obstacles;
• Significant fee increases for 10B officers at street events have threatened the survival of critical community events despite massive volunteer efforts that support these events, and the large tax revenue generated from these events;

AND WHEREAS in light of problems with violence outside of nightclubs, Mayor Newsom, Supervisor Maxwell, and entertainment advocates spent 14 months designing legislation to empower the Entertainment Commission to suspend nightclub operating licenses if there were circumstances warranting suspensions, but the legislation has stalled, despite Mayor Newsom and Supervisors Maxwell and Dufty’s full confidence that this legislation would foster safety;

 

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the San Francisco Democratic Party reaffirms its support for entertainment in San Francisco and urges the Board of Supervisors to hold a hearing on unreasonable fees and regulatory obstacles for entertainment and culture venues and events, focusing on the issues raised above, and to follow the hearing with appropriate actions to address the situation, including passage of the pending legislation, in its current form without substantial changes, empowering the Entertainment Commission to address violence at entertainment venues by suspending or otherwise taking action against such venues, thereby enabling the  entertainment Commission to fulfill its responsibility of ensuring that entertainment in San Francisco is vibrant and safe for participants and surrounding communities;

 

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the San Francisco Democratic Party supports Senator Mark Leno's efforts to negotiate with and, if necessary, reform the ABC to ensure that the ABC is able to enforce the law effectively and ensure public safety while also promoting, rather than impeding, safe and responsible entertainment.

 

Approved by unanimous vote with two abstentions at the May 14, 2009, meeting of the Democratic County Central Committee

 

 

Loitering going Forward

Some comments on the state of entertainment in San Francisco.........

The closing of Whisper will help the immediate neighborhood enormously.  Half as many persons dumped out at 2 AM will mean half as many problems; but that is only the start.  I have called for a meeting of staff and Circolo so that we can get on the same page about the expectations that we and the neighborhood have for their staff, security and patron behavior.  And now we will not have any finger pointing between the venues.

Yes, the loitering law will be a help in very specific situations, but ONLY if we get training to the SFPD and the Security teams at the clubs.   Otherwise, this will be just another law that will be a low priority in the face of violent behavior.  We need to show the PD and venue staff the tool that this new law  can be in preventing problems.   That requires knowledge about what the legislation can do and training on the right way to use it.  I wish I had faith that the SFPD would do this training without encouragement, but I know that without motivation and education, this law will go un-used. 

The value of this law is in the power to identify potential troublemakers before they commit a crime.  We feel that if a potential troublemaker has been identified by the SFPD and there is a record of them having been “on the scene” the probability of them committing a crime are dramatically reduced.  But all of this is dependent on a partnership developing between the SFPD and the Nighttime Industry Teams.  Right now, the relationship is at a pretty low point, we have high hopes that the new chief will come in with a mandate everyone work to mend that fence; then we will see some real progress for us all.

The companion legislation, amendments to 1060 and 1070, are still stalled as a result of SFPD “concerns”.   These two pieces of law are important because they mandate an update to the communication system between the Entertainment Commission and the permitted venues.  Currently, if we inherited the venue’s permit from the police department (and that is over 300 of the permits we have) then we have NO contact information that is current.  No email, no web address and no cell phone.  As you can imagine, with only three staff, 350 permanent permitted venues and over 300 one day events, our staff is not able to get to everyone unless they become a problem.  That is a BAD system.  The legislation requires that they contact us.

 

The pending legislation calls on each permitted venue to update their contact information with the commission staff and submit a security plan.  Getting that updated information to the commission will become a law and we can then use the antiquated systems in City Hall to get the venues to contact us and give us the updates.

 

With a simple way to contact the venues and current information about the security plans and staff that are responsible for security and management, we can take them in groups of 25 and schedule trainings at the commission so that permit holders are informed of their responsibilities under the law.  A huge undertaking, but the needed first steps in gaining venue compliance and starting the education of these owners and managers.

 

Then we need to create and codify minimum security training standards.  The ABC has abandoned their only training for license holders, the LEAD training, and there is no other training available.  Pitiful example of the reality we inherited and a glaring opportunity for someone to step in and fix.  We need to set standards for security and venue training and then create compliance models, encourage education classes to be formed and ultimately certify training of staff.  Once we get them all trained we then need a yearly system of updating the training.

 

The task is daunting, but laden with opportunity for entrepreneurs to take some of the burden and get this city dusted off and once again an example of how to do it right.  But we have a lot of work to do…..This is probably more than you wanted, but it is only a start.  I look forward to working together in whatever way you see appropriate.  My door is always open.  Terrance.  

DCCC Resolution Supporting Entertainment and Culture May 2009

Resolution Supporting Entertainment and Culture

 

WHEREAS San Francisco’s rich entertainment community, including nightlife, outdoor fairs, music venues, and other events, is essential to the City’s identity and contributes to the City’s economic vitality through jobs, tax revenue, and destination travel; it is therefore critical to empower the San Francisco Entertainment Commission to ensure that such entertainment is provided in a safe and responsible manner that protects participants and surrounding communities;

 

WHEREAS numerous outdoor fairs, bars, nightclubs and alternative cultural institutions in San Francisco have had their operating permits, regulations and fees (issued by the City and/or the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control) substantially altered, thereby threatening their continued existence, particularly in light of San Francisco's poorly conceived permit system that has threatened entertainment venues for more than a decade; such problems including:

  

· Various nightclubs, including the DNA Lounge, Hole in the Wall, and N'Touch, and various live music venues, including Cafe DuNord, Great American Music Hall, and Bottom of the Hill, have been threatened with closure by the ABC based on unreasonable and overly aggressive enforcement of state law;

· Various outdoor events, including Bay to Breakers, How Weird Street Fair, and Dore Alley Street Fair have been threatened by either unreasonable fees or unreasonable permitting/law enforcement obstacles;

· Significant fee increases for 10B officers at street events have threatened the survival of critical community events like the Transgender Pride March, the Dyke March and Pink Saturday, despite massive volunteer efforts that support these events, and the large tax revenue generated from these events;

 

AND WHEREAS in light of problems with violence outside of nightclubs, Mayor Newsom, Supervisor Maxwell, and entertainment advocates spent 14 months designing legislation to empower the Entertainment Commission to suspend nightclub operating licenses if there were circumstances warranting suspensions, but the legislation has stalled, despite Mayor Newsom and Supervisors Maxwell and Dufty’s full confidence that this legislation would foster safety;

 

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the San Francisco Democratic Party reaffirms its support for entertainment in San Francisco and urges the Board of Supervisors to hold a hearing on unreasonable fees and regulatory obstacles for entertainment and culture venues and events, focusing on the issues raised above, and to follow the hearing with appropriate actions to address the situation, including passage of the pending legislation, in its current form, empowering the Entertainment Commission to address violence at entertainment venues by suspending or otherwise taking action against such venues, thereby enabling the Entertainment Commission to fulfill its responsibility of ensuring that entertainment in San Francisco is vibrant and safe for participants and surrounding communities;

 

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the San Francisco Democratic Party supports Senator Mark Leno's efforts to negotiate with and, if necessary, reform the ABC to ensure that the ABC is able to enforce the law effectively and ensure public safety while also promoting, rather than impeding, safe and responsible entertainment.

 

Submitted by Scott Wiener and Debra Walker for consideration at the May 14, 2009, meeting of the Democratic County Central Committee