Select raise hand option. We are recommend you use zoom audio for Public Comment. Well start with a roll call. Clerk i think that might have been the fastest weve gone. [ roll call ] i like to note for the record that Vice President have excused absence this evening. President bleiman first is Public Comment. There are no calls. President bleiman next agenda item is approval of the minutes for january 18, 2022. Do we have a motion to approve the minutes . Like to make a motion to approve the minutes. Ill second. President bleiman any Public Comment on the minutes. Clerk theres none. President bleiman we can have a vote. Clerk [roll call vote] president bleiman minutes have been approved. Next number three, which is report from director weiland i have couple of updates this evening. One i wanted to give you a brief update on some recent changes to the health order that went into effect today. That impact nightlife community. These changes are intended to bring local Health Guidelines more closely into alignment with state regulations. We sent out an eblast on friday with these updates. Youll see a copy of that any directors report folder along with the Current Health order. Here are some of the high level notes in regards to our industry. For indoor mega events, those with 500 or more attendees, patrons are required to be fully vaccinated including a booster if eligible or have a negative covid test in order to enter the event. Staff are required to be up to date vaccination data including a booster eligible or they can claim a medical or religious exemption and be allowed to provide a negative covid test. Masking is still required at indoor mega events regardless of vaccination status. For spaces or events with food or drink is served indoors as well as fitness establishment, these businesses are now urged to require patrons and staff to show proof of receiving a booster if eligible. That said, businesses are allowed but not required to accept exemptions from the Vaccination Requirement based on religious belief or qualifying medical reasons. In order to exercise these exemptions qualifying patrons and staff must show proof of a negative test result and where a well fitting masks. In terms of showing proof of negative covid test, the tests must be taken within one day of antigen test or two days if its a p. C. R. Test. They must have electronic copies. A test result from a Third Party Laboratory is needed. Let me know if you have any questions on those rules. Commissioner perez . Commissioner perez i want to make sure, did you say for restaurant that a booster is required . I said for spaces or events where food is served indoors. These businesses are urged to require patrons and staff to show booster. Thats if eligible. Commissioner perez thank you. Any other questions on that . The other big update is around corrective actions. I spoken with some of you individually and othersly likely heard from president bleiman or you heard in news of a incident that heard in one of our venues friday january 31st. Close to midnight at 26 mix in the Outer Mission on mission near cesar chavez. There was a homicide. A patron was stabbed with a sharp object and bled out on the dance floor and passed away prior to emergency vehicles arriving. It has not occurred in one of our venues in five years. Its a good track record. It is happening now. Both Deputy Director acevedo and i took swift action in working with the venue and Police Department and Senior Leadership of the commission to respond. On that weekend the following morning, Deputy Director acevedo got in touch with the venue who closed their space for that weekend. We recommended they go dark in response to the incident occurring based on the severity of it. They did do that. We asked them to take the time to review their permits, their conditions and their security plan and get back to us in a zoom meeting couple of days later, letting us know how they plan to improve their conditions. In the meantime, we also had conversations with the Police Department as mentioned and president bleiman and Vice President caminong. At that time we were able to assess that they were out of compliance with a few of their permit conditions including security conditions for a list of those, i would urge you to check out our notice of suspension for Public Safety thats located in the directors report file for tonight. That will really spell out exactly what they were out of compliance with and what were working with them to urge them to come into compliance with immediately. In response to the incident itself and due to the fact this they were out of compliance with their permit and condition, we did issue suspension Public Safety for their Entertainment Permit this past weekend. We thought that was timely because we figured there will be many people coming out to celebrate in the mission and in preparation for and during the 49ers game. Just a reminder, our tools for suspension means were suspending your entertainment. Were not suspending your business or operation, were not asking you not to have d. J. S, Live Entertainment and etcetera. They did to that. We will continue to visit the business frequently to check on their security condition compliance. Beyond that, we have heard from president bleiman and Vice President caminong they like to business to come to hearing on february 15th in terms how they are planning to comply with the existing permit condition. Which we feel are robust enough to ensure Public Safety at the premises. You might not recall, we will be sure to put together a timeline for you all in preparation of that hearing. We have worked on progressive disciplinary action of this business prior to covid. During that process, we brought them to a hearing with all of you where we essentially have them comply with revised security plan that you all approved at a hearing that was very robust. This is a small business. It has a capacity of about 180, which is surprising because its pretty small. On the night of the incident, there were about 50 people there. That being said, any time theyre having entertainment on the weekend, they are required to have four security guards. Which is a lot for a small business. Its pretty significant what they supposed to comply with. If they do comply, we shouldnt be in this seat again. Were going to leave it to you all to recondition their permit further or to take the opportunity to just ask questions and get an update from all of them. If you have any questions about this, im here to answer those now. Im happy to brief any of you individually after this hearing if that helps. Commissioner falzon. Commissioner falzon i want to applaud your Rapid Response to this. We went through tough spell of violence in night clubs to the point that board of supervisors started getting involved. I think your efforts are exactly the response we need to be having. I wanted to applaud you and the Deputy Director for really its the ultimate crime. We know these things can happen. Its just the nature of life. Its our role to do the best to the extent that we can to keep places safe. I want to thank you for really responding literally within hours of this incident. Thank you. Any other questions . President bleiman do any further reports here . Thats it for this evening. President bleiman is there any Public Comment on directors report . Im checking, theres none. President bleiman okay. We will close this agenda item and move to the next. The next item is 4, enforcement report from Deputy Director from acevedo. Happy february. The enforcement report is included in your file this evening. Its short a memo in comparison to the previous hearing we had recently. We received 17 complaints which is a big decrease. We did have coverage out this past sunday to respond to any complaints that came it during or after the 49ers game. Since they lost, the city was quite quiet and we did not receive any complaints. The only enforcement visit that i want to mention is about gestalt. He verified the business was not hosting any entertainment. After learning where they lived, he walked around the block and he heard music coming from delirium. It was coming from delirium and not gestalt. He spoke to the manager about the complaint and the sound he was hearing outside. The manager turned the volume town and the inspector spoke to the complainant again. Our first step is for inspectors to go out and visit. Hes going to set a sound limit and well determine how the business can comply moving forward knowing that they have this sound mitigation. If we receive any future complaints about gestalt, we will check out delirium at the same time. That is the only update that i have for you this evening. Im happy to answer any questions that you might have. Did we lose president bleiman . Looked like he had to close down and power down. If someone want to step be and be acting president at the moment, that will be helpful. Commissioner falzon i dont have a copy of the agenda in front of me. Can we go to next agenda item . If you go ahead and see if anyone has questions for the commission. Commissioner falzon any questions of the Deputy Directors report . Seeing none. Do we have any Public Comment on this item . Im checking now. Theres none. Commissioner falzon thank you. Can someone point out with we go to the next agenda item please . Clerk absolutely. I will just say the next agenda item for this evening is updates on nightlife Business Assistance in response to covid19 by our nary and deer friend in the economic of Workforce Development is ben van houten. Well bring you in and hopefully president bleiman will be returning soon. Commissioner falzon ben, im feeling powerful. Good evening commissioners. I have a short presentation. Just couple of short updates for you on the state and local front. On the state front, a hand full of developments recently. Earlier in january, the governor released the budget blueprint which had an Important Note for our venues and nightlife businesses that receive federal Grant Funding through the restaurant revitalization fund. There was some concern from operators about whether those grant funds would be considered taxable income, which obviously would have been a Significant Impact for Business Owners. In the governors budget blueprint, the Governor Office stated they will exempt those grant funds from taxable income and allow normal deductibility. Its really positive that they were concerned about that possibility. On the legislative front, sb793 advanced to the assembly out of the senate this month. It will create a music venue and authorize local governments to create entertainment zones for restaurant and bars subject to a local planning process and other work. Senator dodd introduced sb846, which is little bit it would include bars and delivery sales of alcohol into the current fiveyear program that was adopted into law for restaurants doing to go pickup sales last year. Finally, the last state item is that the department of alcoholic Beverage Control sent out an announcement earlier this week regarding the responsible Beverage Service r. B. S. Training requirement. That is adopted a few years ago into state law. It is a new training and certification requirement for managers and serverses at on sale businesses. Thats a. B. C. Terms restaurant, bars and music venues and at least one person at the site of a street fair or other oneday licensed event has to be r. B. S. Trained. August 31st is the deadline for managers and servers to get training to take the certification. Already talking to dylan and thinking about ways to do outreach around this deadline. I know Business Owners have a lot going on now. On the local front, couple of updates, last week, our office, oewd launched request for proposal for the initiative to administer this new campaign to support the live Music Entertainment sector as reminder, we talked about that the campaign will include outdoor concerts and parks and plazas, curated by indoor venues and initiatives applications in this request for proposals are due february 16th at 5 00 p. M. A slightly deadline, tomorrow february 2nd to get written questions in. Really encouraging any potential applicants to send written questions and theres information in the email address to do that. Its all in that url there. Actually if anybody has any questions to get clarification before that r. F. P. Deadline i really encourage people to do so. Finally the music and Entertainment Venue Recovery Fund closed second round of applications. There are now 74 eligible venues. Four additional venues were added to the Recovery Fund pool during the second round. Second round grants are going to total 6676 for all eligible venues. Great to get extra funds to these businesses as the omicron variant continued to impact the stop and start attendance at Live Entertainment. Thank you to director weiland for highlighting the local updates on the health order and the impacts there to the venue community. With that, im happy to answer any questions. How is the flow of responses for the r. F. P. S coming in . Is it doing well . I know its a really important opportunity. Any effort to get word out. I know that the Commission Newsletter put it out last week. Which was great. Any ability to put it out there to promote it we want anyone and everyone to be looking at this. I agree, getting good qualified applicants to respond to this is going to be really critical to executing lot of programming later this year. It was launched last week. We havent received actually, im assuming we havent received any submissions yet. I assume many of them will come in little closer to the due date. Which is totally fine. Any and allful you can do to get the word out. Theres good language in the entertainment Commission Newsletter that can be used socially and happy to provide any additional language or anything else. Well step up. Commissioner falzon any other questions . Thank you for the updates, sir. Im so sorry that i wasnt here to introduce you. President bleiman never happen again. I promise. [ laughter ] any Public Comment on mr. Van houtens report . Theres none. President bleiman all right. I will close Public Comment. We can move on to the next item. Next agenda item is number 6, discussion and possible action to amend the permit conditions of limited Live Performance permit number ec16071, dba gestalt located at 3159, 16th street San Francisco regardingen going Enforcement Actions at the business. Well ask Deputy Director to introduce this item. Commissioners in your folder, theres a memo as well as a copy of the limited Live Performance permit. The request of the commission, it was to bring the owner of gestalt to discuss l. L. P. Permit violations at the business. Since april 21, we have since april 2021, we have received 41, 311 sound complaints and numerous email complaints about the gestalt. 18 complaints were made prior to the business being granted their l. L. P. Permit which happened on july 29, 2021. The remaining complaints have been made since the permit was granted. We have visited the business on 18 different be occasions of which they were in violation eight times. To date, gestalt has received one violation and force citations. On january 8th they have a d. J. Performing at 1 00 a. M. And the front door was open. On january 14th they had a band performing after 11 00 p. M. I corresponded with daniel via email. He submitted a Compliance Plan outlining how they will avoid future violations. The next item, they were hosting entertainment after 11 00 p. M. I spoken with daniel directly since the last violation on january 14th, i reiterated all the permit conditions and reasons. Should gestalt which to apply for a permit they have to add entertainment as principle use of the permit. Daniel said he understands. He is up to date on all his citation. This agenda is to discuss gestalts l. L. P. Permit and because it is an action tim, you have the ability to recondition the permit. At this time, staff does not have a recommendation for reconditioning. You can recondition as you see fit after the discussion. We do suggest that you use the opportunity to discuss the importance of following the rules and ensuring gestalt program is in accordance with their current permit condition. They are permitted to host permit until 11 00 p. M. Daily. Theres a copy of the permit in your file. Here to speak with you is daniel hawkins. Can you hear me . President bleiman yes, thank you. Great. We are not going past 11 anymore. We learned our lesson the hard way. We have a new software. Everything going through our qsc speaker. Its rare that someone comes in with an amplifier. If they do they walk around with a decibel reader. There were slip ups that i apologized for. I know now that i cant afford any way shape or form to continue to be in violation. Keeping the door shut when we have live music, not going past 11 00 p. M. And keeping the decibel levels down and making sure my employees is well versed on how to work the equipment. We can control the house master volume at our fingertips on a tablet. Its pretty much have the most Cutting Edge Technology in place to make sure that we can control the volume from behind the bar. Thats where were at with this. Hopefully we wouldnt have to get less hours reduced as far as entertainment, 11 00 is tough on the weekend. Were thankful to go to 11 00. It would be hard on us if we had to stop earlier. I do understand that weve had enough noise complaints that i need to make sure that im in compliance. Ive been working on that. You will probably get noise complaints here and there, we shouldnt in violation of our permit any more with the measures i put in place. President bleiman questions . Commissioner perez . Commissioner perez i have a question for Deputy Director acevedo. You mentioned there were eight violations. Besides the doors being open and performing and 11 00, are there any other types of violations . The volume being above their approved sound limit, the door being open and out there playing music after they are approved end time. It was originally 10 00 p. M. Due to the legislation introduced in november, it automatically extended until 11 00 p. M. We did experience violations prenovember that was music being played after 10 00 p. M. They are permitted to play until 11 00 now. Those are the three examples what weve been encountering. I will say that the sound limit has not been an issue in the last few visits. Commissioner perez thank you. Commissioner falzon good evening, daniel. Just couple, i know youre speaking spontaneously. First one, we learned the hard way. Can you expand what you mean . Just the fines weve incurred. Commissioner falzon fines are what . My point is, i think you made conscious operational decisions to operate the way you did. 20 minutes of business will pay that fine five fold. Actually, that sounds good in theory. Right now, were grossing may be average of 400 a day for 10 hours 12 hours of business. Its incredibly slow. Im spending money on the band. Im having a tough time surviving. Im circling a drain. Its extremely hard on me that its a fine. I want to be in compliance and keep my permit. I cannot afford to be fined ever again. I cant do it. Commissioner falzon thats fair enough. I got to tell you, i wish i was in a compassionate mood. Explain to me how you went past 11 00 . It was oversight. I was there. It was 11 15. It was a slipup. I have no excuse for. Now im much more conscious. The band is know they cant go past 11 00 and they stop at 10 30. Were very active and proactive in making sure people dont go past 11 00 p. M. Commissioner falzon thats encouraging. Only last thing ill say, getting 41 complaints since april, you were averaging more than a complaint a week. Theres only 52 weeks in a year. This isnt a 12month cycle. Heres the thing, im going to take it on face value that youre being honest with us, you add up a lot of city resources dragging your feet making this place right. Honestly this commission would much rather be advocating for you that youre only making 400 a day. Thats terrible. Unfortunately, what were here not talking about is your disregard for your permit and the conditions on it and pretty much going rogue and really not being mindful to all of our inspectors visits which i will point out was 18. I will take it on face value that youre on top of this and on a positive note, i really signersly sincerely hope that you start making some solid money and get back in the black. Thank you, sir. President bleiman any other comments . Commissioner lee . Commissioner lee were all in the same boat. Omicron and everything. Going back to commissioner falzons can you tell me exactly what your procedure is as far as operation goes . Its obvious that we give out l. L. P. S for a reason. We want to help Small Businesses that cant get full Entertainment Permits. Sometimes its also kind of a test whether or not you deserve to get the full p. O. E. For a person like myself whos had p. O. E. S for over 20 years, those licenses is like a holy grail. I think right now, you realize, you dont have a permit, youre not going to be making 400 even. Exactly. Commissioner lee my question for you, knowing all that when you got your l. L. P. And im sure you watched other Commission Meetings and how we talk to other owners and how we try to get the respect both ways. What were you thinking when the first couple of times that the inspector has come to your location . Were you not on the premise when these things happened . Were you letting the band bring in their own amplification when you know you should have control of your own amplification . I think it was combination of that. I wasnt here or i was. I was letting people come in with their own amplification with combination not being on top of it. Its been a learning curve. This is the first time i had a permit for this place. Its something im getting used to. I want to keep it. Im working harder to not Waste Resources and have you guys having to keep coming out. I taken lot of measures since then to shut the front door and be done by 11 00. Commissioner lee when youre not there, you have to step out for dinner, whos in control of your premise . That could be the bartender. Theyve got decibel readers on their phones. They know the decibel level that we can go to. They will make sure the decibel level is below 94. Its hard for me to be completely on top of it if im not here. I dont work every shift here. We should be able to use and stay in compliance. Commissioner lee all your band and everything piked through a board that you can control . Yes, it goes into we can control. Some of them do ring in their own fender amps they have their own sound and thing they want to do. I walked in front of the stage, by the door, make sure the decibel level low enough. Commissioner lee the bartenders, when youre not there, they take full responsibility on everything. Law enforcement officers walks in and the obviously the manager responsible correct . They say im just the bartender and the owner is not here. They can call me. They know theyll be accountable for whats going on. Commissioner lee i have no other questions. I hope its time for you to get your full p. O. E. And we dont get anymore complaints. Thank you. Its important. It will help us out tremendously to go later and stay in compliance and progress with this. Commissioner lee okay, thank you. Hi, daniel. Do you have a contract that they sign that they need to comply with decibel reading. Its more just a verbal contract. I discussed with them the decibel level and show them on my phone right in front of the stage. Commissioner perez may be consider a guide to performing to give to all the performing artists. Once you have all the rules and regulations to perform at your venues. Thats a good idea. I will put in in place. Commissioner wang thank you for being here tonight. All of us here on the commission are serving in these roles because we really believe in small business. We believe in promoting entertainment and its a really important part of the ecosystem here. Reading the interactions that the community had with your business. Its concerning to me that theres been repeat violations over and over after multiple consultations, advising from our own inspectors. Seemless recklessly disregarded. To see that you committed a Compliance Plan and go the next night and have life performance going after 11 00 p. M. Again. Its hard for me to believe that its one slip up. We want you to help us to help you. I want to believe youre acting in good faith. Based on that pattern, its deaf for me to see that. Especially youre saying when youre out, you hope that people will check the decibels on their app. Youre all going to try. I would like to see a higher level commitment here have little bit more confidence that you will execute. The pattern so far doesnt indicate that to me. I like to hear more from you. I dont feel reassured based on what i heard tonight. Okay, thats understandable. I will put a decibel reader on the wall in front of the stage and have that written contract. Have a decibel reader in front of them so they can see it and instructions for the band written out. Thats a good start. Essentially i didnt mean to suned like its going to may be happen. Its got to happen. I like to keep this permit. I like to stay in compliance and not be fined anymore and not piss off my neighbors. The two problems we had in january, were going past 11 00. One of them, it was a d. J. That i didnt even have scheduled that went up there. I should have been more proactive and stopped him. It went to 11 15. I dont want to waste any more resources or be fined. I can keep my permit. Im working hard to stay in compliance. President bleiman any other questions . I like to talk [ indiscernible ] i wanted to clarify what something commissioner lee said regarding the next steps for p. O. E. I want to confirm now, gestalt is not eligible for p. O. E. Unless they go through the conditional use authorization. I want to put that on the record for where that stands. Commissioner lee he hasnt applied for it or he tried to apply. No. He has not applied. He could not apply without first gaining from the planning department. Commissioner lee this is all the permit he can have . Thats correct. Commissioner lee i hope for his sake, depending on what we decide today, if we want to give him one more opportunity or not. For me, for that much time and all those 41 complaints, i remember in the old days, commissioner falzon, i got that many complaints, wed be shut down. Times are different now. Youre lucky mr. Hawkins you werent around when i was doing it. Okay. President bleiman heres my thought. Ive been doing this now for five years here. Its usually just the same, its often not usually but often the same kind of venues that seem to continually out of compliance and we have to spend amount of resources on. Were thousands permits that we watch over. At least hundreds and hundreds. We though that if people follow the rules, generally things are fine. Its just the same group of permit holders they seem to treat this body kind of with open i dont know, disdain, may be too strong a word, they dont steam to take what we do seriously. Thats a shame. You will not find a group in city hall or leader of the thats nice as we are. Something rises to that level. Its only hand full of people out of hundreds. Im not putting you in that category quite yet, i hope that you kind of learn from other permit holders and work with us and see us as a partner who can be helpful for making money and helpful for resources and not as like some principle rooney from dealer day off. We have a tough job to mitigation issues between neighbors and venues. Thats not as responsible as operating classc machine. Theres a lot of responsibility around having entertainment that people will come to and chatter. I would encourage you to kind of shift you say the right things. Im not going to i dont need to hear from you or anything. I would encourage you to shift the way youre thinking. Steven and i have run venues for decades. Dave falzon helped to make a Regulatory Environment between police and nightlife that is highly functional and worked. People on this commission are like in it to win it. Really want places to flourish. Dave said, we dont want you to do 400 a night. We want you to do more. Two more things, if you ever plan on applying for a planning permit, you will find them a lot less flexible and forgiving as we are. If you have this track record, flaunting the rules, thats the first thing that will come up. Theres a really good chance they will reject you because of that. If that is something youre thinking about in the future, you got to clean it up now. I know gestalt well and its a cool place. I wish we had more places in San Francisco little more punk rock and little less polished. My bars are like that too. I appreciate that. There may be some programming if you want to have in there you cant given the space and the door. If you really want that guy with the fender, it may not work in your location. Every time the door opens, the neighbors may be getting blasted with electric guitar which would be much better fit for a different venue thats not in your location or didnt have the same layout. I think you need to be flexible on what kind of music youre offering. Some of it might not work on brand as it might be for your particular ambience that youre going for. It may not work there. Those are all comments. I dont need you to answer. If you can just see us as a resource and work with us and dont take the permit that we offer immediately start violating it. Thats the bear minimum that we have. Thats all. Any further questions from anybody here . Daniel, ill ask you to stick around while we entertain conversations here. You do not need to respond here. Were going to have conversation amongst yourselves. You can mute yourself and chill. We need to figure out we did call them here to discuss possible reconditioning. My personal feeling is the conditions that they have are adequate and that we might not need to recondition. I would love to hear what the rest of you have to say on this. Falzon . Commissioner falzon presiden t bleiman, i agree with you. I dont think now is the time to start messing with conditions. What i would recommend we do, im open to any one suggestion on a timeline, think we need to bring daniel back. I dont know if thats in 30, 60 or 90 days. I think he has to come back we do a checkin. I think thats where the gauntlet is going to fall. If he has significant improvement, great. We can applaud that and praise him and continue to support him. On the other hand, unfortunately if were getting lip service to get through this, i like to think thats not the case. If it is, we deal with the then. If my colleagues are interested in that idea, i will defer on all of you when the appropriate time is to bring him back in. Thank you. President bleiman i think some people have to learn the hard way and if they dont wake up when theyre almost ready to lose something, i think may be he does have a better idea of how to handle his permit. I agree with commissioner falzon about the review in 30 days or couple of months. If he gets one more complaint, we have to go out there again. Hes not on the premise obviously hes not operating his venue in the proper way. I would support commissioner falzons review and whatever 30 or 60 days. If it happens again its bad for the other people that do have l. L. P. S and p. O. E. S. If one venue is going amuck and looks bad on all of us. As far as p. O. E. Holders. Lets give him one more opportunity. Definitely a review in 30 or 60 days whatever you guys decide. President bleiman i think theres general consensus there. I dont think we need to codify that with any votes. We can direct staff at a later time to do that. Im only board with that thats fine. We will just chalk this up up to discussion only. All you need to do is take Public Comment. President bleiman i would say, if you return here in 90 days and youre actively doing everything you can to follow the permit that you have, thats what we want to see. People still might complain. That happens. Just wild disregard is the first thing to put end to and second thing is the decibel. If were seeing thats working, well have a different opinion. We want to see a track record of that occurring. I think were on the same page here today. Anybody have anything they want to add before we move on to Public Comment . Is there any Public Comment on this agenda item . Theres none. President bleiman all right, we can move to the next item. Number 7, which is the discussion of Just Add Music permit jam 125, dba the midway, located at 900 marin street San Francisco regarding the Compliance Plan. We will ask Deputy Director acevedo to introduce this item as well. The agenda item is to hear from the owners of the midway about their improved Compliance Plan and to discuss their operations. The midway had weekend long events on october 16 and 17, november 13 and 14 that resulted in numerous complaints. In response to the complaints the business issued a citation and director weiland and i made the following suggestions. One, acknowledging their event and i share it with the 15 complainants. We must keep the complainants information anonymous. Have a staff person walk out check point with a meter every 30 minutes during the show and take a reading and document the measurement. Staff can notify the sound engineer immediately if the volume is too high. Four, install limiters. I understand owners has been in contact with neighbors to discuss mitigation strategies. I implemented some new practices. Pete, georgia and andy are here this evening and answer any questions you may have about plans for future compliance. Hi, everyone. Good evening commissioners. Kaitlyn and dylan and i had couple of conversations over kind of the things that happened in the last couple of months. Obviously we had several complaints going into the new years event. I would say on the whole we did pretty good job. We didnt get any major complaints until sunday which we were able to see there was a post made on next door, this coincided when all the calls came in. I have those available that i can share on the screen here. President bleiman may be you can explain the point of showing us this. Yeah. One thing that we wanted to share, there was a lot of feedback on both sides. There were some people upset about the noise complaint and other people happy to hear things happening in San Francisco once again. I think we obviously have further to go in terms of mitigating some of the sunday sound complaints. I think another opportunity to engage people on a platform. We posted on next door and started a page on there, its a great platform for us to take this to the next step and engage with people little bit further. Obviously were learning how to use next door. President bleiman if i can ask real quick, i trust you. You dont need to show us the screen. How many people were glad to hear all this noise compared to those complaining . Just in percentages . Was it 30 or 20 . It was about 5050. President bleiman okay, 50 of the people enjoyed the noise and 50 bothered. Let me jump in for a quick second. It was roughly 5050. President bleiman so we can get context, approximately how many participants. Were talking 10 people or 50 . Around a dozen. Dozen may be 15 folks. President bleiman were they by chance employees . [ laughter ] no. It was all neighborhood folks. [ laughter ] we could definitely orchestrate that. It will be overwhelmingly positive. The internet has been around for a minute. People are just [ bleep ] on the internet. The internet brings out the worse in everyone. What happens is, one person said something crummy and then all sorts of other people decide to also have something crummy to say. This one person at some point said, this is unbearable. I cant live like this. Please call 311. Immediately after, i dont know the time frame, it was basically a reaction. Basically the entirety of the complaints after this one woman posted this on next door. Funny thing happened after all these people decided to say, yeah, i will jump in. So many other people said hey, the midway is great. Some of them most compelling stuff is folks saying, you know what, the mid waist is not my cup of tea. Im grateful to have various things happen. Theyre not my things. If i expect for my things to happen in San Francisco, i understand this is part of it. One woman said, i was biking by with my daughter. We wanted to check out what was happening. They were nice enough to open up the gates so we can watch the show for a while. Thats kind of how we run the business. We fancy ourselves as very much part and parcel of the neighborhood. We tend to include and involve folks who are in the area. Another person said, hey, im fully supportive. My son played there last week. Really funny happened, all the people that were talking about how horrible it was, somehow went quietly away. Over what the we all know this again, we know this from the internet, we know this is from yelp. I tried to talk to friend of mine to suing yelp so we wont be on their platform. Thats not doable. People are horrible and people only have the crummiest things to say. The fact of the matter is, the number of people that have positive things to say about the event and how we run our business says a lot. We have a proactive approach. Its a show thats been going on for years. It started outdoors on utah street and kind of grew from there. Its now over here at midway. It was after this next door post. We did take into consideration, we created a phone line for the neighbors to reach out to us directly. We blasted our Contact Information and a way to get a hold of us directly. All on social media and website. Someone had a personal cell phone so we can answer it in realtime and adjust these things in realtime. Somebody suggested that we add a button on our home page. Which were working on. Something thats little bit more neutral. Please let us know how were doing. It was pretty straightforward. We had to walk up utah and leave fliers. This is a little bit more tricky, because the way the hills are around here. It goes in random directions. The thing that i want to sort of commissioner falzon was a big part of sort of us opening jones which is not an entertainment venue but its incredibly busy bar. It does stuff occasionally in terms of entertainment and acts and events and such. When we opened the jones, there was i dont know there was pretty regular, pretty there were complaints. It was an adjustment period. Not that we didnt know what we were doing but its something where the reality of a new busy outdoor place was jarring to some neighbors. One of the things we did was the folks whos windows faced our patio at jones, we went around and offered to install old tenderloin hotel, its a run down building. President bleiman let me interrupt you. I know you guys worked very hard at jones. Jones isnt what were talking about tonight. Let me ask a couple of quick things. Deputy director, they rattled off a hand full of things they did. Did that address all three of your requests . I feel like one of them i didnt hear. Andrea did connect with me in writing about the three items and the one that im not entirely clear on is the checking the measurements throughout the performances. I know that the limiter is the last case scenario. President bleiman are you guys doing regular sound checks . We did. We had someone assigned last time. What we figured out this last event is having assigned limiter only. We purchased a second d. B. Meter to ensure it happens more consistently. President bleiman on a positive, the commission asked you to do three things and sound like youre doing the three things. One last question, i cant tell by what you folks are telling us if you see a problem or not. My question is, simply, are you as concerned as the commission is about the feedback were getting . The short answer is we are concerned about feedback. Were concerned about the ecosystem and the entertainment ecosystem of San Francisco. Part of this is conversation we had with Deputy Director is looking at more realistic or limits that allow us to operate within the limits what were giving. This time, were operating under 100decibel limit. We kept on trying to go down. I personally, i met with the inspector directly. I walked with him and we talked. We worked on solution to have this be as the Entertainment Commission is here to help and support. We want to do that. Do we think that there was issues . Yes, there was some complaints. The jones thing, it speaks the track record. It speaks to the experience. The experience is this. Something new happens, people get up in arms. This is San Francisco. Theres nothing anybody ever going to do thats not going to piss somebody off. The things that i want for everyone to sort of have faith in, we will work and we will address things and we will eventually be okay with our neighbors. We never not done that. We have hundreds and probably thousands of people within a block or so radius of jones. Weve gone so far out of the way there were neighbors who were not they couldnt manage a weekend long gay pride event at jones. To the point where we, several people for many years, we would literally send them on a staycation right up the hill where they can relax and enjoy the weekend in peace and quiet. We actually did that this year for couple who had a baby. Eventually, everyone will guess used to it and it will be part of life. Thats how it goes. President bleiman youre not the only club doing that. Believe it or not, theres a hand full of clubs that operates similarly. It was a recurring, months after months, inspector after inspector. We were in front of the commission not too long ago. We were told what was expected of us. We acted on it. We did it. We are moving forward with the intent and the desire to create awesomeness in San Francisco. We need to Work Together to get to that point. I want to remind the commissioners, i feel like theres some confusion that you all are here tonight at your request. Not ours. Right . Kaitlyn got ahead of it. On both said, i think. This is a discussion only item. I think what were wanting to know is what strategies you implemented including those that kaitlyn has suggested so far . Thats what were here to discuss. Im not sure, director who youre directing this at. My questions are my questions. Im not changing my position. Im not sure if you trying to get them back on track. I dont really care who asked for the meeting. My point s i did not want to go into a long narrative that i couldnt follow. Thats why i interrupted. I couldnt tell if they were concerned or not. Were concerned because nobody wants to have complaints and nobody wants to have take up your time with this stuff. Were actively working on it. Were going to continue to actively work on it. Theres awesome an adjustment period. We adjust how we operate in places. The neighborhood gets used to things happening that may not have been happening in past years and we all go marching together. Were definitely on it. Theres a few other things that were going to be trying in terms of outreach. Were building up our list of contacts. Lot of this stuff is just people aware whats happening and not being taken by surprise on a weekend. Thats where were at. What they are doing is the normal operation. I was in the same boat, you would have to monitor the sound. My question is, when you do get a complaint and you did check your meter, were you guys over your d. B. Level . Do you feel the complaint might have been a delay and sometimes things go up and comes back down. When you get any kind of complaint, did you find that you were really out of compliance by accidental may be . Theres always going to be some neighbor or two that got it after you. We know that. Theres always somebody in the neighborhood. We cant always we wouldnt be in this business if it would never happen. The thing that we want to make sure that youre in compliance and you can log it in, at this time, this is our d. B. Reading, when complaints come in and you compare your notes, theres a certain amount of data. Thats helpful. We havent gotten any of that in realtime. They were all 311. Well keep working and trying to build up lines of communication where people can hit us up. We have a request with Property Owner down third street to install a permanent mic on top of their building. Were working out the software. This is just part of the stuff. Were trying to figure out what kind of software we can ice to have those readings in realtime. We also need to go out and figure out theres couple of different folks that ive been in touch with that have complained. I sort of picked up the conversation and were talking. Well go out to their homes and do readings and try to mess again, you guys all know this stuff. Its probably one or two frequencies that we can probably just eliminate all together and that will be able to solve for us. Another big factor is the climate. When cloud cover comes in, it changes the direction and the length of travel for some of these frequencies. Those we plan on making stops. We will have a sound tech. Their entire responsibility is to go around the neighborhood to do sound checks. For your benefit and ours, may be, when you do send these people out that they write it down. What time and dates. Its really hard for us to make a quick decision. Neighbors obviously wouldnt want to spend the time to make complaints unless they really hate you or they are really annoyed. Theres going to be lot of people that support you. We need the information. You going through the Due Diligence that youre serious about it. At least lot of the neighbors would appreciate that. Like commissioner falzon says, we have take you for the benefit of the doubt. We know from your past experience, you try to help with the neighbors. Thats just how it is. Its part of our business. But at the same time, we have to make it fair for everybody. Instead of telling us about whos picking on you, who cares . Were getting the complaints. We want to fix it. That helps. Yes, hes done that. Well continue to document things as we go, having d. B. Readings [ indiscernible ] president bleiman i dont know what else we can do about their procedures. Other than they have to document what they say they are doing. Thats my opinion. Commissioner perez is entertainment happening indoors or patio . Its on the street. Thank you. President bleiman any other questions . What i was going to say was very similar what commissioner lee said. Were not really hung up on complaints. I think thats the wrong way of looking at us. We react to complaints, we have a limited resources. If people complain, people complain all the time. We go and the venue operators are operating within the limits that we have to uphold by law to their permit. The issue is not that were getting complaints here. Its okay to get complaints. The issue is that, multiple times when we visited, you guys have been out of compliance. Few times its been a little bit tense standoff with our staff. Those limits are there for a reason. If we need to revisit those limits and do more sound tests, were always open to that. Theres no guarantee results are better than you have. I understand the mission you guys are on to do awesome stuff. I think for the most part you do. You have a reputation for that. Lot of people love the midway and love jones. You got People Living on top of you. Midway im sure theres fuel there. People love it. The sound is carrying. Its carrying far. Thats why we set these limits. If you cant be within the limbs, may be that space isnt right. May be theres a space further out or outdoor space that doesnt have that. Thats not on us. I appreciate that it sound like you are taking some measures here. I dont know if i would wade into next door. Being proactive with neighbors. I dont dislike the strategy conditioning neighbors to get used to it. At the end of the day, if we show up and youre above your decibel level, by law we have to do something. Thats their job. Were not a war on fun. We have to do something. Its within our charter and law. Were not like the police who have like little bit more rent what they can and cant enforce. If youre over, youre over. What are we going to do . Again, theres not much of a response i ask for from you guys. Thats where were coming from. Again, youre going to find us to be a lot more sympathetic body than anybody else dealing with this. Were stuck with each other right now. Work with us and sounds like youre making some efforts. We can be looking at that and keep those decibels down to under the limit. Any other questions . Thank you for coming in and being proactive. Lets open this up to Public Comment. Im checking to see theres no hands raised and theres no comments in the chat box. President bleiman i will close this. I like to keep up to date on your progress about all these things youre doing. If you can just jot it down and give it to Deputy Director acevedo. Just kind of monitor the situation little bit. See how youre progressing. President bleiman lets go ahead and close this agenda item. Thank you guys. President bleiman all right. Next agenda item is the final agenda item, number 8. Which is commissioner comments and questions new business requests for future agenda items. Anybody . He commissioner rodriguez i want to say happy Lunar New Year of the tiger. This year is resilience and strength. Happy Lunar New Year. I did have a question, commissioner falzon was asking about the fines. I didnt realize they werent really progressive. Is there opportunity to reform that aspect . The fines are progressive. They are pretty minor. They start at 100 and then we can up them to 200 and then we can progress from there. I think its in administrative code chapter 100. I think they can go all the way up to 1000. Correct me if im wrong. It reason very it will be very challenging to change it. Theres other city agencies that rely on that piece of code. We need a whole lot of buyin. President bleiman im not a fan of the fines as means of compliance. Where we can get maximum is by examining condition on their license and taking them down for decibel levels and hours. Which is a lot more compelling than just the cash or check you have to write. The fines i personally are regressive that richer businesses can pay them easily. Our real teeth is around reconditioning and suspension. Thats a much bigger thing. I think thats the case in general. I can see incidents where cases thats a drop in the bucket that they decided to have the tradeoff. I want to make sure theres that discretion in those kinds of cases. I will mention that the repeat violation is a sound limit violation, its something that we track. If you have three