>> commissioner hyde? >> aye. >> alright, now we're going to move to the report from our check t*if director. >> thank you, good evening, commissioners, and thank you, commissioner hyde, you're doing great, keep it up, we'll help you along. just briefly, i wanted to update you on a couple of things related to legislation and policy. i gave you guys, hopefully you all have a separate director's report, it's not in the doctor, and one of the things that is behind my memo is an update on the planning commission review, the latest review of the western soma community plan, the planning department was given an informational update on this plan that's been ten years or so in the making on november 15th, and the memo they were given to review is attached again, take it home, it's not something you can read up there, it outlines the update they were given and i wanted to highlight the ideas presented the 11 street, what they're calling entertainment corridor, we don't have anything properly called an entertainment corridor, there are 8 different options outline ined this memo presented to them, they protect various current entertainment venues and current housing, all options attempt to minimize conflicts that occur when entertainment and housing are currently not planned for in san francisco as you well know, so the interest we have here in getting involved in that planning process and i know commissioner tan and commission near hyde were at that presentation at planning, we do want to get in as early as possible so that our permittees and our process sort of engages early on to make sure we don't have neighbor problems, and that we have healthy night life, so the planning commission didn't take any action at their meeting but the west soma community plan will continue to move along in the coming months and will eventually change the zoning that's been static in west soma for years, so staff will continue to keep you informed and if commissioner tan or hyde have anything to add, you can do it now or i can finish my report. >> i have a question just on this. so, this plan has been ten years in the making and this goes to you and you and possibly you, so this plan's been ten years in the making and they've come up with all of these recommendations. have they taken into consideration in your best guess changing times, like the city is coming back, we have less unemployment, we have an influx of new tech companies, we possibly are going to have a warrior's arena, has this plan in any way taken into consideration changing times in the future or is it set somewhere 8 or 10 years ago? >> i think that's a loaded question and i'm probably not apt to answer that directly to you. >> anybody have an opinion? >> i sat on the planning task force for a few months. i was an appointee from james kim's office, by the time i got there, it was already in the making and although it has been said that over 60 times entertainment has been on the agenda and there were discussions, it is my experience that although it was on the agenda several times, it was at the end of the agenda and was not talked about a lot of times and no, there was no discussion about the tech companies, all of this plan was -- had already been moved forward by the time the twitter tax break and all of that had gone through, so no, that was not taken into consideration. >> yeah, and i think in my opinion, this is just an opinion, the plan processed in -- you know, in regards to entertainment, i think a lot of the effort currently just came recently, you know, the supervisor said, hey, i want to look at how entertainment is being addressed here. i don't know, i think if you're asking, do they take into consideration what's happening in 2012, i don't think it really is, i think if you look at the net housing and the net jobs that are being developed through the plan, you're looking at a marginal increase of what the current plan is versus the proposed plan, so yeah, so i mean, i have to think about it more but honestly, i don't think it's been a process that's enabled a lot of opportunity for growth. >> thank you. >> okay, so again, behind this memo, take it home, take a look at it, there's some decent information in that and certainly the staff's person at planning would be happy to answer any of your questions if there is something you don't understand, so moving on, the other thing that is attached to this memo is file 121065 which is introduce legislation by the board of supervisors specifically david chu creating something called a polk street alcohol restricted use district among other things, and really what it does is create something -- a new lower polk street, alcohol restricted use district that doesn't exist, it's similar to other restricted use districts in the city but many of them in the city are being removed as opposed to being created so the concern that staff has is that this would restrict as it's written, it will restrict all new and on and off sale license establishments with some exemptions for restaurants, there's a blanket requirement that all restaurants close at midnight, it would also require all new entertainment permits to obtain conditional use authorization which is currently not a requirement in that area and it's a pretty big area with streets -- it's not just polk, it's got boundaries that go up to larken and van ess, and as of right now, it's at least a 6 month process to go through conditional use at the planning department for entertainment, so that's a big change and something to consider, it's attached again for your reference and we have been in contact with supervisor chu's office, i know some of you might have reached out as well to try to provide input on the legislation. it wasn't directly sent to the entertainment commission for comment, but it's in its introduction period, so anything's possible at the moment and we'll continue to keep you updated as things occur, and i have some sort of timetable for it. >> i just want to put on the record that i find it offensive that this commission does not get asked to comment on legislation that directly affects our purview, and i think that i'd like the know why. i mean, we should have definitely had it to comment on, and then i have a question for inspector granelli, have we had a lot of complaints from the polk street corridor and what do we do to address them? >> polk street corridor as this commission knows, they made a decision to get ahead of polk street a little bit. we started getting some complaints from the neighborhood both of sound and crowd, and we're kind of behind the 8 balls that were coming after the fact and having to be reactionary, we wanted to get there early and address some of those issues so we spent a great amount of time not only dealing with sound complaint but crowd control complaints, what we've done in the past and what we've continued to do is working with northern station, also working with the fire department and abc or the aou unit, we've gone to polk street both in groups and in solo to address those venues in the area, how they should better control their sounds and crowd, we did one or two educational meetings where we pulled different restaurant owners and addressed some of these, these were chaired by the director kane and we also had northern city and others participate in them. >> so, has there been positive results in that? >> absolutely, we're not seeing the kind of violence on polk street, you have the occasional bar fiekt, but drunk people, that happens sometimes, but as far as violence goes, we're not getting any kind of violence coming off of polk street, polk street is probably the busiest it's ever been in the history of this city and that business is still increasing. we are getting better, you know, clubs operating better, we are seeing better crowd control, we are seeing better sound control. probably in the last two months, we've seen a decrease on -- in complaints. >> thank you. >> i have a question for voj. we know we can control the poe's, home are next to each other that might be contributing to the issue. >> polk street is interesting because it's a xin nation of permanent and non-permanent venues by this commission, we have several permanent venues on along polk street and we're really talking the kind of active area of polk street is between california street and uri street, so the act of -- it's an active district but also the permanent venues, you have everything from full like night clubs to poe's with extended areas to as far as extended areas with food and on top of that, you have mixed in at least four, possibly five other bar, like full-on bars with 48's possible, two, maybe 347's that are there that are non-permanent and not doing entertainment, so it's really mixed which as this commission knows ideally, that's what we want, and the other part is that the recipe for an area where there is an intensification or there are a lot of permanent venues, you know, what you want is you want people doing live music which we have, we want people doing dj's which we have, you want people not doing entertainment, they're just traditional bars, we have a real -- it's one of the few areas in the city where you have a real mix of a lot of different things going on and all doing different programming, you know, no real one bar or club in that area is doing the same thing as everybody else, and again, all the statistics show from this city and other cities that that's what builds a thriving neighborhood. >> i mean, i think the mix, it's really good, but i think two clubs that are being responsible are doing the best they can, if the next door neighbor has got the overflow and doesn't have the poe and are also a part of helping us, it's a bit unfair. >> that's why we brought to the table the abc and fire department and northern state. >> i would like to say similar to the western soma, do you think we could have supervisor chu's office possibly give us a presentation of what's going on as this moves along? >> well, again, if you're directing me to request that through the supervisor's office, i'm happy to do that, i'm at your service. i don't know whether -- >> i would like to direct you to do that >> okay, i will ask. okay, moving on, i just wanted to do a quick update on the -- our new enforcement position, so i think it was late last week and early this week, we saw some real movement so i'm really excited. i hope we're about to the point of formally announcing this hopefully right after this thanksgiving holiday, there's a lot of pieces of paper that we have to move through but we're almost there and then i will be sending it to all of you as well, i want a wide net to find the right person who will be essentially trained by voj and then go out there independent of him to assist with hundreds of permits that we have to manage. i had talked to you guys about a tech and entertainment panel that i was excited about before the election and then i got a full stop with sf city, the organization that is like the tech sector chamber essentially put all their eggs in the prop b basket, so they were successful with that campaign and so i got back in contact with sf city and although we're in a holiday week, i do expect to get back in touch and hopefully we'll schedule that event for january because i think that it's really important. i think that it goes to all the issues we were talking about, so i'll keep you informed and when it takes shape, i'll get some feedback from you. i also wanted to mention lastly that at the very back of this pile of paper i gave you is a section of the police code, two weeks ago, what i did in trying to prepare for new year's eve and the holiday season is sent out an e-mail to everyone and their mother that i had in my mailbox letting people know that new year's eve is very busy, not only for us but it's busy for the police department, and that if anyone is planning to do anything out of the ordinary, if anyone needs permits from the entertainment commission, is everybody okay? what's happening? that they need to get their permits in. up to now, and until recently, we've been very kind with people who come running in at the last minute, we have been overly kind and we don't have the capacity legally to say, sorry, we're not going to accept your permit, however, there is a section in the police code, it's 1060.29.1 that will allow a special procedure permit.er one-time evens on designated events if the commission approves that procedure, and we haven't in the last year brought anything to you but my plan for 2013 is to do that because it does include july 4th and some other busy often weekends, so early next year, i'll present something. hopefully fairly simple in concert with the police department so that we will have more tools in our tool box if people come at the very last minute, if they ask for things that are out of the ordinary, if they want to rush, maybe we can discuss the late fee kind of situation, just to give people incentive to not let everything roll down to the feet of the staff of the entertainment commission and frankly the permit officer and is the police department because we all struggle when people don't plan well and then we all have to clean up other people's mess, that will be coming to you, but if you take a minute sometime in the next few days, after you've eaten a lot of turkey and read that section, it's clear what we can and what we can't do and we'll formulate something. >> what is your cutoff for new year's eve, you should put it on the record? >> legally, there is no cutoff, it's just unlikely that more than three weeks out, you're going to really get a healthy response from our department or the police or fire or anyone else that you might have to engage. >> so, i guess my question is, if someone comes to you on december 27th for a permit for new year's eve -- >> after i stop laughing. >> i mean as a matter of policy, you should set a date. >> so, i cannot do that unless the commission allows me to do that and that's exactly what i'm talking about, so we will be doing that for next year. for this year, i am working really hard proactively so that doesn't happen. >> okay. >> i had a question. i think, i know you mentioned the mayor's office of economic workforce development was creating an entertainment position, do you have any update about that? >> they were sort of in the same boat we were in terms of having difficulty of getting positions through the bureaucracy and i had a meeting with wakeen torres who will be the supervisor for that position and i hope that's a hire at the beginning of the new year and i believe i still won't be involved on the panel to choose that person, so i will -- i don't have a date specific for you but i'm watching. >> thanks. >> that concludes me. anyone have anything to ask, i will turn it over to voj. >> commissioners, being as we had the last meeting was cancelled, it should be in your binder, two sides to that page on just my report, we can keep it pretty straightforward, you'll see that we've been looking into a series of complaints from the -- sorry, november 6th side of the sheet, sofa atmosphere, sky lark, and then on to the -- on the other side that we're still looking at -- let me backtrack there, sorry, that now we're looking also still, we had a meeting with atmosphere, so they're working with the management there and gotten good response, it was both central station and ourselves on some operational changes and just what -- there's an influx and we have an opportunity to change operations on bog way, so working with atmosphere, we're waiting to see that change happen, [inaudible] they'll be coming before this commission i think it's december 4th for an extended hours. they continue to operate after 2 a.m. currently which you'll see on the sheet. we've sent notice ts of violation and sent reports. tenderloin station and us at this time are on the same page the best possible thing to do in this particular waysing, -- situation, is to grant them the permit so we can bring them under jurisdiction and into compliance and leave it to you as commissioners to decide what kind of conditions you want and both tenderloin station and this staff will have recommendations at this time. sky lark, we've been seeing some violation, 1015, we've been working with the neighbors and southern station, we've been dealing with sound complaints that have come up from that space from a building of condos behind that location. rose wood was a venue on out of broadway near the tunnel that was operating illegally as far as dj's, we have not met by phone the owners of that establishment today, hopefully we'll have that taken care of. the farmhouse continues to be an interest, interesting animal that has nothing really to report because it's long and convoluted and working with neighborhood people and ingleside station, hopefully we'll meet with the neighbors soon, and hopefully we've called into them and have a meeting with them also soon, they've been doing some minor sign, and nile cafe have been operating, one has been operating without extended hours, they should be coming in and also [inaudible], so overall, i know i normally don't go through the list like this, we've had an increase in complaints and we've been focusing attention in addressing those complaints currently and so far we've been able to make a lot of traction on them so it's a lot, a new person would definitely be very helpful. continually, you'll see there's lots of incidents so forth and so on, not as bad as in the past, we've seen a decrease in incidents overall which is nice, but instead of going through those, i know officer mathias is here from central station, so he'll bring up his highlights but as far as i am, any good questions you have? >> has [inaudible] paid its fines. >> we have not cited them currently. >> we've warned, they've been given notices. >> okay. >> and talked to a whole bunch of times. >> and 1015's been quiet for a long time, can you tell me again what's going on there. >> 1015, we have a series, right behind the building, there is a condo building, i think it has 12 condos in it. >> across the alley? >> no. and they have been complaining and dealing with sound, it's low frequency vibration through the walls of 1015, so that's -- and it's kind of -- you know, as these things often happen, people get to a certain point and then they're done, so they're done, so they're moving forward. >> thank you. >> okay, thank you. >> okay, so we are moving on to -- is there any public comment on the report from our director? seeing none, we will move on to 4, which is the police department comments and questions. this allows any member of the police department to address the commission regarding matters related tonight life and public safety. >> good evening, commissioners and staff. >> no, it would be that one. >> hello, steve mathias from central station, giving a recap of what's been going on, an update as far as horizon 490 broadway, they are serving a 15 day suspension through the abc, this is going to go from november 14 to the 29th, this is for a minor that was intoxicated on their premises. as far as [inaudible] we've had a little bill of a loel, not as many incidents going on in the district the last few weeks. oftentimes, we've noticed that thanksgiving weekend, a lot of times, there's an increase because a lot of kids come home from different slaloms and they meet up with their friends and things happen there, but as far as any incidents that have happened, on october 24th at 1:30, the ambassador, victim's jacket was stolen, a couple of different thefts, this person's purse was stolen and the victim caught the suspects outside, so one person went to county jail, part of the reason we bring that up is it's nice for the staff at the different venues to know there are a lot of thefts going on and that's really what we want to have a heightened awareness so that the patrons when they're coming to the city to enjoy their night, they're not having all their things taken, somebody's lap top was stolen, on the 16th at 2 a.m., a patron leaving vessel lounge was stabbed twice on a street robbery, looking at here the staff did absolutely nothing wrong and that's not why i'm bringing it up, but here it is, i'd like people to know, be aware of their surroundings, so if there was a robbery just down the street, just for the staff, the substitute