elephant and castle bar, i have no idea how to pronounce that. anyway. it only came to us because it actually was the bubble lounge next door that called in the incident and was able to get a police response. so it was nonentertainment related but it was a club that was being a good neighbor to its area and was able to stop a crime from proceeding and bring in police to address the issue. the particler, show girls, another incident on broadway and kearney which is not really surprising. it's a busy intersection. and gino. on the major list, incident list, we had an incident at little darlings of a robbery. basically someone distribute night deposit's being robbed. atmosphere, we had a fight. cocomo's we had aggravated assault with a gun.

we also had an aggravated assault. at center fold we had an aggravated assault with a knife. in swig we had a suspicious act to a female. a woman had been drugged and possibly raped which is very rare. contrary to what people often think, oh, it happens all the time, it actually doesn't happen all the time. so when an incident like that does occur, we try to report it just that it's a rare occurrence. and if there are any questions, i'm here. vice chair joseph: i have some quickies for you. how many doors do they have? >> two. two in the -- one in the front and one in the rear. vice chair joseph: so even though they made their floor space bigger, they only have two doors. why would their occupancy change? >> if they applied for a change of occupancy with the fire department, which is a possibility, they could increase their size and

occupancy. vice chair joseph: ok, great. do you know the name of the security company at 1015? >> i believe it is ground control security. vice chair joseph: ground control to major tom. ok. and then, my last question is, on the citations, who collects them? how do we enforce their collection? do we know if they're outstanding, if they're never paid? what is the ramifications of all of that? >> so, when a citation is issued, the person who receives the vietation has exactly 30 days to pay it. -- citations has exactly 30 days to pay it. the citation process is in the hands of the controller's office. they have two options. they can either appeal the citation or pay it. if they appeal it, that goes through the controller's office hearing process. appeals and hearing process. we actually have nothing to do

with that except that i will probably be called to testify. outside that have, if they pay it, that's that. if they do not pay after 30 days the controller's office then will start assigning penalties for nonpayment. and they handle that entire process internally. they will then keep us updated on what's happening. so we've just established our relationship and contact with the controller's office and they're excited about this process. in fact, they invited myself to come to a meeting between our department and several other departments that have just started issuing citations as well. to kind of meet, talk and -- so we can work a little bit more fluidly of all of these departments together with them. vice chair joseph: and are you tracking them yourself, whether the citations have been cleared, not just money but if they've corrected whatever you cited them for? >> absolutely. vice chair joseph: and last, do we permit little darlings? do we permit center fold's?

-- certainty folds? >> center folds i believe we do permit. some of the strip clubs we do. center folds i'm pretty sure we do. little darlings i'd have to double check. what? >> i thought we didn't do any adult entertainment. >> we do. >> if there is liquor served or food and beverages, it's usually a liquor license on premise there would be a permit -- premise, there would be a permit. if there isn't then we wouldn't have a permit. >> i don't believe little darlings is permitted by us but the people who own them own a few other spots as well. why i've put it in my report is that night deposits being robbed in the street, it's an issue. they're hitting a strip club now, we're not sure what they'll hit tomorrow. vice chair joseph: thank you. president newlin: any other commissioners? commissioner meko: mr. granelli, you've been with the

commission for how many years? >> five? six. a long time. commissioner meko: at least five. >> probably six. commissioner meko: how does it feel to finally be able to issue a citation for failure to adhere to the good neighbor policy? >> it feels shockingly good, sir. commissioner meko: good neighbor policy now has teeth. >> correct. as shown, we just issued two citations over it. so, yeah. commissioner meko: thank you. president newlin: ok. no further questions. any public comment on the reports? >> good evening, commissioners. jeremy paul. just wanted to make a comment on behalf of trigger. they've had sound problems and have made major changes to their sound systems repeatedly. they've had complaining --

complaints from a single party across the street about sound and have made a lot of modifications that i think have been reflected in vaj's report. however there is a smoking area in front of the -- at the front of the club that's open to the sidewalk. poses a unique problem for the club and poses a unique problem for the city, to the neighborhood commercial district and for the industry. is it better off to have people confined within a space that's part of the business in a potential sound source that can't easily be controlled? or would we rather have people leave the club, wander the block to smoke, make whatever noise they want out there in a fully uncontrolled environment and then come back to the club or maybe wander elsewhere? i think that this is somewhat of an intractable situation.

they have put in sound baffling, they followed every recommendation to try to deal with it. but the ins dents of sound reports -- but the incidents of sound romps have come way down. the source of the sound reports is very localized and it really is the kind of thing that when a complaint call comes into the club, they can tighten up on the security and make sure someone is stationed there and keep people from making noise, getting rowdy, being loud. but it's a moving target. it's always going to be a problem. and unless the city really wants to take on this question of, do we want to push the smokers out and send them out into the neighborhood, out into the neighborhood commercial district, where there won't be a security person to come say, hey, you have to keep it down, you're being too loud, or do we want to have them stay confined, stay in the controlled place? because there's really nothing

to trig -- that trigger can do to tighten this up any further them. keep their security stationed there. but it's a tough problem to solve. thank you. president newlin: thank you. ok. item number four. update from the ad hoc committee regarding promotion legislation. is this an action item? commissioner meko: the update would be from me since i am the ad hoc committee. we somehow included acting director as a fellow member of the ad hoc committee, so that i wouldn't be just talking to myself. and we did have a hearing about a week ago with a representative from board of supervisors, david chu, and several members of the public.

i think the most interesting information that came out of the meeting was that this legislation, while it is being pushed by the mayor's office and supervisor chu's office because of the incident that occurred near union square in which a tourist was unfortunately killed with an event -- as an event exited, that the legislation would only apply to venues with place of entertainment permit, which was not the case in the union square incident, and that therefore this legislation would not have prevented the kind of incident that led the mayor's office and supervisor

chu to introduce the legislation in the first place. we will have one more hearing scheduled on this, time and date to be determined in the next couple of days. moran of -- more of an opportunity for the neighborhoods to weigh in on this. at this point there's no action that i would ask of you. i'd ask that you just continue -- discontinue this item. president newlin: thank you and thank you for having the meeting and any public comment had? -- comment? >> [inaudible]. >> could you please speak into the microphone and state your name. >> i'm holly trees and i'm a member of the public. i was president at the september meeting, just found out about this proposed legislation and i was wondering, aside from what you had just mentioned in terms of

preventing the type of incident that happened over the summer, what has there been in terms of any study as far as the budgetary concerns that the legislation may pose for stet in terms of enforcement, registration fees, etc.? commissioner meko: there are no prejudice administration fees required by the lenl -- there are no registration fees required by the administration. it's an informal process whereby anyone goes online and fills in an online form. in terms of enforcement, i think it would fall under the regular duties of our sound inspector, mr. granelli, to, if there's an incident involving a promoter, to simply contact the club and make sure that the promoter has registered. beyond that i would encourage you to find out when the next

meeting of this ad hoc committee is and ask the questions. we'll try to have a representative from the supervisor's office present again. >> thank you. president newlin: thank you. i recommend that you seriously look into getting them to put, as we saw with the citing for the good neighbor policy, to put some teeth into this legislation as well so that if they're thear not complying with the requirements, that the club and the promoter can be cited. i think that would be something that we would strive for. ok. item number five. update from the ad hoc committee regarding permit conditions relating to security proposed by the san francisco police department for all entertainment permits. you want to report on that? >> yes. we had a meeting today at 4:00. it was attended by seven or

eight different club representatives. vice chair joseph: it was continued. we're going to have another meeting. there are things that need to be discussed. it needs to be fine-tuned. so there's no real report. only that we're going to have another meeting and work out, there's a lot of conditions here, and work these out, and we're waiting for a report from the city attorney on the legalities of some of the issues. that concludes my report. president newlin: thank you. any can public comment or questions from the commission? seeing none, item number six. hearing and possible action regarding applications for permits under the jurisdiction of the entertainment commission. item a, caponi, regan, fillmore street, a place of entertainment. >> this applicant applied for a place of entertainment permit

on april 24 to permit entertainment at the comet club. mr. caponi was required at his location to complete a conditional use authorization and his conditions of approval are attached to this memo dated september 16 of this year. i just highlighted some relevant conditions for your consideration. although -- not consideration, for your reference, really, as you know, all of the conditions automatically get put into our place of entertainment permit. so just for the sake of discussion, there is an allowance for entertainment from 6:00 p.m. until midnight, sunday through thursday, and 2:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m. on fridays and saturdays. in addition there is a condition not allowing patrons

access to the rear patio. there is a condition, one i've not seen before, that says that outdoor tables and chairs may not remain on the sidewalk in the front during entertainment. and that after a six-month period from the date of the document the applicant may submit an application to planning to modify the conditions to allow him to have entertainment until 2:00 a.m. on thursdays additionally. northern station recommended approval with additional conditions that i've also attached. please note the conditions allowing entertainment -- the condition allowing entertainment only until 1:30 from northern station. this is a regular condition from them. it's more restrictive than the c.u. conditions and it's in front of you for your consideration.

the applicant also submitted letters of report with his application, notably from the union street association and the union street enrichment association. the other thing i did want to point out was that the planning department has indicated that the applicant is in the midst of completing a building permit application that is relevant to the second and third-floor uses. i don't believe those are entertainment uses, so they're not really something you need to concern yourself with, but they are asking staff that we not issue the final permit until or unless that building permit process is considered complete. vice chair joseph: who's asking that? >> the planning department. i didn't mean to confuse you. it's not that complicated. but you may issue a conditional grant, i just wanted to be clear with you that there's an outstanding building permit.

your conditional grant should be conditioned on the completion of that as well as any other conditions that you might want to impose. vice chair joseph: i'm sorry. forgive me, but why would we consider a building permit that has nothing to do with the place of entertain snment >> because the planning department asked that we do that. commissioner meko: because the planning department considers it related to the conditional use approval which must be in place before we can take any action on the place of entertainment approval. vice chair joseph: is that odd? do they always do that? >> they often try to get -- all departments will do that, to try to use other departments to make sure that everything that needs to get done gets done. meek t's crossed and i's -- commissioner meko: t's crossed

and i's dotted. >> that's it. staff is asking approval inclusive of the conditions as well as the one that i just confused you about. vice chair joseph: ok, got it. president newlin: anybody here from the club -- anybody here from the club? >> good evening, commissioners. jeremy paul on behalf of regan caponi and the comet club. reagan has owned the comet club since the mid 1990's and he also has an entertainment license for club on the haig called milk. both of these clubs are very well run and have no police problems and are well-liked in the communities. it's very important to note that there are no changes proposed for the comet club. there has been amplified sound since at least the 1970's. there has been a long record of

this location being a disco tech under various names which i won't bore you with, but they really speak to the times. that they were hope -- open. and the current situation, the current conditional use, arose from a complaint from a new tenant owner who doesn't live there, who is an owner of an apartment in the adjacent prorlt. they started -- property. they started the planning complaint which led to the request for the conditional use. we sought the conditional use. this person who had complained did not boggetter to show up at the planning commission hearing. the planning commission granted the conditional use. they wanted to -- because there was new interest in the neighborhood as a result of this notification that went out with the conditional use, they did get some comments from the neighborhood that were

reflective of an opinion that something was going to change. that there was going to be an increase of intensity of use, there would be a new amplified sound system, that's not the case. it's an existing sound system. within the past year it's been modified and upgraded, working with c.m. salter, to make sure that there are no problems related to it but there is no increase in the sound output or in the activity. there was a request with the conditional use authorization for us to have live comedy shows earlier in the evening. which was approved. but that would be the only functional change that the comet club would really experience going back to probably the early 197s to. and it certainly won't become more of a problem, they're not changing their format or reaching out to a different community. as i said, there is no history of police problems at this location. there have been very few

complaints over the many years that mr. caponi has owned the place and he always responds to people directly. he's well liked in the community. officer gallagher, the permit officer in northern station, said that he is personally ok with 2:00 a.m. but that it is their policy to recommend 1:30 on all of these applications. so i hope that you will take that into consideration and allow comet club to continue operating as it always has. this is a really good neighborhood, little venue, it doesn't create a lot of commotion, it doesn't make a lot of noise. it's just a good place to hang out. there's a little tiny dance floor, that's not going to change. it's going to stay the same. we didn't include these in your file, but i've got all these letters of support from the neighborhood historic association and all the businesses of the union street

merchants' association and all the individual letters from the surrounding community. it's a well-liked place. and i don't think there's a cause for concern with these changes. as i said, the only people who made any comment to city planning were under the impression that somehow there was a major change in the operation being proposed. just to clarify on the building permit application, because i filed it, they were trying to document the office uses in the upper floors. and commissioner meko is exactly right in his statement of it that city planning included that the -- those other uses in the building should be properly documented before the conditional use is implemented. that's all they're trying to do. thank you very much and i hope you'll approve the comet club for 2:00 a.m. use on friday and

saturday and will not require us to come back before you to get thursday when city planning approves that in six months. thank you so much. president newlin: commissioners, questions? commissioner meko: mr. paul, just to confirm, this is an 80-occupancy place? >> i think it is less than 80. commissioner meko: the paperwork says 80. not a very big place. the conditions that are reced by the -- recommended by the northern station here, the first three, soundproofed, sound not audible outside and all doors and windows be kept closed, are already included in our good neighbor policies, so they would all automatically be imposed. the fourth -- no, number four as well, security at all times, entertainment. number five is the change to -- no entertainment after 1:30.

you object to that, correct? >> we would like to be able to continue until 2:00 a.m. commissioner meko: and how do you feel about number six, shall install surveillance cameras? >> the cameras are in. and have been in for some time. commissioner meko: ok. so your only objection would be number five? >> that's correct. commissioner meko: thanks. vice chair joseph: so, your security guard would be in-house? are they going to be lead trained? >> yes, they will. >> i have documenting. vice chair joseph: ok. and it says, what is your plan to protect patrons in case of an emergency? you say, the bartender or security guard will point out the exit. does the venue have an emergency fire alarm system? or something that also light u.p.s. the exits? -- lights up the exits? >> yes, it does. vice chair joseph: on number

anyone it says, what are your bag policies? bag checks and i.d. checks. overintoxicated people check. what does that mean? >> i can't really speak to what that means but i can speak to the nature of this particular venue and say that -- vice chair joseph: you have to speak to what's on the application. what does that mean? >> owner was going to address that issue. vice chair joseph: you can tell me what you mean by that? >> hi, my name is regan caponi. that means if somebody's coming in intoxicated, we will size the situation up and we will not allow him to enter. it could be problematic. vice chair joseph: thank you. that's the right answer. i appreciate it. thank you very much. president newlin: commission, he -- commissioners, any more questions? commissioner roja: do we know why the police is request --

commissioner perez: do we know why the police are requesting no entertainment? president newlin: thank you very much. public comment? >> hi. my name is virgil skipton. i was a neighbor. i didn't know there was such a thing as this new good neighborhood policy. i'm surprised there hasn't been applied to my neighborhood. i live just like half a block up from the comet club. you know the neighborhood. and from thursday until sunday it's nothing but drunk kids running around and screaming until 3:00, 4:00 in the morning. so when i heard about this change of the comet club, how it was put out in the

neighborhood was that they were requesting -- they wanted to get a permit to do amplified live music and so my concern is that, you know, we just -- to me it's just more noise in the neighborhood and another magnet for that sort of drunken behavior that seems to be supported by the city, oddly, in that neighborhood. i walk by the comet club every day, i live in the neighborhood . the matrix doors are wide open, the comet club's doors are wide open. no one ever has doors close. you can hear music. it's blasting. the crowds are out of control. i'm just concerned so i thought i'd show up. i'm sure there's not much i can do to stop any of this, but it's really getting difficult for the people who live in the

neighborhood to put up with this. and i know there was an individual who came around when this first came up and was trying to get the neighbors involved and i'm surprised that none of them are here. that's all i have to say, i guess. so, the police officer at the north station has no problem until 2:00 but he doesn't live in the neighborhood, i'm sure. that's all i've got. thanks. president newlin: thank you. any other public comment? >> my name is city ofen and i came here as -- stefan and i came here as a friend to regularen caponey. he has a long history in the area. he also -- the area -- caponi. he has a long history in the area. he's a good operator and his history proves that but in addition to that the area is conducive and the area is what

it is. it has been for a long time. pertaining to his particular venue, it's not a problematic venue. i understand the concerns that the neighbor has and it's just something that we have to pay attention to. but i will support the 2:00 and if there are issues in the future or fear of issues in the future, then we can address those in the future. but i want to give him full support and think you should support the 2:00. thank you. president newlin: thank you. any other public comment? seeing none, commissioners, discussion? no? commissioner perez: i was wondering if maybe the staff can let us know why is the police department asking for a 1:30 restriction? >> commissioners, this is a condition put on every single permit, application that goes through