r: so, what's the biggest issue in america today? segregation still exists... racism... the repression and oppression of women the educational system stem cell research homeless people cloning government health care taxation announcer: so, is there anything you're doing to help make a change? i'm not really doin' anything. ummmm [sighs] got me on that one... commission for tuesday, january 11, 2011.

[no audio] clerk: i think we are good. president newlin: should we start it again? clerk: i think we are good. [reading roll] president newlin: public comment. members of the public can address the commission for up to three minutes. is there anybody here? ok, seeing none, next item would be to review and approve the meeting minutes from december 14. i am sure we have a quorum on the minutes. commissioner: i move to approve.

commissioner: i second. clerk: [reading roll] president newlin: ok, i have been requested to take an item of order, so the next item i am going to call is item no. 7. comments and questions. commissioner: item 6. president newlin: online, it says 7. it does not matter. >> good evening, commissioners. i am commander crenshaw. i will be retiring in a couple of days, and i does want to thank you for your assistance.

we made a lot of approve minutes and advances in the last years. -- a lot of improvements and advances. considerable time and effort went into working on problem clubs. i think we have done a lot. i think we accomplished a lot, in spite of a lot of negatives. i think the standard best practices were the high point of our collaboration and hopefully will be able to define those in coming months. but i would just like to say that it was an honor working with you. hopefully, i brought some positives and the relationship that we can build on in the future.

my replacement is a commander. he was not able to be here tonight, and then there is the captain, and we have worked together almost day-by-day the last year, dealing with the soma area, our largest nightclub area. i want to highlight a few things. we had new years. a multitude of events that went on. what we really had to address was the emergency closing of a club. club 181. i know there was a lot of press given this, some negative and some positive, but it required

emergency action by us because we thought there was an immediate threat to public safety. it was really the first time we have had to take such serious action. audrey and another did an outstanding job. we would not normally have pursued that venue in the normal course of business, but we thought it was dealing with public safety, and that is why we took that action. dave will carry on everything that we hopefully established along with a collaborative work in the future. hopefully, i would like to see another summit, may be springtime of possible.

-- maybe springtime. president newlin: i just wanted to thank you for everything. vice chair joseph: i have to thank you. i think the way the we have established our new relationship works really, really well. into that -- and to that end, i

want to wish you a great time in retirement, and on behalf of commissioner newlin and staff -- >> this is too much. i hope my wife is not at home watching this. [applause] does this mean you really like me? commissioner: yes, it does. in the old days, it would have been a bottle of scotch. >> i appreciate it. >> president newlin, commissioners, san francisco police department. i do want to knowledge commander crenshaw. i started years ago in

narcotics, and he will be sorely missed. we have a very unique relationship. he and i kind of collaborated ideas, and it has been quite eventful over the last few years, and i think we have accomplished a lot. unfortunately, and the commander just alluded to it, we have another coming on board. he had a root canal, so he could not be here tonight, but he will be at the next meeting. a couple of comments about what was established over the new year's weekend, and the commander just alluded to what occurred at " -- club 181. seeing it works and seeing it through the process.

-- seeing it worked. not only did jocelyn see our concerns, it was ultimately seen in the courts. the courts had to be opened on friday. we had to bring on the on call a judge and have a hearing of petitioners in their attempt -- thank you. stay. thank you. a stay on the judgment that your commission had imposed, and an independent judge saw the evidence and cited on behalf of the commission's recommendation, -- and sided on behalf of the commission's recommendation. the other thing i want to a knowledge on behalf of the police department's efforts, and i do not know if some commissioners have seen our work product yet, but we went above and beyond in a short amount of time to give documentation, so

we are just not hitting you a handful of two or three partially -- reports that do not seem to have a relation which each other -- with each other. we tried to back it up with facts, and that is what we provided. it was challenged in the courts, and it succeeded in the courts, so to me, this is not so much about the club and their name, but we vindicated. i know in the last year, the commission has been challenged a lot about its capabilities as a police department, but it can work. this does not mean that this is a tool we should export take advantage of. -- we should exploit or take advantage of. frankly, to use a line that i heard chief gascon use, the fewer the rest, the fewer the citations. fewer shows things are working.

that is exactly the case of what had to happen with this club that we can create i would prefer -- with this club that happened that weekend. i prefer to not do it again. it took a tremendous amount of time. we did a great job, digging deep into our data bases, and i think it showed, and we do have capabilities when put on task. that is not our preferred choice, and we want to underscore that. we would rather work with you to try to find solutions as a group. we always know that is the best choice, but what we ultimately agree to disagree, we also want people to know there are going to consequences. overall, i think we all feel good about new year's. it was a good event, and what the i will share with you that i was involved with is we action

shot down and illegal party in the south of market, and i have to say that i think we saved lives that night -- is that we actually shut down and illegal party. this was very cavernous space. it was a four-story warehouse. it did not have any fire sprinklers. ultimately, the fire marshall responded. he made the decision to shut it down, but due to the efficient use of our resources, we took our time. it took about two hours to close it, but sometimes that is what i think you have to commit to do. actually, people understood. you should have seen this place, with all the parts that were put up and all of amazes. -- all of the tarpon -- tarps

that were put up and all of the mazes, and they had doors that were not bridged way. -- not breakaway. the person running the event was well intended. it goes to our continued need to educate. this was not a person, at least in my opinion, based on what we found out so far, it was not their intent so much to run a rave or make a lot of money on the years. i do not think that was their intent. our continued need to educate the public, which i think this highlights our continued need to educate the public -- i think

that just highlights our continued need. president newlin: is a ever considered to have the city attorney go after the owner of the building to recover some of the police expenses on that? >> absolutely, and that is something we will be taking to our city attorney for code enforcement. and actually, before i walk away, i think the commander mentioned it, and we want to bring up the captain of the southern district, we just want to make a few brief comments again in the spirit of coming to factual information. we do not want to speak in detail about what happened over the weekend, but we did have problems board at one club. we are not in a position tonight to say where the responsibility lies. we all realize that when you're in this industry, bad things happen, but we will continue to

dig into this one, but you will be hearing from us again when we are more prepared to go into it. we did not want to rush into it and not be confident in our position, because we're hearing different versions of what may or may not have happened. thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. i am the new commanding officer of southern police station. as you all know, not only did we inherit a large district, we inherited a lot of nightclubs, and venues like that in the district. i went to work professionally and fairly with all of the owners of the businesses to make sure that the people who attend these venues.note have a good time and go home safely. -- the attendees venues go home safely and have a good time. -- the people who attend these venues have a good time and go on safely.

president newlin: thank you, and congratulations. comments? step up to the microphone. >> i am with a group, and i am very pleased to share about all of the good work to keep us safe at nightclubs and parties. i am offended at the use of the word "rave" to mean any legal party. thank you. president newlin: they keep. all right, good luck to all of you, and especially to you, kitt. in case anyone is not aware, the mayor issued a press release confirm the appointment

of joycelyn kane to the entertainment commission, so congratulations. >> thank you, commissioners, once again. some of the points that i want to talk about have been raised, but let me briefly go through my director's report. in the legislative and policy update, i want to on the registration legislation, and we discussed at the last meeting, which was december 14. it seems like a long time since we were last year. that legislation has now been signed into law. it was signed by the mayor on december 21. we have got the final, final version behind this memo, and i encourage you to take this home with you and read through it and

get familiar with the as we are on to the face of implementation at this point. i have some meetings at least two months ago with personnel and dpyf, and this time, it is probably not fair for me to throw a number out. staff has worked with board president david chiu to make sure that the online registry becomes a reality in the very near future, so legislation itself does not stipulate a date certain, so it gave us enough time to make sure it is on line and is done right the first time. the ordinance amending the planning code regarding the van ness special use district, which

i have mentioned in the past, it was approved by the board of supervisors on january 4 and signed by the mayor on january 7. it is one of the many things he did on his last day of work. so that remains to be seen how much entertainment we will see on van ness in that special use district, but given the fact that neighbor notification is not as onerous time wise as i think as special use authorization is, we could see some applications into time. and lastly, it ordinance that i spoke of last meeting regarding what the department of public works is moving forward, a delay in the changeover of the new board of supervisors, and this is at the committee level waiting for committee assignments.

the new board members were sworn in, and a board president has yet to assign committee members, and was it today? i guess they snuck in the port assignment, so those should be up online, if not now, tomorrow, and we will find out what committees actually exist. we will continue to follow that for you. staff and office update. just briefly wanted to mention that the staff has a retreat on saturday january 8, and almost all of the commissioners were present, and all staff were able to attend. we spent about four hours assessing short-term and long- term goals.

each commissioner took their time for their particular interest in projects for the upcoming year, and it will be for the years after that, including such things as updating commission rules and procedures, being involved in the academy classes that will be moving forward this year with sfpd, pursuing art tends to get permits on line, and something we mentioned previously, a neighbor's summit. we wanted to try something new and create a neighborhood summit, and we are working to strengthen the pre-application process. there were lots of other ideas put forward, and i am really glad that we did that, and we think we will achieve all the things we discussed. i included in your report here

is continued list -- hear this continuance list. here this continuance list. it was started to ratchet up again. the weather is going to get better in the next couple of months. we will see lots and lots more of these. there will be higher numbers, and they will work in the office. leslie, i'm going to go through some of the more recent corrective actions that have taken place and things that have happened after, since we have not been here in almost a month.

at a meeting, the commission ordered a new set of conditions be placed on the entertainment permit, as you might recall, and three days later, on december 17, the permit holder filed an appeal at the board of appeals. that is currently scheduled for february 16. in light of that, they worked with the permit holder and has a voluntary withdrawal of their entertainment permit from operation, which took place between december 23 and january 3, 2007, which took us through the new year's eve holiday. obviously, there were major concerns for public safety, and the conditions for the appeal were set aside kerplunked 32

were set aside, -- conditions for the appeal were set aside. there were safety concerns. the voluntary withdrawal i thought was a victory for us, and since that, staff understands that this was open only for the service of food as it negotiates a possible sale. at the end of this report, and if inspectors -- inspector falzon is still here -- i will leave that there. i think it is really important

that i remind the commission with respect to this club that you might be hearing an appeal, so let me go through this briefly. on december 9, staff issued something to club 181. that suspension would have been effective from december 16 through december 23, 2010. the permittees exercised his right to an appeal, and that was initially scheduled for tonight, january 11. however, the venue has not been opened since the liquor license was taken away, and they have asked for a continuance of the appeal. they did not ask for a date specific, so i do note -- do not know it this time when that will come. also, as noted in inspector granelli's report, after

diligent work by the city attorney and court, suspension was upheld. it is. stating that it has been closed since january 1 for a remodeled at this time. however, those permits still remain valid, so therefore, an appeal may still come before you on that seven-day suspension, although the immediate threat we feel has been put aside for the moment. so that is 181 for you. and lastly, with not enough time to make it on the agenda, i want to address the issues on temple or zen , down.

on january 8 and j.d. re-9, 2 with us 11, there were multiple incidents at several my clubs -- on january 8 and january 9, 2011. there were multiple incidents at several night clubs. we were able to work with sfpd staff to learn about the operation of the permited venue. in short, there were three separate incidents is inside and outside, and one in bulk -- resulted in an unfortunate death. staff met with the owner and others. this was after discussing the incident. the owner, the permit holder agreed to conditions -- i am sorry, additions to their security plan, and there is a director's order today, january 11. the order is attached to your

memo, although i will leave these, because i know there is interest among other parties as to what the conditions are. before i read them, this is an order based on the requirements for, again, the right to appeal. that will become effective on january 26 come 2011. so to that end, there is the permit holder, who will install id scanners and will examine all patrons and dream the club at all times. -- all patrons and during the club's all-time is. -- patrons entering the club at all times. the equipment will be installed within 60 days of the effective date of this order.

the permit holder will discontinue the use of beer bottles to patrons on friday and saturday night. the permit holder will install additional cameras to monitor the inside, outside, and main door of the venue, and the tapes will be maintained by the venue for at least 30 days. they need to cover any possible blind spots inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs, and at all entrances of the venue. there are currently 32 cameras, and the system will be enhanced to 64 cameras. all the equipment shall be in working order at all times. this is 60 days within the effective date of this order. the permit holder will have staff conduct patron pat-dowbns -- pat-downs, and they will have female officers.