winding down, establishments that have permits to go after 2:00, we're seeing an increase, where the numbers are going up. the second thing we want to talk about is you have to remember our staffing levels with the police department. sfpd staffing levels dramatically decrease at 2:00 a.m. it's not as dramatic as cinderella, but at 2:00, we lose 60% of our watch. that's just not the contradictiocit district, but the entire watch. that's because we have to be able to respond to calls in the

afternoons. now, if something occurs, they're already busy because it's not just broad thway that we're talking about. if something occurs, we have to pull officers from all over the city and police our district as we're dealing with situations, which means that those districts don't have the same staffing levels as they're entitled to, so there's only a certain amount of resources, and it goes by priorities. there's a priorities, b priorities, and c priorities. if you're a person out in the ingleside or richmond district, and you're calling for what's a c priority, it's still pretty important to you, so we like to give good service to everybody. so if it's going after 2:00 a.m., our exposure to more calls is going to be heightened. lastly, the third is there has

been some opposition. this is -- this was an e-mail that was prepared for the planning commission. at residents along the broadway corridor, we along with other residents do not see the need for bars to be open past 2:00 a.m. if they are, it just means the number of intoxicated drivers will be increased. the likelihood of greater noise in the night life would be unhealthy for residents. we do not see any reason to extend the hours offer greed for the owners and other people. other groups that have signed on that are opposed, according to this e-mail is the barbary coast neighborhood, golden gate tenants association, chinatown development community district, broadway neighbors, concerned

broadway dwellers, north beach citizens, north each dwellers, telegraph hill, dweller's association, and john yee hall elementary school. the other thing is when we look at the types of crimes, in looking at the reports that are happening in the later hours, we are seeing cases of prostitution on broadway. when we usually see prostitution, it means pumps are involved, and that usually means guns and narcotics. so that's another factor we're concerned about. in order for a crime to be committed, you just need three things: you need a victim, a suspect, and a location. if you take any one of those things away, the crime can't occur. so as far as central station,

central station does not think this should be passed. >> thank you. >> the comment that we just heard from -- in terms of this proposal that they're attempting to mitigation the numbers of people who are leaving club dos in the area a 2:00 a.m. to try to reduce the impacts on the street, what's your take on that as a strategy -- it sounds like they are trying to reduce the number of people that are on the street at one time sort of in response to the issues from the other club that you're mentioning. >> right, and we are, too. it would just be at 2:00, when people are oftentimes going home, this would be another venue that's right there on broadway, and so we would be going right from the night clubs, but now, we have an alternative, and it would be going over to another club that's right on broadway street, so that would be a

concern -- >> so you think people would be going from this club to the one across the street? >> yeah, if it's open, if they still want to continue. you know, they do have -- obviously, there's no alcohol served after 2:00 a.m. we still have -- one of the problems on broadway is people buying alcohol at the liquor stores prior to 2:00 and sneaking it in. it's a little harder to regulate. if somebody orders a coke or something like that, they go in the bathroom and open up a plastic container or booze, and they continue to drink. >> i can certainly see how that would be harder to monitor, given that's not legal, i think the night club security would be on the lookout for that. i'm not sure how strongly you

should weigh something like that of the potential for illegal activity to be happening, compared to thes ability of, you know -- compared to the ability of, you know, the patrons of this establishment. >> i think it's the totality of the situation, looking at our staffing levels, at what the calls for service are. you know, i look at calls for service specifically at penthouse. it's not huge, but there are incidents there, some involving violence, some involving sexual assault. it does exist. it's not hitting this every single weekend. i wouldn't go out of my way and say it's a problem spot, but it's not crime free, either, and there are problem spots we have to tend to. one of the reports in there talked about going around the

area, looking for a prostitute. it was a human trafficking situation where the police were able to separate the pump from the person who was being made to work the area, but they had weapons. so those are part of the concerns that we have, is it is an attraction because you have, you know, a location -- a known location that people know they can go over here and possibly get some people to work the outside area. i don't think they're going to be able to get inside and start doing prostitution, but the parking lots in the area -- >> so what was the connection between this trafficking episode and this club or are you just saying it was happening in the same neighborhood? >> in the same neighborhood, but in the report, they said they had gone by the different adult entertainment places, basically looking for clients, and so -- and then, there was another report that the person was on the backside,

broadway -- you have broadway and kearny, the backside of kearny is columbus, and there was another gun call there, and that was involving prostitution, as well. so it's something we have to look at. and then, also -- you know, any time you have the prostitution and the human trafficking, when the pimps get involved, that's the drugs and human trafficking. if this was past 2:00, that would be past when the police go home and extend the time of the calls for service. >> got it. but aside from the prostitution you were describing, people were going by the entertainment venues, but there's no responsibility from penthouse or any of the adult entertainment venues for this

activity. just trying to understand why you're -- >> i only found one report that specifically tied penthouse to -- it was a theft by prostitution, and that was on a date that was established inside that went outside, but the people knew each other from a prior engagement in las vegas. they said that they worked there at penthouse, and that he was the victim of a theft of about $800, but that was off at his room, but the arrangements were made there, so there were some correlations. do i think it's going to be a house of prostitution? absolutely not, but i think it's going to attract potentially, from what we've seen in the reports, you know, that is an element out there. and if people are going home, then they're home, but if they have a legitimate reason to be in the area or the parking lots, based on the club still being open, it's going to be more exposure for the police department. >> all right. thank you.

>> officer matthias, can i see the letter of the protest, if you don't mind, and then, i'll come back afterwards. >> can i ask staff, did we receive any letters of opposition or support? okay. >> no. no, commissioners, there was no letters of opposition. >> thank you. >> while we're waiting, i did have a couple questions, unless somebody else -- so -- so you talked a lot about, like, the greater issues that you face on that street, which we're fairly aware of on this commission. are there any specific issues that you've had with this specific club over the years or is this just -- >> as i said, there have been incidents. it's not -- i don't think you could find a club anywhere in san francisco where some things don't -- you know, that things don't happen at. and this goes back, when i did a search for the

establishment -- about 14 -- but that goes back over the course of some years. but there have been anything from assaults -- and some of those have involved the bouncers, the staff, and people claiming they were beat up, and that sort of thing, to fights, you know, with patrons, as well. >> okay. and then, i just had another general question. and i do have an incredible amount of respect for central station and the sfpd and how difficult your job is. i'm just curious about the staffing levels line of investigation here. it just seems to the layperson like myself that specifically on broadway, there's a lot of issues that happen after 2:00 a.m., between 2:00 and

3:00. in the central station, does it dramatically decrease before 2:00? >> at 2:00, the shift ends. a lot of time, they'll hold people over, but that would require authorization and overtime. if something 's brewing or there's fights going on, then, the swing watch does get held over, but that comes at a price. that results in overtime, and the department's trying to minimize the overtime. >> just given the challenge that you have, would there be any specific changes to their security plan that would make your job more difficult or their job easier or specifically that you thought of it z. >> you know, i was thinking about that. things that are in the good neighbor policy, that would take care of the noise. if there's crowding issues on the sidewalk, that would be

addressed. the -- i was even thinking leads training, but there's no alcohol served after 2:00 a.m., so that's not really an issue, either. i don't think that the -- that the security would be going over and watching the parking lots 'cause that's going to be a new issue, is the parking lot, so that would usually be closing after 2:00, and people would be leaving, would be open more hours. now, is that penthouse's problem? no, that's another lot, and we're going to have to be dealing with that. i don't think i could say as part of a condition, i want penthouse to go over there and provide security for a lot. that's not reasonable, but -- so in this brainstorming, you know, i think keep the sidewalks out in front -- but i don't think there's going to be a whole bunch of traffic out in

front. >> okay. >> officer matthias, good evening. i think it goes without saying that i'm a huge fan of yours. some of comments that i make are not directed at you at all. here's what i'm struggling with. looking at this letter of objection that apparently is supported by some extremely credible neighborhood groups, it doesn't speak specifically to the applicant at all. it speaks very generally to the broadway corridor. unfortunately tonight we're not talking about an after-hours permit for the broadway corridor, we're talking about one specific premises. i'm saying that because in the future, if you speak to them, they be critical to the premises that they're talking about. i think it's unfair to take an over arching statement such as this -- >> is that e-mail was written

in preparation for the planning commission in preparation for the conditional use, and so that's when it was authored. >> okay. fair enough. let me ask you a couple other questions. so specifically to penthouse club, how would you describe, some anecdotally, how would you describe them as a operator? >> somewhat good. i'm not going to standup here and say they're anything but what they are. we don't get a whole lot of calls for service. we do get some. a number of them -- some of them are confidential based on the victim, if it's a sexual assault or sexual battery or that sort of thing, but we still have -- we get a fair amount of calls for service, but not an overly amount. >> okay. just because one of the earlier

comments you were making to my one of my -- making to one of my fellow commissioners, clearly, you're not at a point where you would want to file with the a.b.c. >> no. if there were an issue, i'd be working with -- >> towards that, in that direction. >> exactly. >> got it. >> to take care of the issues. >> okay. so then, my only other question -- and i applaud your effort. so the nexus we're trying to make it we're looking at another club who is operating after hours, and we're using that possibility of service as to how this person might operate. >> yes. and the only reason why that was brought up is those were specific issues that the planning commission wanted, so this was kind of stat driven by the list of the things that they wanted. their big thing was how much is

an after-hours night club going to affect the neighborhood? they wanted to see as similar as possible getting the stats from over here because it is in the general area, and they do have an after-hours permit. >> okay. the other thing the commission did point out that i'm having a hard time finding anything specific out is -- i don't want to use their words, but a relatively robust security program. if you don't know about that, i can certainly take it up with the applicant. that was something they highlighted as their reason for approving it. >> the security plan, it's in line with the -- you know, the things that are needed for the nightclubs and safety. i don't see -- often times, you're not going to have so much a boilerplate -- now, if we had ongoing fights, we would be looking at increasing security or trying to make sure everyone is leads trained,

trying to find out what the nexus is for that specific problem. >> sure. okay. thank you. >> i have a couple questions. hello, officer matthias. >> hello. >> i think it's -- well, actually, one thing that i think we've tried to do on this commission is to stagger closing hours or service hours, entertainment hours even just by 1:30 to 1:45 to 2:00 a.m. in general, do you think staggering does help with crowd mitigation and getting sidewalks thinner than kind of a mass all at 2:00 a.m.? >> staggering sounds -- it's a great idea, but when you think about staggering, is it at a time where we're losing 60% of our staffing levels? and that's what really -- we have to answer the calls, and i can tell you that when people call 911, they want a nice, fast, reasonable response.

and obviously, there's different priorities, but everyone's call is important. and that's what we're looking at. there's a call for service here that's delaying service at another location. that's something that we as a police department have to -- >> sure. i ask the question because i think theetcally speaking, we're looking at an area where we will -- theoretically speaking, we're looking at an area where we'll have alcohol service. commissioners on this commission have supported that, so we're not talking about alcohol service right now, but we are talking entertainment going to 4:00 a.m. i think in the service of trying to manage this industry, talking about staggered closing is important.

we have a hearing that'll happen very shortly where we do limit of amount of after hours it can have, the amount of 6:00 a.m.'s it can have. i understand there's kind of labor issues and those things that need to be sorted out once laws may change, but to single out this one particular applicant and say that they'll exacerbate a problem i think is tricky. because i'd like to see them be a good operator and do it well and to actually show that extended hours can work really well and be managed well. so my other question is i know you just mentioned that the planning commission asked for an example of another extended hours venue on broadway. would you say that all the night time businesses on

broadway are managed the same way and behave the same way? >> no, there's differences among the different calls, we have more service calls and issues in front at some places, and that can be based on what the security plan is. most of the adult entertainments are not under the preview of the entertainment commission, so they don't have the same rules that, you know, the good neighbor policy or specific conditions that you would have for a licensed establishment that does fall under this commission. >> do you see the adult entertainment establishments getting proportionately more calls for service or managing in a disruptive way? >> for as long as i've been there, broadway, you have the night clubs, you have the adult entertainment clubs, and you have the liquor stores, and it's all right there on broadway.

there's no way -- you can't say oh, the problem with broadway is this or this or this. it's a combination of a lot of different challenges that we have. you know, a lot of times, you'll have a problem of broadway. well, that's because somebody went over to a liquor store and bought alcohol and is drinking it on the street. it has nothing to do with the night club, per se. you can't just point a finger at broadway and say, it's the liquor stores, it's the club, it's this. it's just the combination of them being there altogether and the challenges. >> okay. that's all my comments around that. thank you. >> anymore questions for officer matthias? thank you very much for your presentation. yeah, so we'd love to bring mr. paul back up and --

>> thank you, president bleiman. >> okay. so after 2:00, is your kitchen open? >> yes. >> and you'll be serving food until 4:00? >> we hope so. >> they can get a steak at 2:30 in the morning? >> i don't know if steak is going to be on the menu at 2:30. >> and is is there a cover charge there, too? >> yes. >> so if i'm ordering a steak there, i will have a cover charge? >> i'm not comfortable answering that. if you're coming in and spending money on dinner, they are going to be covering your admission. >> so you are coming in, you are providing a service after 2:00. the entertainment is the background, whatever. but the idea after 2:00, you will be servicing people with coffee or soft drinks or something that they don't have to rush and takeoff and be in

the midst of broadway. >> i think a lot of burgers and french fries are going to get slung at those hours. >> you know, my experience of having a club before and trying to get after hours and extended hours, i am a true believer of staggering times, especially this change of shift of the police have been going on for years. i mean, that never changes. and my opinion, and my experience is that i think staggering helps. but also sobering up the patron or the -- and if anybody wants to have food at your establishment, i'm all for it. so, you know -- and i'm sure your security are all well trained to -- you know, they're already intoxicated, that they will not be allowed in the premise. >> if i may, sir, that is really a central focus of the way the club operates, is what

happens at that front door, and what happens the entire sidewalk in front of our club. first of all, there is no loitering allowed. people do not hangout in front of the club. and if there's -- we're gearing up for the possibility that people might come in from other clubs. we have a very strict dress code and behavior models that we enforce, and there will be no drunk people allowed past that door. the security program is quite robust, and the planning commission had a lot of input from both our staff and from the community about that. if i may just digress a little bit about the letter from the neighborhood, we had several meetings, one hosted by the planning department -- actually, two hosted by the planning department that these neighborhood groups attended.

and none of them were able to ascribe particular issues or problems to the operations of this club, and this club has been willing to work with these groups of neighbors to mitigate and ameliorate the problems created by the activity of the district as a whole, and we're to continue working with those groups because our interests ally. it's going to be good for everybody if we do this. >> and the planning department's given you one year, basically, for a review, right? >> so -- >> and you don't have a problem with that. you feel confident enough -- >> i actually encouraged them to go for less because we feel that if it's not going to be working, we're going to know about it pretty quickly. if there are any problems that we haven't predicted and haven't modelled out in a response to, then, we're going

to quit doing it rather quickly. we don't want to continue doing it unless there's a positive for us and for the community. yes, we're very comfortable in a one-year turnaround for evaluation, and we think the motion of the planning commission to take it up as an actual conditional use hearing where they could rescind the see you at that time was very wise. i think it was well done. >> okay. thank you. >> i have a couple questions. hello, mr. paul. i may have missed this, but can you explain extended hours now and what the motivation behind it is? just kind of curious. >> if i could --ti it's actual something we've been working on with the planning department for the last two years. it's just that it's come up at this time. it wasn't tended to coincide

with any other actions going on in sacramento or city hall. we had initially made an application covering two locations owned by the same operator and through working with one of the neighborhood groups, it was agreed that it was not appropriate at the other location, and we withdrew that application and chose to proceed with this application alone. >> okay. thanks for that background. i do want to highlight and commend you for saying that quite simply, if problems arise that can't be resolve quickly, we'll return to 2:00 a.m. closing time. it's obviously printed on this pamphlet that you gave us, and i'm sure that you reepresented it to community groups. what is the trigger to close this at 2:00 and not keep it going until 4:00. >> it's something because

following the planning commission action, we've had another meeting hosted by the planning department with all the neighborhood groups to discuss that exact question, trying to define matrix by which to judge our success. and i think the best we've been able to do is to say, very much like the supreme court said about pornography, we're going to know it when we see it. there aren't any specific metrics that we can define. we believe firmly, we trust central station. i have a lot of confidence that they will enforce the law, and they will inform us if we're becoming a nuisance. they'll inform the planning department if we are becoming a nuisance. i appreciate officer matthias, the way he's addressed this. we're part of a larger picture up there, and we want to keep

it right. >> that leads me to my final question. any time we see a business owner on broadway, it's a nexus of a lot of different issues. [please stand by]

planning department was initially that we are three nights a week and holidays. >> okay. >> and then we will move to seven nights a week as it becomes workable for us. >> so maybe to simplify where i'm heading, it could be as simple as any night you plan on

exercising beyond 2:00 a.m., you'd be able to notify the commission and what i'm trying to get at, would you call dpar this a month out of when you're going to operate? >> no, that is never our intention. >> okay, perfect, thank you so much. >> i do have one more question, sorry, mr. paul. so the after-hours permits that we give are -- they are for a privileged few in san francisco, obviously, and the issue that is we run into, that we have run into in the past, are when we do grant an after-hours permit and the person we granted it to maybe doesn't take this commission as seriously as they should, or issues arise and they are difficult to solve, et cetera, and it's really hard for us to dial it back after that. so in a minute or less, however long you can speak, but can you just explain why your client or

why b.c.s. management is the kind of group that can be a good steward of this kind of permit and why we should? >> this applicant has a real commitment, both to this district and to nightlife in san francisco. i think that this operator has a broad view of their important place in the community, and in the economy overall. i mean, a great portion of our clientele are san francisco residents coming from area restaurants, and also conventioneers and out of town visitors, and there are a lot of balances that go on in making that work, and i think this particular operator has paid close attention to how to be a good neighbor and be a good operator. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> all right. so before we get into motions, i think we should do public comment here.

is there any public comment on this specific agenda item? all right, seeing none, public comment is closed. and director weiland, you can help me with this, hopefully, but if we're going to adopt a motion here, we do have to -- part of the motion has to be to adopt the planning commission motion number 20330 for land use reasons, is that correct? >> yes. you should refer to that memo director azevedo put together that has a staff recommendation. >> president bleiman: yeah. initial discussion as we're looking at that on this topic? >> i have some. what i'd like to get on everyone's radar, i would like to propose if this is going to be reviewed tonight we look at the conditions briefly, i have some suggestions and we're also going to have to strike some existing conditions, because

they no longer apply. >> president bleiman: these are found in our folder, but they are for the previous name of the business, is that correct? >> they are under the current place of entertainment permit. >> president bleiman: got it. >> what i'm referring to, operation should cease at 0200. >> you can't actually strike conditions from the place of entertainment permit this evening, because that's not agendized. you don't have the power to do that at this time. i was just saying that you could reference the current p.o.e. conditions and adopt whatever still makes sense for this e.h.p. this was adopted in 2002, solely by the police department, because we didn't exist then. so some of these don't even make sense anymore, or are already included as boilerplate conditions, due to the good neighbor policy and just

referencing current police code. >> got it, retroactively are operating under our good neighbor policy. >> totally. >> if i could get some clarification. if we act tonight and, for example, their place of entertainment permit says operation shall cease at 2:00 a.m. and we issue a permit that says they can go to 4:00 a.m., how will that be enforced? >> i believe by having an extended hours permit, that condition becomes null and void at that point. that's a very odd condition. i can refer to the city's attorney's office on that, but since we have it agendized looking at their place of entertainment permit, we can't make changes to that. >> what i'm trying to head is for all law enforcement, both on the commission and on the police side, whatever we move forward on, make it enforceable and reasonable on both sides, especially for the operator. >> president bleiman: yeah, we can ask director weiland to look into that.

>> commissioner falzon: perfect. >> president bleiman: other thoughts? >> commissioner thomas: obviously, this section of broadway has been on our radar for quite some time, predating my joining the entertainment commission, and i think it's worth thinking wholistically about the whole area, but i'm also reluctant for us to be holding one operator sort of to standards based on other operators, you know, not being necessarily the best actors in the neighborhood. and i think, you know, having more good actors is probably one of our best strategies to change the way that, that area is perceived and the general safety for consumers of entertainment, as well as the staff who are

working in those places. so, you know, my inclination is to follow our colleagues on the planning commission and move forward in parallel with them. and so, you know, if we're ready for a motion, i'll move forward with that. >> president bleiman: yeah, absolutely. >> commissioner thomas: that we adopt the planning commission motion 20330 and that we approve their request for an extended hours permit with the full good neighbor policy attached and with the understanding the planning commission will be reviewing this in a year and we should also follow if the planning commission makes another decision that we then review our decision, as well. >> i'll second that.

>> i just need a question to etiquette. what if i have another motion, how do we act on that? >> then we amend it. >> i believe a friendly amendment to commissioner thomas' motion, or you can do a vote on her motion, and if it doesn't pass, you can propose a new one. >> commissioner falzon: so if it's appropriate now, i would like to propose a friendly amendment. if everyone wants to take a peek at the existing place of entertainment permit, i do think, considering -- because i absolutely agree with my colleague, that i think asking officer matthias himself, this is a responsible operator, but i do think this is an opportunity, they have existing conditions that have worked well for them. they've clearly never been brought before us in the past. i would like to see them remained and added to the after-hours permit, and i can either read them or i can go by number, if people are

interested. real quick -- >> are you talking about the one that's labeled police department permit and then the second page is permit conditions? >> commissioner falzon: correct, the back side. yes, and i don't want to use the incorrect term. i'm actually proposing we leave all of them and then ignore, so i get the nomenclature correct, number four is way too ambiguous, but i think the other conditions have served the community well, and i think it's in the best interest of all parties to leave them, and i would also like to add two more. one that states that a calendar is provided both to the commission and to the police department one month in advance of any scheduled after-hours operation, so we're all prepared for it. and then similar to my colleague, i was going to propose a condition that we, too, moving forward have an annual review of performance

before the commission. and i think that would be a great tool, as we're moving on these after hours to hopefully applaud them when they come here annually, but i think it would be just a great checkup. anyway, those are my friendly amendments. hopefully, they meet with everyone's approval. >> can i make one staff suggestion before i respond? number five, i don't believe, needs to be there, just because we -- that's a part of our boilerplate, is referencing article 15.1, 15.2, article 29 and 49 on every permit. >> commissioner falzon: my only counter to that is, this is a little bit more specific, but i would defer to my fellow colleagues. i don't believe those laws you just referenced, those statutes, speak to doors and windows being closed. >> but the good neighbor policy does. >> commissioner falzon: then i would concur, then, let's strike it. we're not striking. we aren't recommending it. so i would take number five off

my recommendation list. >> got it. so you are proposing an amendment to my motion to add the number of existing permit conditions to the extended hours permit, specifically numbers 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and add a request that the operator provide the calendar one month in advance and that we do a review in a year. >> commissioner falzon: yeah. i would love to see that moving forward, just annually, kind of work that in as they come forward. i think it would be a great thing annually to have them come in. like i said, hopefully it will be a celebration and not a critical attack. >> yeah. i'd like us to review that in a year, too. i don't want to load staff down with reviews of good actors, necessarily, but i appreciate -- >> commissioner falzon: point taken. >> -- agree with you, that we

should have them come back in a year, for sure. >> i have a question anyway. if planning cancels their zoning anyway, then the entertainment goes out. yeah. >> wouldn't be open after 2:00 if planning takes away -- >> discretionary review. >> i'm very optimistic this will be a positive experience. >> i accept your amendments. >> commissioner falzon: thank you. >> president bleiman: that is seconded. >> i just wanted clairification regarding the previous p.o.e. and numbers you listed, commissioner thomas. you excluded number 10. >> commissioner thomas: didn't mean to. 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. >> thank you. [ roll call ]

>> president bleiman: your extended-hour permit has been granted. congratulations. please follow up with the deputy director at your earliest convenience. thank you. all right, moving along, one more item on tonight's permit calendar. >> our final permit application for this evening is a change in ownership place of entertainment permit application for vertigo, located at 1160 polk street. vertigo has been a part of the low lower nob hill many years and the owners intend to have deejays and live bands perform. the applicant has been operating under a temporary p.o.e. permit, which allowed entertainment until 1:30 a.m.

the new applicant would like entertainment until 2:00 a.m. daily. in your file you'll see the e-notification they sent out to their neighboring businesses, neighbors, and community groups, along with signatures they collected from supportive patrons. northern station approves this permit with no added conditions, and here to tell you more is owner angela voloshyna. >> good evening, commissioners. i'm representing anzhelika voloshyna for vertigo. as indicated on your agenda, vertigo is under new ownership, and i might add, responsible ownership, and i can say that with great qualification, because i, my wife, and daughter, small daughter, live directly across from vertigo, and we're relieved that we don't have to deal with anymore noise, crowd control issues, et cetera. it's been very quiet. i actually asked the new owner when she was going to open. she said she's been open for

quite some time, so that indicates it's been very quiet and respectful to the community. vertigo has gone through a revival under the new ownership. she took about a month to get the place cleaned up. it had fallen into disrepair. there was actually shrubbery growing over a window that didn't exist. they had removed the window, the previous owners. always wondered why we could hear noise coming so clearly from the establishment, and that was the reason. she removed the shrubbery and added double-insulated, noise-proof windows. i want to also add that ms. voloshyna is the vice president of the lower polk business collaborative. she's very engaged in the community and facilitates an in-house outreach meetings put on by different city departments, as well. she's also -- she holds an entertainment permit at topsies, with no incident on record for five years.

she's planning to install high-resolution cameras. they are on order, and they are going to be installed very shortly. she has great management staff. i know them very personally. they work in the neighborhood, as well, extremely qualified. and ms. voloshyna is here to answer any questions that you might have. >> hello, everybody. any questions? we actually already installed the cameras. >> president bleiman: so tell me, i mean vertigo has been there so long, i remember -- so tell me the difference between your style and the previous owner. >> so my style, i want to bring a different crowd. not only a young crowd that comes to polk street on fridays and saturdays. i want to have an older crowd also that can enjoy live jazz. we have live music at topsies,

and it's doing really well, so i would love to bring soft live jazz music for happy hour. no one is actually doing that on polk street, and we also want to have craft cocktails, so we want to be open for different kind of clients. not only for young crowds on friday and saturday. >> president bleiman: and you've run your own sound system there? >> yes. we updated the sound system. we installed sound-proof windows, because one window didn't exist, another window was broken. we have in-house security that have been trained. we have training. and for any kind of entertainment, we will have security. depends on entertainment that we have. with the deejay, more security. with live music, little bit

less. >> president bleiman: okay. thank you. any other questions? >> commissioner falzon: just real quick. looking at your application, your security plan is pretty vague. do you want to just very quickly speak to it, what your game plan is? >> sure. as i said, it depends on entertainment. if it's live music, let's say during happy hour, it's going to be very low-key live music. nothing very loud. so we'll have just one, maybe two guards. if it's a friday and saturday, a deejay event, we'll have three to four securities. we have two exits, two entrances and exits, so we'll have securities there, and we'll have security inside of the venue, making sure, like, everything is safe. >> commissioner falzon: okay. just very quickly, just so you're aware, looking at your

application, it appears you're going to hire your own security. just so you know, legally to do that, you have to be licensed as a security provider, not a difficult thing to do. you might want to follow up on how to do that. because technically, if you're going to hire security on your own, you have to be licensed to do that. >> okay. >> commissioner falzon: and that's done through the state. >> sounds good, thank you. >> commissioner falzon: when you mentioned your daughter, she's not going into the place, correct? i met your daughter, i know. just wanted to make sure. thank you. >> just walking by. >> commissioner falzon: perfect. >> president bleiman: i did have a couple questions. in all your years of working, especially as a server, did you ever have a favorite general manager? >> of course. >> president bleiman: who was that? >> you. >> president bleiman: strike that from the record, please. no, you have a history of

responsible operating. i think our careers in owning establishments started almost at the same time after we left harry's, so thank you so much. i have no further questions. you can sit down. >> okay, thanks. >> president bleiman: is there any public comment on this specific agenda item? seeing none, public comment is closed. discussion? >> i motion to approve the permit with the good neighborhood policy, and i'm sure commissioner falzon might have some extra things. >> commissioner falzon: i wanted one easy, friendly amendment now that i know the vernacular. looking at the existing conditions, most aren't relevant today, but one i thought would be valuable, notice placed on the entrance of the establishment urging patrons to leave the establishment and the neighborhood in a quiet, peaceful, and orderly fashion. i think that would be helpful,

just because we know the density of that area. >> president bleiman: okay. >> if we pass the new version of the good neighbor policy tonight, that will also be null and void, but yes. >> commissioner falzon: can't get it both ways. you wouldn't let me strike earlier. >> commissioner tan: i agree. >> president bleiman: we have a motion, just to be clear, this is their license to go all the way to 2:00 a.m., no? >> that's correct. >> president bleiman: and it's adopting the good neighbor policy. >> and sign postage. >> commissioner thomas: i'll second. [ roll call ] >> president bleiman: your permit has been granted. congratulations. please follow up with deputy director at your earliest convenience. thank you very much. before we move on to the next item, i just want to call a

five-minute recess, but let's really do it in five minutes. i have a feeling the next one will take us a while. just five minutes, so 7:00, we're going to start this up at exactly 7:00. thank you. [ meeting in recess ]