stewardship realm. >> a lasting legacy is creating a modern process to help new employees that come here understand how we do business. we couldn't have done it without her. >> i am a utility specialist on the power supply team and the power enterprise. . er enterprise. >> president bleiman: any name -- my name is ben bleiman, and i am the president of the entertainment commission. we do ask that everyone turns off their cell phones or puts them on silent, and that includes staff and

commissioners, and he wiwe wil start with a roll call. [roll call] >> president bleiman: fantastic. the first order of business is public comment. these are comments on items that are not on our regular agenda tonight. does anybody have comments on any items that are not on the regular agenda? seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> president bleiman: the next agenda item is number 2, approval of our meeting minutes from february 4, 2020, and i will ask if we have a motion to approve the minutes of february 4, 2020. >> i move to approve. >> second. >> president bleiman: is there any public comment on our february 4, 2020 minutes? seeing none, public comment is closed. [roll call]

>> president bleiman: the next item is a report from our director. >> thank you, president bleiman. commissioners, it feels a little silly because we did have three commissioners in attendance at this event, but just to let you know and everyone out there watching, we are continuing to push forward on this initiative on the commission of entertainment where we take the board of supervisors out to situations where we have permits on our board that we entertain. it's relate to the district and limited to live performance

spaces that we permit. we had a great time in district 2. we're trying to go to each district in the corresponding months, and so district 2, in february, we went out with supervisor stefani and took her to four different places that we permit, including westwood, which has the only mechanical bull in san francisco, so that was pretty exciting. i may have ridden it. there isn't going to be anything on social media with that, but it was a good time. and then, we also went to jackson, white rabbit, and then we all went up the street where there was a live jazz trio performing that night. we enjoyed great food, conversation, and wine, and we're looking forward to doing this in all of the districts

that we haven't gone to yet. next will be in district 4 in april with supervisor mar. i'm personally looking forward to that because that's my district. we'll have some fun in the outer sunset, and we'll continue this process. and anybody on the commission who's interested in attending, obviously, just let me and dylan know of your district, whatever district that may be. just to let you all know, we will have heartier agendas based in the next couple of commission meetings based on requests of commissioner thomas and others to have informative agenda items so we'll have more of those coming up on march 3. do you have any questions? all right. >> president bleiman: all right. thank you very much for that report. is there any public comment on the executive director's report? seeing none, public comment is

closed. [gavel]. >> president bleiman: the next agenda item is number 4, which is a report from deputy director azevedo. >> thank you, president bleiman, and good evening, commissioners. we have a fairly short enforcement report this evening. on page 1, you'll see that nutrition is highlighted there. this is the locate at 4370 mission street. at our last meeting, it was kind of up in the air about what location was hosting the entertainment. we did send inspectors back out and determine that it is in fact the nutrition shop, the herb herbalife center. our inspector fiorentino went in and let them know that they were required to have a permit,

and i did contact the event managers of evening and let them know that a permit was required, and the city attorney did contact them and let them know that they had received a complaint. the next is the independent, and every time our inspectors respond, they are being found in compliance. so we went again this past friday and saturday, took measurements, and they are, again, within their sound limit, so just bringing that to your attention. on page 3, arena s.f., i'm highlighting this because director weiland issued a citation for exceeding their sound limit last week. we received a 311 complaint. our inspector found them operating well above their sound limit, both their a and c weighting, so we did issue a

sound citation for that, and we did not receive a complaint about them this weekend. right below there is el trebol, and the reason i've highlighted there is because although they did repair their broken door, they've been leaving it propped open and while the jukebox is playing. so we went out there two weeks ago. inspector fiorentino asked them to close the door, and they did, and when he was driving by to go to another venue, he noticed the door open, so he issued a notice of violation. that's all i have. happy to answer any questions. >> president bleiman: i did have a question here. i see that there seems to be a number of 311 complaints about the independent that came

through. first question is, are those -- in your -- to the best of your knowledge, are these from the same complainant? >> yes. >> president bleiman: and the -- i don't want to care about exactly how many times, but it looks like we responded multiple times in the last two weeks, and did we find them out of compliance any of the visits that we went? >> no, not once. >> president bleiman: okay, well, that's good to hear that they are operating within compliance. all right. thank you very much for that report. is there any public comment on the deputy director's report? seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> president bleiman: next agenda item is number 6 -- am i correct on that? sorry. number 5 -- are we doing -- sorry. my thing may be a little messed up here. number 5 is the report from

senior analyst. number 5, which is a report from senior analyst dylan rice. >> good evening, commissioners. report from senior analyst dylan rice. real quick, efforts to update our permitting applications. our sound track is now fully digital on the platform. for those of you in the audience that don't know what a sound track is, we issue it on moving vehicles and other types of compliance. it's one of our suites that we do for indoor entertainment and outdoor entertainment. it's now live on our website. it went live on february 3, and it's accompanied by the one-time indoor, and the one-time outdoor permits on screen door. and crystal helped me launched it. thank you so much for that, and we've issued two permits, one

for the chinese new year parade, and one for a tibetan event, tibetan uprising day. and then, in an event to support builders with education and building networks, we had our last compliant, so

we invited some producers and vendors to speak on a panel. so we had several people, a collective of people who promote self-sufficiency and zero waste, and people really got into it. you could also get a certificate of doing the training from environmental department. in terms of turnout, i mentioned we had 60 people,

just a sample of people that came from different organizations, sunday streets, undiscovered night market, st. patrick's day, comfort and joy. and what's exciting, too, is we had several brick and mortar venue. environmental department was really pleased with the collaboration. they said that this event had exposed their work and their mission to a broader audience of entertainment people than previously. so they were really, really pleased. they want to continue collaborating with us. we did survey the group, and some of the highlights from those survey results, we had

70% response rate. majority of people said they heard about us from facebook or e-mail blast. 76% said this was their first time attending the event. 86% said that they learned something new they could apply to their business, and they said that they would likely recommend the event to another person in the industry, so that was a really nice response. talking to director weiland before the hearing, and she wanted to give a bigger picture in terms of increasing audience.

we currently have 21 -- 2,171 subscribers for mailchimp, and we really want to increase that. i think that mailchimp and the facebook hosts are our most popular and most used platforms right now for getting the word out, so we hope to continue that. that is all i have. if you have any questions, let me know. >> president bleiman: i do. any discussion on the water bottle? now are street fairs considered water bottle banned because it's on the street or is it only on city property? >> so yeah, any city property, so that would include a street or sidewalk as well as a city building, you are not allowed to distribute any plastic water

bottle, not even to volunteers or to staff with the exception of athletic events. >> president bleiman: so did anybody at the meetidid -- >> so did anyone think of ways that they could do that? >> they could actually promote bring your own cup to the audiences, and they do their due diligence for compliance, they would fulfill that law. there's different ways you can use it to your advantage.

>> wthey do that for the beer, but there's always supposed to be water available. >> yeah. there's always supposed to be water available. they can do it through a vendor or utilize it through sfpuc's potable water fire hydrants. if they can make a case that it's very cost prohibitive for them to bring in the water for various reasons, they can have the department bring in the water. >> so there's stores along the sidewalk, and the grocery stores sell plastic bottles, and they're walking around with plastic bottles at the street fair. >> that's legal because the

point of sale is happening outside the venue. >> so as long as the vendors isn't involved in selling or distributing bottle waters? >> yeah. it's the plastic bottle that's the problem. >> i see. thank you. >> sure. >> when's the next one? >> we don't know yet. keep you posted. >> we're up for suggestions always. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> president bleiman: before i do public comment, i just wanted to say thank you for your work on thursday night. you did a stellar job organizing that bar crawl. i like to see it as you stressed out so we don't have to. is there any public comment on senior analyst's report? seeing none, public comment is closed.

[gavel]. >> president bleiman: the next agenda item is our regular agenda under item number 6, hearing and possible action regarding the applications for permits under the jurisdiction of the entertainment commissioner. and before i ask deputy director azevedo, i just wanted to poll the crowd. can you raise your hand if you're in support of the agenda item, the rite spot. okay. does anybody here have concerns for the agenda item? okay. nobody appears to be in opposition of the item. you can speak to the item. it's your right, but you can also judge who your leaders are, and we can judge by the out pouring of the crowd. this is your first amendment right, and we encourage you to do so, but also, you don't have

to if you don't feel like it. so now, i'd like to introduce or have deputy director azevedo introduce the applications for the evening. >> before i introduce the application, i'm going to pass around a stack of about 120 letters. >> they did also receive that in advance. >> absolutely, yes. these were all submitted in advance, including up until today, so that's reflective of everything that we received. okay. the only permit on the regular agenda is for place of entertainment permit at the rite spot, located at 2099 folsom street. the rite spot has been providing venues for 30 years, and want to apply for a permit. there was an outpouring of support for this venue.

included are three tenants living above this spot. additionally, the applicants distributed the letter included in your file to six of their neighbors businesses. there was no -- neighboring businesses. there was no opposition for this permit, and mission station approved this with no additional conditions. they completed all their inspections, and this is the last thing they need. here to tell you more is manager, christina. >> okay. hi. hi. >> president bleiman: hello. so just state your name and tell us about the project. >> my name is christina hu. i manage the rite spot cafe, and yeah, we're looking to get

our place of entertainment permit so we can continue serving the community and having live entertainment. >> president bleiman: can you just tell us a little bit about what type of entertainment you're going to be having there? >> yeah. we host pretty intimate shows of music with, i'd say genres like blues, americana, folk, jazz, blues, r&b. we do tributes once a month. we have comedy, opera every third sunday, so it's pretty diverse, the type of entertainment we have, but definitely focused on an intimate space, and so we are a really small bar, yeah.

what else should i say? sorry. >> president bleiman: oh, yeah, and can you tell us the length of time that you have been operating and doing events. >> okay. yeah. so the music usually goes -- >> president bleiman: for how many years, and then also, we'd like to know -- >> okay. so my family has owned the bar since 1990, and they've had music since then, but before they purchased the bar, to my knowledge, they had been operating with music for maybe 15 years prior to that, so i think the mid70s or -- i'm just kind of basing this off of stories that people tell me, that they've come to the rite spot and had music there. so i think that since the mid70s or something. it seems really popular in the 80s, as well, and then, we came to own it in the 90s, so yeah, we've had music for, yeah, pretty much that whole time without the permit. and we just didn't know that we

needed one, to be honest, yeah. >> we also never received complaints. >> president bleiman: got it. questions? >> hello. thanks for coming in. >> thank you. >> first of all, thank you for bringing such a great number of neighbors to this event. it's a testament to the community support for your venue. i have a couple of questions. next one, do you have any -- it looks like we have some letters from residents directly above you? >> yeah. >> do you have any special soundproofing that keeps the sound contained in your venue? >> i don't believe we have sound proofing because the building is really old. the building itself is i think probably almost 100 years old, so i don't believe that there is. >> okay. [inaudible] >> your neighbors upstairs were in support of you. >> yeah. they're all fine with it.

most of them have lived there between five to -- longer. five to -- i think one of them's lived there for over ten years, so yeah, they've never complained, and they've been happy to live above the bar, and acknowledge the sound, and they're okay with it. >> and so have you had any complaints from any neighbors about sound? >> yeah -- no, we've never had any complaints. we share the block with mostly comcast and then businesses, so the area isn't very residential at all. >> okay. that's great. so let's just say in the future if somebody has a complaint about the loud noise or music, what is your policy or procedure to address those in real-time? >> definitely, kind of turn it

down a bit, and maybe have our windows and doors closed. >> you have a manager on staff who can pick up the phone when somebody calls or stops by, and they have the ability -- >> yeah. we have a p.a. system, and we can control that ourselves. >> okay. >> and the musicians, they're pretty good, if it's loud for us in the bar, we ask them to turn it down, and they do so. >> a lot of people find your bar such a benefit, and they're here to support you. so what can you tell us is the secret to your success?

>> so being a benefit to the community and giving a space for them to feel safe to express themselves. >> awesome. thank you so much for coming. congratulations. >> thank you. >> real quick on the industry side. how long have you been managing? you took over from your parents? >> i help manage. they still own the place. i've been doing this since probably late 2016. >> so four years. >> yeah, i guess almost -- >> yeah. are you there almost every night? >> actually, i bar tend -- i am actually the bartender behind the bar two nights, depending -- mostly two nights a week, yeah. i come in when needed, but the bar is pretty small, so we usually have the man -- the bartender working that night. they have the -- you know, the

ability to make decisions. >> so they're the on-staff manager, the bartender is the -- >> yeah. >> -- on-staff manager? >> yeah, i would say so. >> okay. and the groups you've had have been often rotating for the past 25 years or whatever? >> yeah. i think our longest residency is over 25 years. >> do you ever rent out your venue to a buyout situation? >> we do parties, mostly office parties. sometimes weddings. >> and no complaints? >> no, yeah. >> so it sounds like, you know, it's a great bar, and i guess during public comment, i would love to hear from the neighbors exactly, you know, what is your secret because we have very similar places that are -- we're not getting the same kind of response.

>> so i mean, i think it's just the people that come. it's just they -- they together collectively love the space so much, so i think that helps. >> and i think it's a family business, and your family has been there a long time. it does make a difference, i'm sure. >> i mean, some of the people have been coming well before my family has owned it, so their loyalty is really to the rite spot, the bar itself. >> okay. thank you. >> thank you. >> i don't have any questions, but i just want to encourage, if we do vote in favor of this, just to see us as partners as well as the best relationships we have with places like yours that have been operating a long time, if there is a situation in the future, if you see our offices as a helpful partner in

promoting night life and not the principal in a school that's coming to get you. >> yeah. >> we have things work out really well. i just want to plant that seed in your mind. we regulate the night life and the sound, the other thing is we actually promote it. so we're looking for cultural venues and places that offer cultural experiences for the city, and we want to make sure that we continue on both those joint missions. [please stand by]

>> i've been going to the rite spot forever it seems. i used to go to the rite spot and people would ask you what kind of art do you do. it's right near project arteu, a

lot of artists, i'm not an artist, but it's a great place to hear music. people complain about what music costs these days, rite spot you go and make a donation to the musicians and it's a place where people of all ages can afford to hear music. they have great food. it's just a great spot, the rite spot. they have art shows every month. so it's a very welcoming place. i love going there, i love the music, i love the people, and these owners have done a great job in the last 20 years, is it? 20 years. but i went there before that. i met my friends there after the earthquake in '89. it's just a great community place to go. so thank you for your support. >> thank you. >> hi.

i'm ginger murray, and i'm one of the bartenders there. so i work at the place. but what i wanted to say about that is it's not a place that generates a huge amount of money for anybody concerned. certainly the band doesn't get paid a lot. however, myself included, and many of the musicians who are really great musicians and get paid well in other places, love to come there, because it is this very special -- we feel like we can be who we are. we feel we can care for each other, we feel like we can be alive in the space. wonderful unique and fun way, and that's part of the secret sauce is that everybody feels cared for and respected and welcomed there. and the people who come in there just really love it. and sometimes they keep it a secret from other friends of theirs they don't like so much, because they don't want it to be ruined. but that's the thing is i think it's so profound and powerful and has been for so many years that it can't really be ruined

because the people who care for it really care for it as do i. and i love working there. >> thank you. all right. seeing no more public comment, public comment is closed. we can entertain a motion. >> i move to approve. >> i'll second. >> with the staff recommendation? >> yes, with the staff recommendation >> the motion is to approve with staff recommendations. >> [roll call vote] >> congratulations, it's been approved. [applause] it's my understanding that because you took care of all your inspections and everything that you are okay to have entertainment tonight, so if you want to have a celebration, go for it. try not to be the first night you get that complaint.

[laughter] and please follow up with deputy director at your earliest convenience. thank you for coming and congratulations. >> if you want to take a photo, our senior analyst can help with that. >> i don't know if i had anything extra in there. i think they should take a photo. >> the final agenda item is number 7, commissioners' comments and questions. commissioners? comments? questions? >> thanks for the happy hour. that was great.

commissioner. >> yeah, it was wonderful. i just want to make a comment about this last agenda item. i think it's really powerful to see how a small mom and pop business has been able to turn out over a hundred letters of support and just understand just the process. so kudos to this little photo shoot happening over here. [laughter] i think we are very popular this tuesday night. so, yeah, i just want to say thank you everybody for coming out and for any of our viewers, come to our hearing. [laughter] let us know what's going on. >> i want to reiterate that. as hard as it is right now for a small business to get by in san francisco, it's groups like this

that remind us why it's so important we cherish them and do everything we can to protect them in the city. i want to reiterate that. are there any public comments on commissioners' comments and questions? seeing none, public comment is closed, and i'll adjourn this meeting at 6:07 p.m. [please stand by] [please stand by]