San Francisco Promoter Permit Legislation Headed for Defeat

San Francisco Promoter Permit Legislation Headed for Defeat

2 April, 2008 | 1.35PM

• Section: Music News Topics: Beatport Blog
• Written by: PhilG

A month ago San Francisco Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, acting on the behalf of Mayor Gavin Newsom, introduced new legislation that would require any person or entity promoting more than two events per year to obtain a promoter’s permit. This would include paying an unspecified fee, obtaining a million dollars worth of liability insurance, and going before a hearing of the Entertainment Commission and the police. Immediately a group of activists consisting of nightlife promoters, venue operators, and community activists rose up in opposition to it, arguing that this legislation would kill San Francisco nightlife by making it financially impossible for small, independent promoters to meet the permit requirements. In a meeting of the Entertainment Commission on Tuesday, strong, unanimous opposition to it from both the public and members of the Entertainment Commission made it seem likely that this legislation will soon be withdrawn or defeated.

As part of the legislative process, the legislation was passed to the San Francisco Entertainment Commission, a city agency, for review. This past Tuesday the legislation was brought up for discussion at the bi-weekly Entertainment Commission meeting, and over fifty members of the public, including a wedding planner, representatives of non-profit and fund-raising agencies, Supervisor Bevan Dufty, venue operators, and promoters all stood up at the podium to voice their opposition to it. At the end of the meeting, all five attending commissioners also opposed it, and the Chairperson of the Commission, Audrey Joseph, said that when the review of the legislation was moved from discussion this week to an action item at the next meeting of EC, they would tell the Board of Supervisors they did not support it. Since no one spoke up in support of the new legislation, including anyone from Sophie Maxwell’s office, which introduced it, this appears to be dead in the water.

Talking afterwards with David Peterson, who has been active as a promoter in the gay nightlife scene for over twelve years, he said that it reminded him of 2000, when the nightlife community came together to deal with a police crackdown led by Captain Martell of the Mission District police station. Out of that came the San Francisco Nightlife Coalition, and also the Entertainment Commission. It was gratifying to see that the seeds of solidarity that were sown some eight years ago have finally come to fruition, with the Entertainment Commission providing a real mechanism for the nightlife community to address legislation concerning it. Many people I have talked with have said that they hope this particular incident will again catalyze the nightlife community to act together to rejuvenate the scene.

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