Modesto council gets rid of dance permits, starts entertainment commission

By ADAM ASHTON
aashton@modbee.com

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The song's over for Modesto's dance permits.

The City Council on Tuesday passed an ordinance that phases them out and creates a commission to oversee live entertainment venues.

Its biggest change centers on who decides whether a new venue can open.

The Police Department had the only vote that mattered when a club sought a dance permit.

Under the new policy, that authority goes to a seven-member commission that will be charged with considering a venue's safety plans and making sure the business follows city regulations. Some of the members own clubs or restaurants.

Some nightclub owners remain concerned that the commission could hurt their businesses.

"If I have to go in front of this commission, they're my competitors," said Rich Alvarez, owner of the Banana Joe's club on Ninth Street.

Council members shared his worry that a particular interest, such as nonprofits or dance clubs, could dominate the commission.

But the council stopped short of defining who could sit on the commission.

It settled on maintaining an open process of accepting applications, interviewing candidates and appointing them at public meetings.

Councilman Brad Hawn said that would give people a chance to speak in favor of or in opposition to appointees. Businesses also will be able to appeal the commission's decisions to the City Council.

"Instead of narrowing the scope, we've broadened it so we can have differing opinions," Councilman Will O'Bryant said.

The Police Department kicked off a push to create an entertainment ordinance in September when it stopped granting new dance permits.

Businesses complained that they weren't being treated fairly, but Police Chief Roy Wasden said a surge in the number of downtown clubs stretched his department's resources.

Other problems surfaced last summer at Sin City Nights, a 10th Street club. That business had opened as a sit-down restaurant with a dance permit. It became a nightclub a year ago with the same permit.

The club shut down in October when the council revoked its dance permit.

The council responded to the Police Department's underlying concerns by creating an 11-person committee that wrote the entertainment law the council adopted.

It was received well, partly because the committee brought together a diverse mix of entertainment interests. Two members run nightclubs; one owns a restaurant. Two are at-large appointees and one sits on the board of the Modesto Convention & Visitors Bureau. The others work for city government in some capacity.

Some of them spoke at the council meeting, saying the ordinance would make it easier for business and special event hosts to navigate city bureaucracy.

It requires the city to appoint an employee to manage the applications and work with the commission.

"Right now, if you want to do a special event, it's hit and miss whether you'll get to all the departments and get to everything you need," Les Knoll said. He owns the Copper Rhino bar on 10th Street, and he sat on the committee that wrote the entertainment ordinance.

The ordinance also:

• Sets up an application fee, likely to start at $250 for the city to process the two-year entertainment permits

• Institutes penalties of up to $1,500 if clubs break the terms of their agreements with the city

• Exempts nonprofits from most of the fees

• Gives clubs a year to apply for the permits.

Bee staff writer Adam Ashton can be reached at aashton@modbee.com or 578-2366.