Recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the hearing and grant an Entertainment Permit with conditions on the application of Casto Corporation, Inc., dba The Brit, 1744 East Broadway, for Entertainment With Dancing by Patrons.  (District 2)
Would you please stand and raise your right hand if you plan to testify or speak to this hearing? Do each of you solemnly state that that the testimony you may give in the cause now in pending before this body shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help you God? Do. Thank you. With that, I'm going to turn this over to the city staff. Mr. West. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The staff report will be held will be conducted by Jason McDonnell, our purchasing and business services manager. A mayor, council members Jason MacDonald purchasing a business services manager for the Financial Management Department. Tonight you have in front of you the application for entertainment with Dancing for Castille Corporation doing business as the Britt 1744 East Broadway in district to all the necessary departments have reviewed the application. The application and proposed conditions are contained in the packet that was provided. We are prepared to dis address any questions or concerns along with the police department regarding the application or conditions. That concludes my report and were available as needed. Thank you. Thank you very much. Now I'm going to go ahead and do some council deliberation and public comments as well. But I'm going to start this off with Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to ask the staff and the owners that are here, I believe, to indulge me on this. I know we were trying to get to some consensus with residents and we're pretty close. I think there are a couple of items that we need to still work out. And so I'd like to ask that we put this over for two weeks time certain, which I think makes it February 17th. Is that correct? I'm not sure, Mr. City Attorney, is that. Yeah. So that's my motion. I could certainly move it over. To the 17th. Yes. Okay. So the motion is to move this item to the 17th. That the motion. Okay. Is there a second on that motion? Oh, second. Okay, there's a second. Can you get. There's no motion before. Could you get a plug in. Pushed the motion please. Thank you. Any public comment on the motion before us today? Please. My name is Jeff, darling. I represent one of the owners of the Mineshaft Incorporated, one of the seven owners. Holding it over is a little bit inconvenient for us since the owners are in other cities. I came flew down from Northern California in Redding to represent them. Most of them live in several different cities. It's a family trust business. We've operated for 33 years under the current patio situation. The only difference to what we're trying to do is just add entertainment in the changing environment of the bar business. People are more responsible and don't go out right after work and and drink for 2 hours before they go home. We need a business model that can attract business with special events now and this model that we're trying to function under. And it really doesn't it just brings in a deejay. We currently have jukeboxes, so it doesn't really impact the sound level any different than it did before. It just allows us to have special event nights with a, you know, kind of like a Go-Go dancer type person. One of the performers to attract a special event night are hours, a bar hours are affected. You know, if we can't use the patio, if we shut it down at 10:00 per say, that's that's a critical time frame for a bar. That's just how bars work. Bars don't get busy until 10:00. And, you know, they close it, too. So any time we limit the hours, I think it greatly impacts us. I think one of the problems is we want to be good neighbors and being a good neighbor means that the people in close proximity are impacted. But there was an analogy at the last meeting that I watched the video and it said, you know, it's kind of like that when you move next to an airport, you can't expect the planes not to land at an airport. We've been there in operation for many, many years, and when they move there, they are impacted, unfortunately. I think what we need to do as a business is be a good steward and work with the people to add acoustic treatment. One of my proposals, I you know, we can talk about that later if we continue it over that date is not necessarily a great date. That's a very large promotion day. What is that, Fat Tuesday? You know, so it's a drinking holiday. And, you know, so that date in particular might be a difficult one because our managers are needed for operation of a bar. But I am concerned and do want to represent the ownership and Joe has just been put in as a manager and I think under public comment last time they were concerned that, you know, we've made steps to discipline employees that didn't follow the rules. And we've actually had some people have been let go because they weren't applying to the the correct procedures on the patio. Okay. Thank you very much. Time's up. Thank you. Sure. And I also just want to make sure that. And I think the comments are appropriate. But we're obviously speaking to the motion, which is to to move the item forward, which is what the motion is on the floor. And so. Please. Hi. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Council constituents, I'm not sure I understand what your motion in. The motion on the floor is to take the item, which is the hearing for the for the entertainment, for the licensing over, I believe it was two weeks so that it would be heard continued. And I think that the the motion that you want to clarify was because we're still some items need to be worked out. Vice Mayor. Exactly. There's some conditions that I'd like to have further discussion on. I see. Okay. Well, in reference to that, uh, you know, I would just piggyback off of what the gentleman said. You know, it is there the livelihood of the bar in the community to have the continuous entertainment or to have that move forward. Um, I'm a local resident now. I mean speech, a close neighbor to the Brit and um, I don't find any, any disturbance with them. And I do, I do see if, if you move into an area when you're, when you're around a bar, that's kind of. The. The choice you make. If you want quietness, go to Lakewood. It's a vibrant community we live in and. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Any other public comment? Okay. There's a motion on the floor to move. I'm sorry, sir. Sir. Mr. Mayor, I also have. I'd like to speak again. Absolutely. Do you want to hear the last of the comment first? I do. Was there someone else? I think this gentleman is wants to speak. Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor and City Council, I appreciate your time. My name is Jerry Cochran. I own the property at 1735 Second Street and 1732 through 1738 Broadway. My building is directly adjacent to the Brett. And I really take offense at somebody saying that this is the same as an airport. There was a time when the British did not have a patio. And my tenants had the right for peace and quiet. And as recently as two weeks ago, we had an incident on a weekend where there was noise out there. To the tune of 2:00 in the morning. So I understand. They're making changes and trying to adapt. I appreciate that. But the noise level, particularly of my tenants on the Broadway building, are directly above almost directly above that patio. And my concern is the timeline that they're going to have this going on is going to prevent my tenant from. Getting rest. Which means I'm going to have vacancies and I'm going to lose income. And I think it's important that all of us. Have an opportunity to make income from the businesses that we run in any area. Thank you. Thank you, sir. I no other public comment. Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Wanted to thank the owners and the resident that came to speak. And I appreciate that the second speaker on behalf of this item were to proceed with the item, indicated that he lived close by, which he didn't quite specifically state how close by. But you don't live right next door, I'm certain. And that notwithstanding. When the writ opened. And for however many years until we got here, you did not have a patio. So your conditions and you've evolved you've evolved to the status that you are now and the community has evolved with you. What the property owner indicates is very true. And so our obligation here as a council is not just to look at the economic interests of business, but also to provide a balance. I represent downtown Long Beach, along with Councilmember Gonzalez, and that's where the dining entertainment district is. This is not our first time at looking at entertainment permits. I have looked at more entertainment permits than any other district because that's where most of them are. And so I'm very familiar with this need to ensure that we are very friendly to those who are operating businesses here. But we're also offering a promise to the residents of Long Beach that their quality of life is just as important. And so there's a balance to strike here. So I am not inviting anyone to move to Lakewood. I think that's personally quite offensive. And any one of our residents that heard that, believe us, that that's not our interest here. Our interest is to ensure that we can all live happily together, balanced and respect one another's right to a quality of life. So that having been said, Mr. Mayor, I am willing to, if you will allow it, sidebar with the owners to see if I can work out a couple of these things through my Chief of Staff. And if you could allow us a few minutes, we can go forward with the agenda and then bring it back. If we come to an agreement. If we don't, then my motion will stand to put it over. Okay? Yeah. No, I would. I would like that. I think that sounds very reasonable. So what we'll do is Vice Mayor Lowenthal will spent some time with you, with the ownership group to see if we can work out these issues. While we're doing that, I'm going to move the agenda forward. Vice Mayor, if you don't mind, we'll continue the agenda. Okay. So with that, the I don't think we need a motion on that. Is that correct? We would need in motion if it's not concluded by the end of the public comment period in order to move on to the next thing, we can table it. I have a lot of public comments, so. We have lots of speakers as you. Do. So let me move on to public comment, general public comment. So thank you for that. So Vice President, I was going to chat with you guys. I'm going to some break up. Okay. There's just a very few specific issues. I'm pretty confident he's okay. So the vice mayor staff is going to chat with you guys. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So let's go and move on to public comment. So I have a list of speakers beginning with Mr. Goodhue, then Dennis Dunn.