City Council to vote on entertainment law

Well hear we go again. When the city or goverment don't know how to handle something they put a fee, write a law or whatever they can to make it harder for the guy who is just trying to make a living. What is this money going to solve? Now they need a paid commision to watch out for this new law. What are they getting paid to do? Do they have a clue on a entertainment venue? Just seems there a few bad bars that greated this law from the beging.The way this economy is now $250.00 takes off the bottom line and isnt there enough permits for a business to follow. What is x-fest going to pay. Is all entertaiment that happens downtown going to pay? Look what happen when the city took over Graffiti.
Need some answers.
Bill Heyden
Yosemite Lanes

As a person who sat on the committee I think that your thoughts are valid, but I also believe that a lot of your concerns have been handled as well in the law.

The $250 will pay for the administrative fees involved in the permit process. The reason why these fees aren't active now is that the fee structure hasn't been updated in over 20 years... I would look at it as you were getting a pretty good deal on permits for a long time and now they are going to pay for themselves as opposed to government paying the costs for you.

The Commission is an unpaid committee. There are no salaries associated with it.

If you read the law, the intent of the law is to encourage and nourish business and at the same time make sure its safe. That is what they are there to do. Its not about hurting business owners or overly controlling them, its about a partnership between government and business.

As the producer of X Fest I pay a little over/under (not sure yet because I haven't seen the bill) $100,000 in fees/services to the City.

Yes, all of the entertainment downtown (along with the rest of the city) will pay fees, although I don't believe that are so high as to stop people from doing events or opening businesses.

Hope this helps.

Chris