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A
proposed crackdown on the Chicago live music industry opposed by
concert promoters and venue owners was sent back to a City Council
committee Tuesday for fine-tuning. The so-called "event promoter's ordinance" had been scheduled for a
full council vote today, but Ald. Eugene Schulter (47th), chairman of
the License Committee, withdrew it after meeting with members of the
Chicago Music Commission, Metro owner Joe Shanahan, Jam Productions
talent booker Nick Miller, Double Door co-owner Sean Mulroney and
Martyrs' owner Ray Quinn. Schulter asked the city's Business Affairs & Licensing
Department for more facts about problem venues and underground
promoters that the ordinance was designed to curtail. Mayor Daley said he's willing to soften the measure. "You don't want
to have a burden on the event promoters," he told reporters Tuesday.
"But, at the same time, they have a responsibility ... to protect the
people." The ordinance will return to committee for more work and public
input before a council vote is considered again. Schulter told people
at the meeting he expects that process will take at least a month. Jim DeRogatis, Fran Spielman
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[Chicago] Promoter's ordinance returned to committee
_____________________
Chicago Music Commission's 1-2-3
(taken straight from their website
http://chicago-music.org/promoters.php
)
Chicago Music Commission is not sure when it will come out of Committee
for a vote by the entire City Council, but we hope that Chairman
Schulter will wait until he and the City have engaged the music
community publicly and meaningfully so their concerns can be heard and
hopefully incorporated into the eventual law.
We are pleased that Chairman Schulter has responded to the music
community's concerns, and we look forward to working with him, members
of the Committee, DBA staff and other music community stakeholders to
come up with a workable version of the ordinance. CMC is committed to
working with the music community to responsibly engage the City in this
important effort.
Please stay tuned to this site for further updates about this ordinance
and how you can help to make sure the Chicago music community's voice
is heard. 1) LEARN ABOUT IT AND THE PROCESS 2) READ THE MEDIA MIX AND CONVERSATIONS While
the CMC agrees with the City of Chicago that underground and dangerous
promoters need to be weeded out, we have deep concerns with how this ordinance was communicated to the public. Therefore, the CMC cannot support it at this time.
As was evident at today's Licensing Committee hearing, held just
four days after the ordinance was made available the public, there are
too many questions about wording, impact and enforcement for the CMC to
support this. Therefore, we cannot support this ordinance as drafted. The Hon. Eugene C. Schulter Ms. Mary Lou Eisenhauer RE: Proposed City of Chicago Event Promoter Ordinance Dear Chairman Schulter and Director Eisenhauer: The
Chicago Music Commission (CMC) appreciates the opportunity to review
and comment on the proposed City of Chicago ordinance that would create
a new municipal code specifically regulating event promoters. As small
business owners and members of the Chicago music community, we cannot
support this ordinance in its current form. However, we share your
commitment to ensuring the safe and responsible enjoyment of
entertainment in Chicago and look forward to working with you to
develop a version of this ordinance that the CMC and the Chicago music
community can support. Because we speak only on behalf of
promoters with a track record of organizing and promoting safe events,
we strongly concur with your goal of rooting out illegitimate
“underground” promoters operating in Chicago with sometimes dangerous
consequences. However, we are deeply concerned with how
this draft of the ordinance has been disseminated to the public. The
City of Chicago, and particularly the Department of Business Affairs
and Licensing (DBA) and Alderman Schulter, should be commended for
spending a good deal of time working in good faith with CMC and event
promoters since the last version of this ordinance was released in the
fall of 2007. In fact, this ordinance as drafted reflects many of the
comments and suggestions made during that process. CMC was thus
surprised to be given only four business days to review and comment on
this complex document that, if adopted, will radically alter the
entertainment landscape of Chicago. Moreover, CMC was frustrated that
we were prevented from distributing this document to the Chicago music
community to receive their feedback prior the public hearing. Instead
of a deliberative and inclusive process that would generate support for
an event promoter licensing regime, the City has in this instance
instead generated unnecessary skepticism. Most importantly, the City’s
conduct prevented CMC from receiving the expert feedback from its
constituents in the Chicago music community that would lead to an
ordinance that best addresses the realities of doing business in the
Chicago music promoter market. Towards our shared
interests of creating a targeted event promoter licensing regime that
would weed out illegitimate promoters and support responsible small
business owners, we strongly suggest that the review and public comment
process for this ordinance be extended so that more members of the
Chicago music community have an opportunity to read and comment on the
document. We offer our organization to assist the City with this effort. Nonetheless, we have three fundamental concerns with the ordinance as drafted. 1.
Private contracts between PPA-licensees and most promoters alleviate
the risks associated with “underground” events and are evidence of
sufficient control over a licensed space to obviate the need for a
promoter license. We agree with the drafters’
recognition that PPA-licensed venues are generally law-abiding and
upstanding members of the Chicago small business community and are not
the source of the risks this legislation is intended to address.
PPA-licensed music venue owners regularly contract with various outside
entities for use of the PPA-licensed space for events. For these
common and often incident-free events, the PPA licensee is assuming
substantial business risk; if the contractee violates the terms of
the PPA, the licensee alone faces the risk of losing their license.
Indeed, in such situations the license holder is ultimately responsible
for the safe operation of their business. Because of this substantial
risk and assumed responsibility, PPA licensees currently go to great
lengths, both in contract and in practice, to ensure that their
licensed spaces are controlled and managed responsibly at all times for
the safety of their customers and Chicago residents. Accordingly,
we believe that the PPA exclusion in the ordinance should be extended
to include not just PPA licensees who are promoting and/or managing
their own events but also to any contractee of the PPA license holder.
Evidence of a legally binding contract in these instances will provide
sufficient evidence of a controlling, responsible party and ensure a
safe event without imposing undue financial and administrative burden
on Chicago’s small music businesses. Those promoters
operating outside of this system, such as entities seeking to promote
an event a non-PPA-licensed location, should be subject to the full
regulations proposed in the ordinance as drafted. 2.
The “fixed seating” and “capacity” exclusions as drafted create
prohibitive business costs for promoters to do business with many
Chicago music venues. In Section 4-157-020 of the
ordinance as drafted, only venues that have “fixed seating” would be
able to host one-time events promoted by unlicensed outside entities.
As defined in the ordinance as drafted, this fixed seating clause
creates prohibitive costs to promote an event at some of the most
desirable and well-run venues in the Chicago, including Schuba’s, Buddy
Guy’s Legends, the Vic Theater, the Riviera Theater and the Metro,
because portions of these venues’ public areas do not have “fixed
seating”. The ordinance as drafted unfairly discriminates against
those numerous music venues that do not have fixed seating by requiring
promoters to have an expensive and separate license in order to promote
and/or managing an event at the venue. Indeed, we expect that if
enacted a venue that did not have “fixed seating” would be potentially
priced out of the market for clients seeking to promote a one-time
event—a substantial blow to these small businesses’ revenue streams.
Section 4-157-020’s exclusion for venues with a capacity of 500 people
or more as drafted creates similarly prohibitive business barriers for
many small, upstanding Chicago music venues such as The Hideout,
Schuba's, Uncommon Ground, and Martyrs’ that regularly contract with
third-party entities to promote events. Together, these
provisions of the ordinance as drafted would price out of the market
many of the established, responsible and well-run venues for music in
Chicago, reducing the amount of music in Chicago, making events more
expensive for consumers, dampening the large and growing economic
engine that is Chicago music, and creating a much less supportive
business climate for Chicago’s small music business community. As
Chicago competes for business with cities from around the world in
addition to our own regional suburbs, we cannot afford to put this
ordinance’s well-intentioned but overly broad financial weight on
Chicago’s music community. CMC would also like to ensure
that any enacted language does not have the unintended consequence of
driving out of the Chicago marketplace legitimate small businesses and
encouraging illicit underground promoters to take their place. As
Chicago’s music economy is poised to expand for the benefit off all
Chicagoans, we believe that the ordinance as drafted would create high
market entry barriers that newly established but legitimate promoters
could not overcome. 3. A promoter and/or each “controlling person” under 21 years of age should be able to promote events.
In addition to excluding many Chicago music venues from hosting
promoted events, Section 4-157-050 of the ordinance as drafted will
exclude individuals under 21 years of age from promoting events,
thereby depriving Chicago’ vital young people from participating in a
key function of Chicago’s music community. We believe that a
promoter’s age alone is not indicative of his or her ability to promote
and manage a safe event. Indeed, JAM Productions, one Chicago’s most
responsible and successful event promoters, was started by two 19 year
old college students. We believe that individuals under 21 years of
age should be able to promote events. Finally, we are
concerned with how this ordinance, if adopted, will be enforced. With
a new, poorly understood licensing regime, the current patchwork of
enforcement authorities among DBA, the Chicago Police Department, the
Chicago Fire Department and Aldermanic offices will likely lead to
confusion and inadvertent noncompliance. Again, we
respectfully offer our assistance in conducting meaningful public
outreach, incorporating the findings from that process into a revised
ordinance, and educating the working people of Chicago’s music
community about their new legal obligations. We believe that such a
process will help usher in a safe, responsible and business-friendly
environment for Chicago music. The eyes of the world are
on Chicago as you and Mayor Daley lead its effort to host the 2016
Summer Olympic Games. Your work in helping Chicago create a responsible
and sustainable music economy will ensure that Chicago’s music
community, including promoters, reaches its full potential and rightful
recognition as a one of the world’s great music cities. Sincerely, Chicago Music Commission CC: --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Event Promoter Ordinance Vote Postponed
Chairman Schulter (47th Ward) has decided not to report the event
promoter ordinance out his City Council Licensing and Consumer
Protection Committee. In other words, it will not be on the City
Council agenda tomorrow and there will not be a vote on the bill as
previously scheduled.
3) IF YOU OPPOSE IT, TELL YOUR CIVIC LEADERS
The CMC is also concerned about the impact to the music community and
believe that as written it will not address the real, isolated problem
but instead increase business costs for promoters seeking to do
business with many of Chicago's upstanding PPA-licensed music venues,
thereby depressing the overall economic and cultural contribution made
by Chicago's vibrant music community
Chairman, City Council Committee on License and Consumer Protection
City of Chicago
121 N. La Salle Street
City Hall, Room 300
Chicago, Illinois 60602
Acting Director, Department of Business Affairs and Licensing
City of Chicago
121 N. La Salle Street
City Hall Room 800
Chicago, Illinois 60602
We continue to look forward to working with you on this important
endeavor and we are available to answer any questions you or your staff
might have.
Hon. Isaac Carothers, Vice Chairman
Hon. Richard M. Daley
Hon. William J.P. Banks
Hon. George A. Cardenas
Hon. Willie Cochran
Hon. Brian G. Doherty
Hon. Robert Fioretti
Hon. Freddrenna Lyle
Hon. Frank J. Olivo
Hon. Ariel E. Reboyras
Hon. Helen Shiller
Hon. Mary Ann Smith
Hon. Thomas Tunney
Hon. Michael R. Zalewski
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