|
|
 |
 |
|||||
 |
 |
 |
||
|
Legal Affairs :: Chicago Event Promoter Ordinance
Event Promoter Ordinance Updates
talks continue, no schedule yet for a vote, factsheets released by City Thursday June 5th Yesterday, Ald. Schulter, his fellow members of the City Council's Licensing and Consumer Protection Committee, and City staff held a meeting with invited members of the Chicago entertainment industry, including CMC, on the proposed event promoter ordinance. The meeting accomplished two main things. It allowed for the City to clarify what it believes are misunderstandings about the language of the ordinance and its impact on the music community. And it allowed for CMC and other members of the music community to ask questions of City staff and offer their views on the ordinance and remaining questions they have about ordinance language. The City presented two documents that can be found here (.PDF) and here(.PDF). The first offers the City’s perspective on why the ordinance as drafted is necessary and the second is a FAQ that addresses some common questions the City believes are based on a misunderstanding of the ordinance. CMC was able to ask a number of questions that we received from you and other members of the music community through our public comment process. One recurring topic we’ve received a lot of questions about is insurance coverage, specifically how small, less capitalized promoters will be able to afford a $300,000 policy if the ordinance becomes law. While no decisions were made today, the City listened and agreed to go back and re-look at the insurance issue. Another area of concern we’ve heard from you about is exactly who will be required to obtain a license to promote an event under the proposed language. There was a healthy discussion today, but CMC continues to have questions and concerns. We hope the City revisits their definitional language so vital smaller and less established members of the music community can continue to promote Chicago music. Ald. Schulter made it clear today that “there is no schedule” yet for the ordinance to move from the Licensing Committee to the City Council for a vote. In the meantime, CMC will continue to remain vigilant in advocating the music community’s interests on this very important issue. Stay tuned to this site for additional updates, and please keep sending us your comments. » Download the City's Explanation (.PDF)
» Download the City's FAQ (.PDF)
"Promoters Ordinance" Public Comments Extended Until May 30
May 23rd, 2008
CMC has extended the Public Comment Process Regarding City of Chicago Promoters Ordinance (4-157) from the original deadline of May 23, 2008.
Letter from Alderman Schulter
May 19th, 2008
No Action at Today's City Council Meeting on Event Promoter Ordinance
Bill Goes Back to Licensing Committee Until Further Notice UPDATED: Wed May 14th 2 p.m. Ald. Gene Schulter, Chair of the City Council's Licensing and Consumer Protection Committee, made good on his commitment to the music community to not report the event promoter ordinance out of his committee to the City Council for a vote. Jim Derogatis and Fran Spielman and the Sun Times have their report from today's Council here. CMC is grateful to the thousands of music community members and supporters, some from well outside of Chicago, who showed their concern for making sure Chicago music continues to thrive in a safe and responsible way. Stay tuned for CMC's plans to work with the music community to engage the City as the City determines how it will proceed. Event Promoter Ordinance Vote Postponed!
UPDATED: Tues May 13th 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. 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. New fast-tracked City regulations will change Chicago's music landscape. We recommend everyone that is a music lover in Chicago should check it out and decide for themselves. We tried to make it as easy as 1-2-3.
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
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,
CC: |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
