Transcripts For SFGTV 20130706

Granting jurisdiction. Im not sure there is a way. Well, if the permit holder is willing to continue negotiating, the amount of time, approximated 3 months if we granted jurisdiction into having the matter heard. It would be the same amount of time depending on the outcome or the permit could be revoked altogether. So there is risk. I dont think we can make the parties compromise on the spot here tonight. I feel based on my earlier comments, that jurisdiction is warranted here. I would move to grant. Okay. Just a quick comment for both parties. Im not prepared to revoke the permit. But i am prepared to support the jurisdiction and that i believe that will take us out to that timeframe anyway. Okay. Commissioners, another option is to delay your decision until our next meeting if you can reach more time. I dont want to delay. I dont think we should bring them back in a week. We are currently scheduling new appeals for august 14th. You can also order us to schedule it as a later time if you want or anytime lets go with our normal course and let our parties have an opportunity to resolve. Yeah. I believe we have a motion from the president to grant both jurisdiction request on demo and site. On that motion to grant both jurisdiction request which would include a fiveday appeal period. Commissioner fung, aye, hurtado is absent. Lazarus . Aye. Commissioner honda . Aye. The vote is 40. Mr. Church has a 5 day period to appeal. I just want to make sure that the appellants understand the time period under which need to submit appeals. Okay . I see nodding. Okay. Okay. Thank you. So then well call the next item which the item no. 7. 92 item 7 appeal no. 13033 paula datesh, appellanttss vs. Arts commission, respondent appealing the denial nonrenewal on march 21, 2013 of street artists certificate. Certificate no. 8663. For hearing today. Item no. 7. 92 sf 71234 we will start with you and you have seven minutes. Good evening, i remember you commissioner fung. Wow, not really much has changed except i left. I was in new york for seven years and i came back and well, okay. So, i just want to talk about the San Francisco Arts Commission code in section 2408 b regarding the procedure to assist then revoked whatever street artist permit. This section violates city article 6en titled executive branch and commission which states that unless otherwise provided by the charter, the affirmative vote of the majority of the members shall be at the denial of the permits. If the street level there is a four commissioner and there is a vote t city charter mandates that it go before the full commission, 12 commission for a vote. In this case, my case, it did not. It didnt even appear on the agenda. I was in the hospital and by the time the papers were forwarded to me i had 2 days to prepare a response and send it. The first page of my response was a letter from the university of Pittsburgh Medical Center stating that i was an inpatient. I asked for a proponent and i didnt get a response. They signed for my response and this idea where was i at the time it was clear. All they had to do was read the papers before them. Article 24, section 24, 08 of the San Francisco Police Report talks about a fair hearing. I didnt get a fair hearing. They held the hearing without me on march 13th. I didnt have an opportunity to present any kind of evidence, i didnt have an opportunity to crossexamination anyone or to prepare for it. I requested a cd audio tape of it. What i got was a blank tape and when it appeared on the s f gov website was the first time i got to listen to it. There were a number of procedural violations that took place and in fact they forgot to turn off the microphone at the end. You can hear howard saying we really got her this time and there was a lot of laughter. Well, so that was not a fair hearing. I sent an email within five days according to the policeman date. I didnt get a response. That was that. Now, i just want to go through this enormous amount of paperwork that i got. First, lazarus quotes the basis of this hearing is a 1983 City Attorney letter. He didnt cite this letter or reference it. I couldnt find it. I went through this entire blue book and i didnt find miss the anything and went through the police code and didnt find miss the and without more information, he had nothing base it on. Now i want to go through these violations. Selling in a space not designated by the board of supervisors, that didnt happen. My only use is permit about 6 or 8 times. I spent more time in city hall before the full Arts Commission asking why is john constantly calling the police. Its all Public Record. Or why is Daniel Hennessy making claims and running away and why is this going on. I spent more time in this room under Public Comment talking about these on going problems. I went up to Rebecca Quill twice because in 2005, howard made a mistake. He said, call me and i will tell you if there is a quorum. Lucky me, kathy barnes who told me to always leave a paper trail and always follow up with a paper trail. This woman accused me of stalking her. He did not appear in criminal court. I commuted for two years on that from new york. If i can quickly go through these violations, according to the blue book there is supposed to be minor and major violations. For minor violations and im talking about this blue book which is online. The first one by mail, it might be verified t photograph. The second morning would be calling in for a hearing where you would have a rebuttal period and then the 3rd one, i dont want where it would be. These are minor violations which i cannot even verify. I dont even see any proof of them but i didnt get any by mail. These occurred over a ofdecember last year until i believe february. So there was plenty of time for mail to the sent to me. I didnt get anything in the mail. So they didnt follow procedure in that way. Selling in a space not designated by the board of supervisors, going through this long book of howard lazar which is very strange, i did not find any photographic evidence. I found a portion of a logbook of december 7. 30 seconds . You have an opportunity on rebuttal to continue. Okay. Im going to move right to the heart of the matter. I was selling at the top of the embarcadero which is half a city block from the plaza where john was. The supposed violations that did not take place took place in that location. The people that made these comments to me which are included in your packet which are finish your statement. Okay. This is not stalking. This is howard lazar on a public plaza on a phone to somebody. Im not in his face, i have not approached him. In a logbook, he claims that i got on a trolley from 25 van ness, went down Market Street and went down powell street. We were talking about the giants. Howard lazar and shook their both and he approached me and claimed in the logbook that i said something to them. It did not happen. I live close to the park. Very often i walk to plaza and eat. You will have another minute to continue your argument. Thank you. Well hear from the department now. Good evening commissioners, im howard lazar. By way of background. In 2003, the Arts Commission denied her renewal of arts certificate after finding here in violation of not selling arts by the commission and disrupting the businesses of other street artist. In 2007, she applied for a street artist certificate and two hearings were held on her request, the commission denied her request. On november 7, 2007, the board of appeals over ruled the Arts Commission and ordered the commission to give her a certificate. We did. Its not six years later. She has committed the same type of violations as well as other is and once again, the Arts Commissioners are the street Artist Committee voted to deny her renewal of the certificate. The committee states clearly that an appeal on violations is not appealable to any other level of the art commission, but it is appealable of course to the board of appeals. Now, i wish if you will please hand these out as evidence can you pass them up . Im sorry. You didnt submit any . I didnt submit earlier. I didnt have time. I was dealing with other cases. I want to apologize. What i have are photographed, i can go through each of the charges. Has any of this been provided . Yes, we provided this stuff with our notice of hearing to her. But there are photographs of, for example selling items she didnt make. You can put it on the overhead. I can see it better. Okay. That is actually multiple violations of her on that one incident. First of all that table is over sized. Its not a 4 foot table in length. Its longer. Its not a designated space for the board of supervisors. It is opposite the entrance to the bart and our law says you must be within 10 feet within the outer entrance of an entrance and she is selling work that we didnt approve. The artist is mark tetro. I got a copy that he wrote to you extremely upset over this. This was never authorized by him. He is asking you to uphold the decision to deny her renewal of permit. You see multiple violations on that one incident. When was the time of the photo . Hold on. I can get that for you. That would be february 11, 2013. Okay. So it was that photo. In fact let me replace it with this one which is colored. If thats any better. Same photo. So, and here is one. She said she showed a picture of nate talking on the phone. Here is one by a street artist of when you can see how close she is to me. Thats how she was following me around that day at the plaza. It obstructed my duty to gather information from street artist and prohibited them from telling me of violations that were going on at the time and prohibited the ability to answer the processes of making their work and consequently that was a total obstruction of my job. We are all used to that. You see how close she is to that. Thats a good 45 feet following me around. John is here to tell that you he even talked to her to stop doing that. Those are some of the things. If i may proceed to the charges or can i answer questions . Honestly its very hard to understand the position of the Arts Commission simply because we are reading the appeal of the appellant without the basis for the denial by the Arts Commission. So if you can lay it out for me, that will be useful. Thank you, i will appreciate that. In outline here it is in charge no. 1, selling in illegal locations not approved by the board of supervisors. Charge no. 2, selling items not examined and not certified by the Arts Commission. You just saw that, that happened on december 7, 2012, december 11 and february 11. Charge no. 3, exceeding the display size regulations. December 7, 2012, and february 11. Charge no. 4, selling outside of an entrance. She was opposite direct to that bart entrance and that wasnt a designated space. No. 5, harassing another street artist and interfering with the business of another street artist and january and february 2. We had a street artist who was a complaint who testified that when he asked her to move her chair which was blocking potential customers from viewing his display, she blew up at him and continued to provoke him and turned his customers from him until he had to pack up his display and leave the plaza. We have witnesses to that. Finally charge no. 6, obstructing the duty of a staff person which is myself and street artist john doleey is here to address that. Those are the six charges. As far as charge no. 6 goes, i see she mentioned a 1983 opinion from the deputy City Attorney and talked about obstructing the duty of staff people of the Arts Commission and she even held that her own Screening Committee could be considered as staff people as well as myself. That could be a legitimate charge to suspend or revoke or deny the artist. Which was the charges laid out, what was the first date and the last date . The first date in december 2012, december 10, i dont need each one. Tell me the last date. The last date february 8, 2013. Okay. Just to give me some context because i have none since you made no submissions here. Has the commission ever decided not to renew other street artist certificates for these types of infractions . I dont know about not to renew but i do know of revoking. A flat out revoking. When did those take place . What comes to mind right now at this moment, one happened 20 years ago with a fellow selling something he didnt make as well as trying to assault our art inspector that we had at that time. I would have to go back to the files. I have been at this for 41 years. Sorry. Okay. Its great because you have historical knowledge. Okay. Thats it for now. I might have more. Mr. Lazar, the appellant discussed Different Levels of penalties. Can you provide from the Arts Commission ordinance and policies and procedures . Yes. This is a policy of the hearing procedure and standard penalties adopted by the Arts Commission many years ago and this of course was with the aid of the City Attorney. The violations if you will are loosely divided into two categories. One category is minor violations and that would be selling not in a street artist legally designated space or selling with display that exceeds the size regulations which are three feet deep by four feet wide by four feet tall. Those are minor. Typical violations is having a sales person selling for you or selling what you dont make or selling something that is not examined and not certified. Those are violations. And the first category of standard penalty could be for example a three week suspension and im talking about you are talking about minor . Yes and first time coming before us. It can increase of course. The second category, the major violations would carry typical two months suspension. Now what was explained to us by the City Attorney is our art commissioners are not necessarily bound by those penalties, they can mitigate them or infer those penalties to a different time of the year if they want to. Commissioners know that. I hope that answers your question. Thats a policy. It does. Thank you. Okay, well take Public Comment now. Can i see a show of hands of all people interested in speaking on this item. Thank you. Have the first person step forward. If you havent done already, please fill out a speaker card to us. Its not required but we appreciate it. Commissioner, San Francisco open government. I raised a number of issues at that hearing regarding the idea of due process. Youve already talked about the short period of time over which all of these violations occurred which is about a two month period and i think a reasonable person could look at that and say was there being an effort made to identify this person and come up with a string of items that could be used to do this. There were at the hearing, the only documents that were presented were notes in a log, no indication as to who made these notes or whether she received any notification of these violations. And you have already touched on the idea that the Arts Commission has a policy in place which i would describing as progressive discipline. Im questioning why all of a sudden we go from zero to 90 at an instant. All of these violations occurred in january and february and she gets no notice of this until they say we are not going to give you a permit. At the time it was my understand that go mr. Lazar was in the process of working in the City Attorneys office to get a restraining order against her and she was not supposed to go to city hall or was not able to attend this hearing. I really have to question whether or not an effort was made to do that to keep her from being at the hearing to provide her own defense. And whether it impacted her ability to provide her defense about being uncertain about whether or not she would go to city hall to city offices to get documents and information to carry out her defense. I will notice again mr. Lazar tonight has a bunch of documents he wishes to introduce. My question is if this is a fair process this should have been a matter of Public Record and something you could see in advance and it shouldnt be something that has come in at the last minute and very honestly, at the hearing, i got the impression and i have no acts to grind on either side. Im not a street artist, but there was a lot of personal an animosity among the participants. I have a feeling that this is more of an issue of personalities than anything else , but i really do feel its inappropriate of mr. Lazar as a city employment and director of street Artist Program to for meant this an animosity. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello, commissioners, my name is john, im the manager of the street Artist Program at the plaza and have been so for the past three years dully elected by my members. Not paid . Not paid. I wish i was paid. I do it for the community service. But, all the photographs and all the information that was received at the office that howard lazar has came from me. Its my job to patrol the safety of my fellow artist and their concern to air it to the police or to the office. Those all came from me. I did not format anything, and miss attach is not the only person im reporting on this and they hate me because i call them when something is wrong. This is something that has come to you before. Now we are back here again. She was in new york because she is in prison for two years by the way. , check her report. She was trying to get a restraining order because i was taking photographs of her and then goes to the office and City Attorney does what it needs to do and a lot of it get thrown out because it was deemed as street artist and not accountable to anybody. They are selfemployed. There is all sense of fairness and anything taking place. Im available for more questions. Thank you, any other Public Comment . Please step forward. My name is jordan. Im one of the street artist. My appearance is that im the one that took the photographs throwing howard. What they are showing one photograph, i took up to four progressive photographs. I have them here on the ipod. If you want to try, you can. Are they from the same day . Yes. Okay. This is the first one. Can you ask him to slide it over. Can you see . Yes. That is the second one and you see how this is here and the side one. Thats the fourth one. Can you see that . Okay. So the reason i did it was item sitting and we are kind of the whole arrangement is in the loej. When they come around to inspect what we are doing, they come and they pass on this table and talk to us and check whatever they are checking. They ask how we are doing and the people are moving. Whenever she would