CLUB SCENE

Portland rains on the after-hours parade

By Sam Pfeifle and Noah Bruce

With Zootz boarded up, a number of other Portland clubs thought they’d get in on the after-hours dance action. They didn’t realize they were betting against the house.

This past weekend, the Portland Police Department shut down chem-free, after-hours dancing at five Portland night clubs: the Thirsty Dog, the Better End, the Station, the Industry, and the Dirty Bird.

“They came in Thursday night at 2:30 a.m.,” says Thirsty Dog owner Rob Tinsman. Four undercover cops arrived at his door and “said there was a problem with my permit,” he explains. “They said there’s two ways we can do things: close down and kick everyone out, or get a fine. So, I closed down.”

Kerry Herbert, owner of The Station also chose to comply. “The city police came around this Friday,” he said, “so we shut down early.”

Both Tinsman, who runs a 21+ affair Wednesday through Sunday, and Herbert, who lets kids 18 and over in after 1 a.m., said they were perfectly willing to get the required permit they were told they needed. In fact, both thought they had the necessary permit, an entertainment license acquired through Jonathan Pratt at the business licensing office at City Hall.

“The business licensing office told me there was only one type of permit,” says Tinsman, “and that’s the one that I got, that’s the one that the Better End got, the one the Industry got, the one everyone got.” Upon being shut down, Tinsman went back to Pratt for the correct license, but Pratt couldn’t help him.

“This is just nothing that I know about,” says Pratt, who’s been in the licensing office for a year. That was Monday afternoon.

Herbert did a little more investigation and was told on Tuesday that there was “an old ordinance on the books where if you’re classified as a dance hall there is a separate license.” That is Section 4-51, which reads, “No person shall conduct, maintain, or operate a dance hall, a single dance, a concert hall, or a single concert as defined by section 4-42 without a license.” Under 4-42, a dance hall is defined as “every dance not held in a private residence,” excepting certain instances like a class, or something benefiting a charitable organization.

So, Herbert figured he was a dance hall and needed that license. He was told he needed $125 for the permit, but that he “wasn’t able to attain the new license [Tuesday].” Why? Pratt didn’t know.

“My guess is that there are evidently dance hall and concert hall licenses that I’ve never been approached for,” he says. He also says that he’s meeting with the police and the city’s attorney Gary Wood on Wednesday, January 24 (after the Phoenix went to press) to figure out the whole mess. He thinks it’s likely there won’t be a final decision until the Public Safety Committee meets on February 7. “They set the license definitions,” says Pratt, “but maybe they’re not even sure.”

There is also the question of why the police decided this past weekend was the time to start enforcing this ordinance. Captain Russell Gauvin of the Portland Police Department claims that “doesn’t matter. It’s the police’s job to enforce city council’s decisions,” he says. “There’s been a license needed to operate a dance hall since ’95.”

Herbert remains confused. “We’ve been doing [after-hours dancing] for about six or eight weeks,” says Herbert. “I don’t know whose baby this is, whether it’s the chief’s, or the city’s lawyer, or the city council.”

Tinsman is more perplexed — and he’s angry. He’s considering gathering the other club owners together for a class action lawsuit if he doesn’t come away from his Wednesday meeting with Wood holding a permit to operate after hours. “If they had done things the right way,” he says, “a letter or a phone call . . . saying they are thinking about doing this new permit style, we could have done something differently and not missed a weekend of sales. I believe it was handled improperly.”

Tinsman estimates he lost $3000 in cover charges alone.

Mayor Cheryl Leeman also thinks things could have been handled better. “We have a little problem of communication here,” she says. “The bar owners went on information from the licensing person. The police went from information from [the city’s attorney].”

In fact, she may be leaning toward Tinsman’s point of view. “There are some questions raised around the approach to this issue,” she says. “We are in the process of trying to find out what happened and why it happened.”