City Council flexes muscles

Published in the Portland Phoenix

Using a new tactic to control bars in the Old Port, the Portland City Council last week overruled the objections of the city’s police department and renewed the entertainment license of the bar 188 Bourbon Street, which also operates a banquet hall called the Pavilion, both located at 188 Middle Street.

But the council, whose ability to restrict liquor licenses is limited by state law, used a city law targeted at outdoor entertainment to limit the bar's indoor live music and dancing.

Any business holding an entertainment license — a special addition to a liquor license that expires the moment a bar’s liquor license does — must still obey city noise restrictions, requiring relative quiet after 10 pm from any source, indoors or out. But the council went further, allowing 188 Bourbon to stay open and continue to serve alcohol until 1 am under its liquor license, but requiring the bar's entertainment to stop at 11:30 pm on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights.

The council has often limited events to certain hours, but usually as part of an permit for outdoor entertainment, like the speakers at Natasha’s, which are not allowed to be on until after 5 pm, according to Amanda Berube at the city clerk’s office. In that case, the restriction is because Natasha’s is surrounded by businesses that might be disturbed if the tunes came on too early, Berube says.

“It’s just been more of a recent” move to limit indoor events, she says. So recent, in fact, that no minutes of any council meeting in 2005 — and only last week’s meeting in 2006 — even show councilors moving in that direction.

And it happened twice in the same meeting. The first time, in the discussion for the Tree’s new license, the motion, by councilor Karen Geraghty and seconded by councilor Will Gorham (the council’s lead dog on controlling the bars), failed.

But councilor Jim Cloutier, who abstained from the debate on the Tree, liked the idea so well he proposed it for 188 Bourbon Street shortly thereafter. He did not return a phone call seeking comment on his motivation. The council also tried — but failed — to block outside seating, though it succeeded in forcing 188 Bourbon to renew its license in six months, instead of granting the usual year-long permit. That, too is “something that they’ve started to do” recently, Berube says.

“They’ve curtailed what they see as a problem on our Ladies Night,” which draws 300 to 500 people on Wednesday nights, says Jim Albert, the club’s owner. While he admitted the problems were from his patrons, they were “outside the club, after closing,” and therefore should be handled by the police, he says.

Albert thinks it is “hypocritical” for the city to charge a bar-stool tax to support police presence in the Old Port, and then penalize bars for the work police officers have to do. Further, he says his lawyer told him 188 Bourbon bouncers should not be dispersing crowds on public streets, citing liability concerns.

“Maybe it’s time for the patrons that cause the trouble to be accountable,” by being arrested or summoned to court, Albert says.

The council also subjected Albert to another form of discipline — as promised in December, when Gorham, chairman of the council’s public safety subcommittee, said he would move all entertainment- and liquor-license renewals to the end of council meetings, rather than have them early in the evening.

The club’s permit was not even taken up for discussion until 9:30 pm, and debate finished just before 11 pm. Albert, who didn’t bring his attorney to the 7 pm meeting — thereby avoiding having to pay for four hours of an attorney’s time to get 90 minutes of help — remembered having his business addressed more in the middle of the meeting the last time he had to renew his license.

Gov. Baldacci faces in-party challenge

Published in the Portland Phoenix

Chris Miller, a progressive Maine Democrat who has tried to push the party to the left, has filed papers to unseat Governor John Baldacci, and said he will announce his candicacy later this week or early next. Miller was elected vice-president of the Maine Progressive Caucus in 2004, helping lead an organization that described itself as trying to work within the Democratic Party to return it "to its populist roots." (The group's Web site is no longer in existence.)

Miller told a caucus meeting in 2005 that "the Democratic leadership [in Maine] really is clinging to the large corporations."

As an activist, last year he tried unsuccessfully to strip from corporations their abilities to support candidates in elections, to fund petition drives, and to refuse to testify against themselves – rights people have that were also granted to companies in an 1886 Supreme Court ruling. He also backed legislation to require companies to act in the public's best interests, which also failed. (See"Campaign 2008" by Lance Tapley, May 13, 2005; and "Legislative Matters" by Sara Donnelly, June 3, 2005.) PeopleFirst!Maine – a group dedicated to those ends – is headquartered at Miller's home.

The Web site for the business he runs, a Gray-based Internet-service provider called Maine Street Communications, is filled with links to progressive news and opinion sites, and includes a blog sub-site with columns from many of Maine's populist and progressive activists.

Miller's own postings are there, too, addressing Iraqi civilian casualties, national Democratic politics, privacy, corporate accountability to society, and slamming Baldacci policies.
Miller said his positions as a candidate will follow the lines on his blog, but did not want to give more specifics until launching his effort to get the required 2000 to 3000 signatures on his nominating petition to force a primary runoff with Baldacci.

Sinclair may have violated state law

Published in the Portland Phoenix

While the contract negotiations between union workers at WGME Channel 13 and the TV station’s parent company, Sinclair Broadcast Group, have stalled, the union’s attorney is investigating allegations that Sinclair failed to obey a Maine law requiring employers to pay workers within eight days of the close of a pay period.

'GME frequently pays part-time workers and overtime wages for full-timers as much as 16 days late, according to Matt Beck, shop steward for the union, IBEW Local 1837, which represents off-camera employees such as video photographers, editors, and producers.

Jonathan Beal, a labor attorney working for the union, said he has begun discussions with the station, and is holding off on filing a lawsuit until more conversations take place.

Sinclair attorney Michael Lowenbaum did not return phone calls seeking comment on the pay-period dispute, and station manager Alan Cartwright declined to comment.

Labor negotiators have not met since the summer, though both sides say they are ready to talk “at any time.”

The workers have gotten support from other local unions, including the stage workers at the Cumberland County Civic Center, the Portland Newspaper Guild, the Southern Maine Labor Council, the Teamsters, and local painters and machinists unions.

The WGME workers are waiting for Sinclair to respond to a request the union made for evidence to support Sinclair’s assertion that WGME staff members are among the best-paid in the company.

Some would say they should be: Jason Nelson, a video photographer, was just named the best video photographer in New England by the National Press Photographers Association, the only Sinclair journalist so honored this year.

Other WGME employees have been part of productions that have won awards from Emmys on down to Maine Association of Broadcasters honors, according to Beck.

Beal said the company is conducting a survey of its workers in response to the demand for more information, but said that information will be less useful than the station-specific and position-specific information the union wants.

Beck said union members are worried Sinclair may declare an “impasse,” and then impose the most recent contract offer, which is not acceptable to union members.

Cartwright declined to comment on the state of negotiations, or even on the awards won by his staff, saying his attorney had instructed him not to discuss “ongoing negotiations.”

Good soundbreaks make . . . Hotel vs. Club

Published in the Portland Phoenix

After being neighbors for more than five years, the Portland Regency Hotel, owned by Eric Cianchette, has sued the Alehouse, a tenant in another one of Cianchette’s buildings, saying the club generates too much noise and disturbs hotel guests.

Cianchette said the noise generated by the Alehouse, a space once owned by Cianchette and operated as "Eric's," is "affecting a lot of [hotel] customers," but said "I don’t know much about" the lawsuit.

The hotel’s general manager, Jill Hugger, didn’t know anything about the suit, though she said noise from the Alehouse has been a problem for a long time. She said the hotel has to give people free overnight stays "a lot" due to the Alehouse’s noise, but would not be specific about how often or how much money was involved.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, is similar to one filed by Cianchette's company, ELC, in 2001, to stop the Alehouse from holding any live-music performances. A judge then found in favor of the Alehouse, a ruling that was upheld on appeal. The recent suit does not include any specific dates or times of noise problems, though a filing by Alehouse owner Russ Riseman claims he has received only two complaints about noise from the hotel—one in the summer of 2005 and another in the fall, and none from other neighbors.

Gerald May of Perkins Olson, the lawyer representing the hotel, said he had "no comment" and hung up the phone when asked whether the suit would be dropped because of the Alehouse’s recent steps to lower the noise level.

On the very day the suit was filed, Riseman was arranging the installation of $2000 worth of soundproofing material and for sound engineers to hourly test the noise level outside the door of the Alehouse and at the front door of the Regency, in response to a complaint from the hotel, he said.

Filings on Riseman’s behalf claim that the sound engineers’ readings are now at or below the city’s legal limit of 58 decibels, about the level of a normal conversation. "We have meetings with the Regency every single night," Riseman said, illustrating his efforts to solve the problem.

Some of the noise may be due to customers who leave the Alehouse to smoke and converse outside, but he said there's nothing he can do about that because he can't allow smoking inside and the customers have the right to smoke on public sidewalks.

Riseman said he feels that Cianchette wants the Alehouse to move, and said "I'll go willingly" to another place if one is affordable. But, until then, he's going to fight, heartened by his success in 2001. "If we lose, we're going to lose because I can't afford the litigation," said Riseman, who added that he is getting a discounted legal rate from local lawyer Dan Skolnik—"but it's not free."

Theater eyes armory

published in the Portland Phoenix

The South Portland armory could become home to the Children’s Theatre of Maine and other arts organizations, if a deal floated earlier this month pans out.

John Kaminski, an attorney at Drummond Woodsum MacMahon in Portland, is representing a group of people who have asked him not to reveal their names, “who are supporters of children’s theater,” and who want to give the kid-oriented nonprofit a permanent home in the building, now owned by the Museum of Glass and Ceramics. The museum is having its assets liquidated in federal bankruptcy court.

The idea is similar to one proposed in the Phoenix (see “Armory Arts Center,” by Jeff Inglis, January 6), which was cited by several sources for this story as a motivating factor for interest in the property.

Pamela DiPasquale, artistic director for the Children’s Theatre, said the group now rents three separate spaces, a 5000-square-foot theater, a 1200-square-foot office, and the “quite big” Levy Day School for summer-only programs. She said the group has been looking to move for some time, and offered $800,000 last year for a Westbrook building ready for the group to move in.

That deal fell through, leaving the theater in its existing year-to-year rental, with options to renew, and ever-climbing rent, she said.

Wednesday, after the Phoenix’s deadline, the judge overseeing the case was expected to approve a process by which the armory sale could be completed as soon as March 22. (The sale needs to cover at least $600,000, the amount of secured debt on the armory.)

On February 1, Kaminski and his group agreed with the museum’s bankruptcy trustee — subject to the approval of the judge overseeing the case — to buy the armory for $625,000. The agreement, which would specifically allow Kaminski to transfer ownership of some or all of the building to the Children’s Theatre, also allowed the bankruptcy court to accept bids from other prospective buyers. Fred Bopp III of Perkins Thompson, the lawyer for the bankruptcy trustee, has asked the judge to schedule a final sale-approval hearing for March 22.

Copies of the agreement between Bopp and Kaminski were sent to others who have expressed interest in the armory, including the Islamic Society of Portland (which could not be reached for comment), developer Greg Boulos (who withdrew his own $625,000 offer for the armory late last year), Portland attorney Larry Clough of Tompkins Clough Hirshon and Langer, and Ted Quinn of Ingalls Commercial Real Estate.

Clough said his client had offered $600,000 cash about six weeks ago, with a quick closing and no contingency for zoning changes on the property, which has some restrictions that could make a commercial venture there difficult. Clough declined to identify his client, and said the person was not interested in entering a bid for more than $625,000.

Quinn said he had e-mailed a link to the Phoenix’s story to an out-of-state client looking to move to Greater Portland. “There is still interest,” Quinn said, though his client, whom he declined to name, would need a zone change, and “the lack of parking could be a big issue.”

Quinn was slated to look at the property earlier this week, but could not be reached before the Phoenix’s deadline.

Attorney Kaminski sounded the way Bopp described himself — “cautiously optimistic” — and said his group is expecting “to get a lot of support from the city” of South Portland, which has itself expressed interest in the building from time to time, and may be asked to grant a zoning change to allow the museum or another group to use the building. City Manager Jeff Jordan did not return several phone calls seeking comment.

And the deal could still fall through, as Boulos’s did — Kaminski has until the end of March to pull out of the deal if he is unhappy with the building inspection, the zoning situation, or a parking agreement with Central Maine Power, which owns an adjoining mostly-vacant lot.