Providence Committee on Ordinances, May 27th , 2026, 12:00 PM

Ordinance. Today is Wednesday, the twenty seventh, and the time is 12:05. Madam clerk, please go wrong.

Jim Lee Gil Esperanoff?

Present.

Vice chairwoman Shelly Peterson? Present. Councilwoman Mary Jane Harris? Present. Councilwoman Oscar Wise of Jackson.

Councilwoman Justin Roye of Jackson. You have three presents, two absent, and you have a form.

Thank you. And today, we are joined by our chief of staff, June Rose, and our director of policy, our assistant gardener, as well as chief solicitor, E. P. Schwartz. And we're also joined by our policy, one of our policy directors, Miguel Youngs, and a couple of interns.

Welcome. This is our committee on all of that. So I know you're be spending the summer with us, so it's gonna be learning a lot. So thank you so much again for being here. So the first item on the agenda.

And ordinance amendment chapter 14 of the province for the ordinances.

Thank you. So we have passed and suspended entertainment, incidental entertainment through zoning. We did that and we passed it for the first time last week. This is the companion bill. This...

All this is is the licensing part of it in order for a licensing board to be able to enforce while we already passed. This was introduced last week. We passed for the second time. So what we're looking for here is to get clearance, say, unless there's any concerns or questions so that we can send it back to the floor during our first meeting in June. Do we have any questions from our committee members?

Hearing none, this is pretty clear. I'll entertain a motion to approve. There is a question. I moved too fast. Apologies for that.

No. I just need I just need one minute. Yeah. Take your time.

Take your time. Absolutely.

Mister chair? Yes. Just for the record, could you explain, I know we've been through this already, the difference between incidental entertainment and, temporary entertainment?

A regular entertainment?

The regular... Yeah. The two... There's two... There's incidental, which is

Well, we have... You have the, you know, regular entertainment for which you need licensing and, you know, that goes from DJs, live shows, which is full fledged entertainment. And then incidental entertainment is something that is really just... It's been this normal than... To be acoustic and instrument, pertaining if to live entertainment, and you cannot amplify as well as by having electronic devices played from a preselected selected play for the music and but this chapter here will be expanded, which means that you can have live entertainment and you can expand...

You you will be able to be amplified. Although it only allows for inside amplified live entertainment. Mhmm. But you will also need a license, a yearly license, about, also, five hundred hours, And which is where this... How the legislation come in where since you need a license, you're gonna need to settle rules for a licensing or a department to be able to enforce that.

Mhmm. With that explanation, I'll turn to mister... Policy director, Harold Gardner, if you want to add anything to it. So microgading labor is no surge.

I mean, honestly, no. From what you just explained, I think, from my perspective, you explained, like, you know, just live entertainment and how it separates itself from incidences of entertainment and incidental entertainment expanded. One thing that I, you know, will just say and add is that, you know, during the research on this item, we have recognized that there was already definition in state law of incidental entertainment to... So to make sure we didn't run a follow-up with that, we added a new category, you know, within the code that clarifies things. Okay.

Any further questions? Just... I'm sorry, Harris.

No. Thank you. No. Thank you. Okay.

Just wanted should

we... Absolutely.

Just a quick question based on the work that's been

done on this. Is there

any subsequent conversation around additional enforcement now that this is changing? Because this was one of the things that was really big on the... In the public hearing. Public hearing. Yeah.

What about

the... Yeah.

The police department said that if... As long as they had thirty days notice to prepare for this ordinance to be passed, then they would be prepared to enforce this component of it. I know that there are... There remain broader concerns around around enforcement of the noise ordinance citywide, and so I think those conversations remain ongoing. But in terms of enforcing incidental entertainment expanded, the police department is confident by...

That by the time this receives second passage, they're ready to to do so.

I think it's also good

to add that the noise ordinance is still a place that this has no impact on it. Correct. Still enforceable.

Yep. Okay. Good.

Oh, so if there's no further question with that, I'd to to approve.

So moved.

Seconded by councilor Peterson, seconded by councilor Long Van Paris. All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed, the aye.