2008-10-08 Board of Ethics Minutes

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be coming out to make routine inspections of his premises because of these complaints and violations. And so we've been working with them for well over two years. UDOVIC: I might just ask, why is it critical for you to inspect— especially night clubs and things? PERREIRA: The main thing is safety of the community, safety of the people, that's the main purpose for fire inspections. CHAIR: On your initial visit based on the complaints —I guess the complaints came from the public, that kind of initiated your guys' action? PERREIRA: In March 1, 2006, I wasn't part of the inspection bureau, and so that answer might be best from the fire chief. CHAIR: Okay, on your first visit out there, though, did you find any violations, or what was the nature- PERREIRA: My first visit, I was a TA inspector, and I was accompanied by Fire Inspector Alan Yagi, who has retired since then. And I was very inexperienced. I knew very little about the inspection side, but basically we went out to about four different establishments, and one of them being Uncle Mikey's, and we're just checking on the occupancy load, the amount ofpeople there. And that was our whole purpose. We didn't do a full inspection of the premises, we just made the management aware that we were going to be there conducting counts. And a lot of times, those counts were requested by the Liquor Control, because we do the counting and they do the enforcing of violations. They write them up for their violations. UDOVIC: Maybe you can explain to members of the commission how Liquor works with you. LUM: I was just going to ask that. So you find — you're doing the counting, and then you report it —that kind of thing —to the Liquor Commission? PERREIRA: Yes. In the past, what they do is— they're working at night almost all the time. They go to different nightclubs and bars, and they're checking there things that they need to check, and occasionally they would see that it was over - crowded or felt that it was over - crowded, and so they would contact us, but they wouldn't contact us until, you know, the next business day. And so there came a point where our relationship — work relationship with Liquor became more open, and so they would contact us prior to events, and we would go out to those events, scheduled overtime days, and worked and made sure that fire safety concerns, life you know, building safety concerns, and occupancy load was kept in an appropriate - CHAIR: When was the first time you met Mr. Takamoto? G