{"id":30347,"date":"2025-11-01T02:24:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T02:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/30347\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T02:24:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T02:24:08","slug":"dallas-leaders-create-new-task-force-after-bishop-arts-venues-live-music-fees-targeted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/30347\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas leaders create new task force after Bishop Arts venues\u2019 live music fees targeted"},"content":{"rendered":"

City manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, council member Chad West and other city leaders gathered at Revelers Hall<\/a>, a jazz bar in Bishop Arts, on Friday afternoon to announce a task force to review the city code provisions pertaining to entertainment venues. <\/p>\n

The task force\u2019s formation comes weeks after the city of Dallas\u2019 recently-launched Nighttime Economy & Responsible Hospitality Division came under scrutiny<\/a> for restricting two popular bars\u2019 ability to charge covers for live music. <\/p>\n

In early October, a city code compliance officer issued<\/a> Revelers Hall \u2013 a New Orleans-style bar, whose doors typically remain open during performances \u2013 a notice of violation for producing \u201cloud and disturbing noises and vibrations.\u201d <\/p>\n

Bar co-owner Jason Roberts said the city told them the bar\u2019s music fee was not allowed. According to city code, charging entertainment fees changes a space\u2019s use from a \u201crestaurant\u201d to a \u201ccommercial amusement.\u201d The Free Man in Deep Ellum received<\/a> a similar notice. Owners of both bars criticized the city\u2019s decision as a hindrance to their ability to pay musicians and a blow to already-narrow profit margins. <\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re 1,300 square feet. It\u2019s hard to make the numbers work in order to bring the talent that we have in the city to play here,\u201d Roberts said on Friday. \u201cWe paid out every year about $300,000 to local musicians, which is amazing for a little tiny space of this size.\u201d <\/p>\n

The new hospitality and nightlife task force will propose a framework for restaurants and bars to charge live music fees and re-evaluate the city\u2019s noise ordinance, according to a memo from West. The group is expected to present its findings to the Quality of Life, Arts and Culture Committee by March 2026. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt has become clear that our existing city code is outdated – much like our 1960s-era parking requirements before their modernization. To keep pace with today\u2019s economy and culture, we have an opportunity to update our code to address music fees, entertainment permitting, and the noise ordinance in a balanced, common-sense way,\u201d West wrote in the memo. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t code department being the bad guys; this is code department enforcing the laws that exist on the books,\u201d the councilman also said on Friday. <\/p>\n

The bars\u2019 qualms with the notice of violations raised questions around why the Nighttime Economy Division had been housed under the Code Compliance department, when the city\u2019s 2025-2026 fiscal year budget stated the team would be within the Office of Arts and Culture. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll nighttime staff have been consolidated under Code Compliance,\u201d city spokesman Rick Ericson told<\/a> The Dallas Morning News earlier in the week. <\/p>\n

At an Oct. 20 meeting<\/a> for the city\u2019s arts and culture advisory commission, commissioner J. Damany Daniel described the consolidation as a \u201ccolossally bad idea.\u201d He said the move took the team \u201cout of the realm of advocacy and makes it less about engagement and more about enforcement.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cHear, hear,\u201d another commissioner said after. <\/p>\n

On Friday, The News asked Tolbert where the team is housed. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to make it very clear today that the management activities, the outreach components will actually be in the Office of Arts and Culture and the code compliance will still be responsible for the enforcement side,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a $5.2 billion budget, and a lot of the decisions are made during the budget process,\u201d Tolbert continued. \u201cAs we get into the implementation of those items in the budget, we have an opportunity to step back and see if there\u2019s a different rule of mind.\u201d <\/p>\n

Asked by The News about whether Revelers Hall can continue to charge a music fee, she said, \u201cWithout getting into all the details, I think you guys understand that we still have compliance activities.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIf there are things that we can do in the interim that actually relieve some of those pain points, we\u2019re going to be looking for those recommendations,\u201d she also said. <\/p>\n

In August, the nighttime economy division manager Eddie Grant shared priorities for the team before the arts and culture advisory commission. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are getting ready to hit the ground running going into fiscal year 26,\u201d Grant said<\/a>. He spoke about efforts to ensure public safety during the late hours \u2013 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. \u2013 including code enforcement at venues. <\/p>\n

\u201cVenue is not the issue,\u201d he said. \u201cThe venue is your ally.\u201d <\/p>\n

Grant was not in attendance at the Friday press conference. <\/p>\n

As the Revelers Hall press conference concluded, a pianist and trombonist began to play jazz tunes and the music trickled out into the street. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, council member Chad West and other city leaders gathered at Revelers Hall, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,106,104,103,4661],"class_list":{"0":"post-30347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-dallas-city-hall","10":"tag-dallas-headlines","11":"tag-dallas-news","12":"tag-pop-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}