Today's Gazette - Letters To The Editor

In today's Gazette (online version included in my favorite website links) Dr. Robert W. Barker echoed what I've been hearing as well. Further reason why individual citizens needn't wait until our politicians or their surrogates step up. The woman I mentioned early on, Nora Pastrick, has been the driving force behind the City of Concord's 4th of July parade for years.

However, after ramming through the permit process for our Beaver Festival (thank you Joann Tool) I can appreciate that under normal circumstances obtaining a permit can seem daunting. My response is to respectfully request the process be streamlined to more closely resemble best practices of our surrounding cities.

When I initially downloaded the City's special events permit, I was surprised by its length (event permit) Out of curiosity I requested permit applications from both Concord and Pleasant Hill, each two pages, then decided to compare these against what I would consider an extreme example, San Francisco, and discovered it too was one page (double sided.)

But for me the real sticky wicket can be found in these two passages that define who and what may be granted a special event permit.

"The City maintains various Commissions who also have the authority to grant or deny uses of areas such as parks and the Marina. Your event may be subject to Commission approval as well as approval of the Special Events Permit."

"The City of Martinez reserves the right to reject any application for an event that it determines to be inappropriate, unsafe or otherwise unsuitable for the community."

Now I don't pretend to be an authority on First Amendment rights, but if this were truly the case I suspect the ACLU might have something to say if a citizen or group of citizens had been denied a permit because the event in question didn't jibe with whoever heads up these various commissions.

So in addition to streamlining the process, I believe it's in our city's best interests to remove this language and reconsider the approval process. Just a quick review of FindLaw.com and I found examples (case law) where our city could be exposed.