part 2:
Gay bar owner Mike Vellucci reportedly threatens city officials, city scrambles over itself not to give him a hard time
The Tavern on the Island saga gets weirder by the day as city hall launches a very limited internal investigation into its own code enforcement department; mayor decrees that code enforcement head Hans Behrens cannot be quoted at city council meetings; bar owner Mike Vellucci is reported to the cops for issuing threats against city officials
-- John Patten, 03/17/08
-- jpatten@veniceflorida.com

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RELATED BACKGROUND:
Part 1: Look Hans, no permits

Deja vu
Five years ago, a nightclub fire in Warwick, Rhode Island, killed 96 people. The fire was started when pyrotechnics special effects went out of control during a performance by 80's hair band Great White.

Within the past few months, a company headed up by Tammy and Mike Vellucci has opened up a gay nightclub here in Venice. The company is The Venice Trust and, according to corporate records on file with the state, is headquartered in Warwick, Rhode Island. In case you missed it, that's the same town that brought you the Great White nightclub fire in February of 1993.

CNN quoted West Warwick Fire Chief John Hall in 1993 as saying that there were no fire sprinklers in the nightclub as sprinklers were not legally required. According to some later news reports, fire sprinklers actually were legally required in the nightclub at the time of the fire.

Tavern on the Island, located at 127 West Tampa Avenue, opened their doors for business on December 31, 2007.

Without permits.

Without construction or electrical inspections.

More importantly, without any fire sprinklers.

According to Venice Fire Chief John Reed, Tavern on the Island is not legally required to have fire sprinklers.

City internal investigation finally started
Reed's statement is contained in documents that are part of an ongoing limited internal investigation that City Manager Marty Black has (finally) launched into the city's Building and Code Enforcement Department.

After numerous complaints and inquiries from the public, including an anonymous rant in the Venice Gondolier (PDF - 1 page), and after it had been announced that an investigation had been launched by Venice Florida! dot com, Black issued a memo earlier this month that demanded written explanations of the status of construction and other permits for Tavern on the Island. The memo, dated March 5 (PDF - 1 page), was issued to Fire Inspector Jack Stevenson, City Planner Roger Clark, Deputy Building Official Dan Weigner, and the Building and Code Enforcement Department's head, Hans Behrens.

Black's memo gave the four men a deadline of March 10 to explain why the business had been allowed to open without any of the normally required permits. Behrens was allowed unspecified extra time to complete the assignment due to personal and family matters.

All of this comes after Behrens pulled Code Inspector John Patek off of the case. Patek was prepared to issue numerous construction permit violations to the business back in November of last year, but was prevented from doing so by Behrens. Behrens' justification for putting the skids on code enforcement at the tavern, as explained to this writer, was that no construction had taken place at the location. It's a stance that is seemingly ludicrous after reading Patek's written commentary of photos that had been emailed to Behrens prior to a January 17th interview of Behrens.

Venice Florida! dot com has acquired copies of the responses from all parties except Behrens. A public records request has been made for that document.

What is not being investigated by city hall: any prior code enforcement and permitting situations that bear eerie similarities to this present case. Like the Venice Island Pub fiasco of a couple of years back, for instance.

Internal documents indicate that Behrens' answers to Venice Florida! dot com were deceptive
The most damning information comes from Behrens own second-in-command, Dan Weigner. After reviewing renovation plans that had been submitted by the tavern's owners, Weigner wrote in his response to Black (PDF - 2 pages) that the plans were "lacking in both substance and accuracy."

Weigner noted in his response that the tavern has applied for an occupancy permit with the designation of Assembly. That designation would normally trip a requirement for mandatory installation of a fire sprinkler system. "It is my personal conclusion, having garnished as much background information as possible, that the project represents a change from a Business/Residential mixed use occupancy to an Assembly (A2)/Residential/Business mixed use occupancy. The space appears to have been enlarged by perhaps incorporating the former construction company area into the nightclub space... Work has been completed without the required permits and inspections and occupancy has taken place in violation of the requirements for a Certificate of Occupancy."

Weigner's report also noted the requirement for fire sprinklers in a nightclub-type business and the fact that Tavern on the Island lacked any sprinklers.

It's a stunning about-face for Weigner, one that puts the blame for this entire fiasco squarely on the desk of his boss, Hans Behrens. What Weigner doesn't address is why he is only coming out with these statements now that the heat is on from the city manager's office. Weigner acknowledges that he was more than aware of what was going on, and his job description throws much of the responsibility onto him as well as Behrens. What Weigner doesn't explain and takes great pains to avoid -- why didn't he make any of these objections earlier?

Weigner's response also fully justifies the allegations made by this web site about the lack of needed permits at the bar and about Behren's deceptive answers in response to inquiries as documented in an article published on March 15, Look Hans, no permits.

No sprinklers are present, none are needed -- nightclub is a store, not a nightclub
Fire Department Chief John Reed took exception to Weigner's conclusions. In an email to Marty Black dated March 11 (PDF - 1 page), Reed wrote, "there is not a reason to close Tavern on the Island at this point from a fire safety perspective. They are still classified as a Mercantile Occupancy [a merchant/store designation] and fire sprinklers are not required under that classification."

That begs a different question: no occupancy permit has been issued at all yet to the business, so how can they be classified as anything, Mercantile or Assembly? Moreover, as I noted in a follow-up email to Black and city council (PDF - 3 pages), Florida Statutes appear to have a requirement, based on public safety, that the Fire Chief must challenge a wrong occupancy designation, and thus make the requirement for sprinklers, when there is a conflict between fire department and building code requirements.

Mayor, city officials back pedal
Meanwhile, other city officials, including Mayor Ed Martin, Fire Inspector Jack Stevenson, and City Planner Roger Clark, appear to be back pedaling away from the controversy as much and as hastily as possible.

Clark wrote in his response to Black (PDF - 2 pages) that his involvement was limited as his job revolves around the local business tax receipt process only. Clark stated he had some knowledge of a sign permit violation and an unpermitted temporary storage bin, but that both of those issues had been resolved.

Joseph Heller: eat your heart out
More confusing, and somewhat hilarious in its conclusion, was Stevenson's written response (PDF - 3 pages). Stevenson gave a long and rambling narrative that confusingly jumped backwards and forwards in time. While Stevenson offered up a somewhat extensive account of events, he offered little to no information as to why he had not intervened other than to write that he didn't believe that it was legal for him to do so: "An occupational license is a tax. Any action to make the collection of the occupational tax conditional on any other stipulation [such as a requirement for fire sprinklers] was not allowed."

In other words, Stevenson appears to be arguing that none of this was his fault as a fire inspector and fire marshal for a very simple and easy to understand reason: Florida law is clear in its requirements that he not enforce the Florida laws that he is statutorily required by Florida law to enforce.

Got that? Simple, really, when you think about it.

OK. Moving right along...

Ed don't wanna hear it
At the March 11 city council meeting, I reported my findings to council, including the fact that Behrens had given multiple deliberately deceptive answers to some very simple questions from me. Mayor Martin attempted to limit the content of my presentation, including refusing to allow me to quote Behrens' on-the-record statements that had been made to me.

"Do not quote," Martin stated to me from the dais during a televised city council meeting. Martin's justification for the startlingly sudden new prohibition on quoting city employees at council meetings was that such quotes constituted "personal comments." Martin justified this brand new and previously unstated prohibition on otherwise valid speech on the grounds that the city had no documentation to back up my assertions, this despite the fact that almost all of the public documents referenced in this article were in council chambers at the time -- in a pile in front of City Manager Marty Black.

Martin followed up his comments with an apparent threat of force: "I would ask you to comply with that, please, otherwise we'll have to restrain [you]" (VIDEO - YouTube).

That was at the beginning of the March 11 city council meeting. Apparently the city attorney informed Martin during the mid-meeting break that he cannot make such prohibitions against legally protected speech with a threat of force, as at the end of the council meeting I was able to get into the record the very information that the mayor had inexplicably tried to prevent earlier (VIDEO - YouTube).

I have tried several times to talk to the mayor since then to get either a clarification or a retraction. So far, all I have received is a "this will not be difficult for you to understand" statement during the council meeting of the 11th and a "no comment" during the council mid-meeting break. All of this is extremely surprising and confusing as it appears to be highly out of character for Martin, who had campaigned on a platform of citizen inclusion.

I asked Venice Florida! dot com's attorney, Stanley Marable, for his opinion. Marable concluded that the mayor had no legal basis to restrict constitutionally protected speech, and that I was well within legal bounds.

As to the Mayor's threat to "restrain," Marable noted a similarity to another case he his handling. Marable also represents Venice Taxpayers League president Herb Levine in an ongoing lawsuit against the city, this stemming from an illegal arrest in 2002 that took place in council chambers after Levine, on the record, referred to City Manager George Hunt as a liar.

Vellucci reportedly threatens code enforcement board, employees
Meanwhile, things have gone from weird to weirder at the location of the bar.

Mike Vellucci is arguably the co-owner of the bar, as his wife is listed on papers filed with the state as one of seven owners. Vellucci is somehow tied to The Venice Trust, a company with no list of owners and officers, that owns the entire strip mall that the bar is located in. Most of the businesses that were present last year in the building have moved elsewhere in the city, including a bicycle repair shop. The former bike shop is still strangely open, with signs in the front window indicating that bicycles are still for sale. According to a city employee, Vellucci himself is selling used bicycles from the location, apparently without any corresponding business licenses or permits.

Additionally, last Friday, the Venice Police Department responded to a call about Vellucci threatening city employees.

According to a police report (PDF - 4 pages), Code Enforcement Officer Pat Stuehler visited the tavern and was told by Mike Vellucci that "he would get even with anyone that found him guilty of any violation, financial or whatever." Stuehler wrote that she felt threatened and that the threat was also aimed at members of the city's Code Enforcement Board.

Police Officer Peter Sorrentino spoke with Vellucci. Sorrentino wrote in his report that "Vellucci said he had a conversation with Stuehler and may have been a little agitated... Vellucci said he was not making threats... Vellucci said he is a 'hot head' but is trying to discuss the issues in a calm, civilized manner."

Vellucci is due before the city's Code Enforcement Board on April 3 for...

wait for it, cuz this is funny...

 ...for violations of the city's sign codes.

All of this, and Behrens lets his people actually issue a violation...

...for sign codes.

Woop de frickin' doo.

John Patten is the head of Web Operations for Creative Pages, and has worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times.