I’m disappointed in the Visalia CIty Council. They basically vetoed the Planning Commission’s decision to revoke the Conditional Use Permit that allowed Rookies Sports Bar and Grill to have live entertainment. After years of escalating police responses to the sports bar, the council did not support the findings of city staff and the police department, and decided to “re-negotiate” (my term, not the Council’s) the rules under which Rookies will be allowed to continue (resume?) live entertainment.

The bar was declared a “public nuisance” back in 2021, and even after numerous contacts since with the city about the problems, it has been experiencing increasing numbers of incidents requiring police response. The process of dealing with Rookies has been ongoing, resulting with the Planning Commission’s decision recently to revoke the Conditional Use Permit (first issued in 2011) to allow live entertainment. The revocation does not close Rookies, it can still operate as a restaurant and bar, which is its primary, legally permitted, business model. Only the live entertainment is affected.

It sure looks to me, standing here on the outside looking in, like the owner of Rookies has had plenty of time to correct the problems the city has been dealing with since before 2021, but has failed to do so. Some think his position on downtown association boards (private entities, not part of City government) has granted him special status, allowing him to use those positions to get special treatment. I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s easy to suspect something is going on. There’s a lot of smoke around this situation, and you know what they say about smoke.

To “renegotiate” the deal with Rookies after the Planning Commission did it’s due diligence in acting to revoke the CUP (Conditional Use Permit), sends a message to other potential trouble spots downtown that they can get away with thumbing their nose at the city.

Kudos to Councilman Soto for being the only ‘no’ vote on the motion to “renegotiate” the CUP. (Nelsen recused himself, and left the Council chambers while the issue was being discussed and voted on.)

We’ll have to see how this shakes out. Stay tuned.