Troubled downtown Petaluma bar moves out, alcohol use permit suspended (2024)

Jamison’s Roaring Donkey, the troubled bar temporarily shut down after its bouncers allegedly beat a patron last month, is permanently closed – and it remains uncertain whether any bar will ever again be allowed in that Kentucky Street location.

Petaluma’s Planning Commission voted 5-1 on Tuesday, May 14 to revoke the conditional use permit at 146 Kentucky St. at the end of a 90-day suspension period, but city staff said they could return to the commission with an amended permit before the end of that suspension period.

Commissioner Rick Whisman was the sole nay vote; Commissioner Jessica Mozes was absent.

The conditional use permit, which allows for sale of alcohol as well as live entertainment, was issued to the address, not the business. If city staff returns with an amended permit, another bar could potentially fill the Roaring Donkey’s place, though that is yet to be determined.

“We don’t want another alcohol establishment to reopen at 146 Kentucky St. without an amended (conditional use permit) that incorporates 2024’s best practices and gives the city the tools it needs,” said Jordan Green, assistant city attorney, during the nearly two-hour hearing.

The hearing came weeks after five bouncers were accused of assaulting a bar patron on April 20, and after two years of meetings and correspondences between city staff and the bar’s owners, Brian Tatko and Greg Johnson, to reduce alcohol-related nuisances and improve business operations.

After the arrest of the bouncers and amid an ongoing investigation, “It was very clear they (the bar owners) weren’t even following what they had previously submitted as some of their safety protocols,” said Petaluma police Chief Brian Miller during the hearing.

“We provided some examples to them. Offered guidance and they indicated they had the ability and their attorney was going to assist them in the process, and we were still waiting to see something sufficient,” he said.

The bar owners had been considering selling the business, according to a 30-page Nov. 18 letter and security plan sent by the Roaring Donkey’s lawyer, Patrick Ciocca, to city staff.

After the owners submitted additional information, in late January Green told them the security plan was not approved because it was “generic,” failed to follow best practices and lacked specificity. She also provided four pages of detailed feedback on how the owners could improve their plan.

But on May 6, property owner Evan Dailey posted a public notice to the bar owners requiring them to provide an updated security plan within days or vacate the premises.

During last week’s public hearing, Dailey’s lawyer, Michael Bluto, indicated they were moving forward with the eviction. As of Monday, most stools inside the former bar were gone and all TVs, tables and wall hangings had been removed.

Permit suspended

Coming out of the Planning Commission meeting, the landlord will be allowed to request an additional 90-day extension to pause the revocation – referred to as a “tolling”– to help search for prospective tenants. The conditional use permit will be suspended in the interim.

If city staff return to the commission before the end of the suspension period and recommend an amended conditional use permit, the revocation will expire.

However, if staff do not return to the commission to make recommendations or to issue an amended permit, then the existing permit will be officially revoked after 90 days – meaning a bar will not be able to set up shop at that address unless the city issues a new permit.

“If we can’t come back to the (Planning Commission), to you, with an amended (conditional use permit) then we don’t need to re-present this case. It would just be an automatic revocation,” Green said.

The Roaring Donkey, which had been operating under a conditional use permit issued in 2004, was not the first bar at that address. From 2004 to 2009 the site was home to Infusions Lounge, after which new owners called it The Rocks. Then in 2014 Tatko and Johnson took over and called it Jamison’s Roaring Donkey, according to a staff report.

Council member Janice Cader Thompson, who serves as the commission’s liaison, said she did not want to see empty downtown storefronts and characterized the amended permit as “a clean-up.”

Bar owners respond

In a Tuesday email, Tatko and Johnson submitted a statement through their lawyer Ciocca to the Argus-Courier alleging that city staff continually moved the goal posts, making it impossible for them to comply.

“We amended and resubmitted an updated plan that was 23 pages long and highly detailed. No bar in town had or has a more comprehensive security plan than the one we submitted,” the owners stated.