(Photo from SavoyOrlando.com)
ORLANDO | Brandon Bracale-Llewellyn, owner of the LGBTQ bar Savoy, took to Facebook Oct. 4 calling out District 3 City Commissioner Robert Stuart about comments Stuart was alleged to have said about fining Savoy for noise complaints at a recent neighborhood meeting.
“[W]e have been successfully working with our neighbors to address and rectify their concerns about noise at night for several weeks now. Including spending thousands for [a] new sound system inside and out to mitigate sound outside our space. During this meeting, Commissioner Stuart referenced that he would get Code Enforcement involved and potentially start leveling fines of $100/day against Savoy,” Bracale-Llewellyn wrote.
Stuart, speaking with Watermark by phone Oct. 8, says that several points in Bracale-Llewellyn’s post were inaccurate and that the issue with Savoy’s noise complaints is not a city council issue but one with the code enforcement board.
“The code enforcement officer said that, in response to the neighborhood complaints about the noise coming from Savoy, that they had gone to Savoy and asked them to take those speakers down because they were not legal,” Stuart says. “You can’t have outside sound without permits in the City of Orlando. They didn’t have a permit.”
Stuart says that during the meeting he did not threaten Savoy with fines, he simply said that code enforcement’s goal is to bring businesses into code.
“The goal isn’t to go around fining people. But if you don’t come into code the only option the code enforcement board has is fining. So all I was saying was let’s get you up into code,” Stuart says.
Nicolette Springer, one of the candidates looking to unseat Stuart from District 3 in next month’s election, spoke with Watermark during a campaign fundraiser at Savoy on Oct. 6, and says she was at the meeting and was upset at the way Stuart addressed the issue.
“Some residents brought up issues about noise coming from Savoy and the M Lounge, and code enforcement had a representative there,” Springer says. “And code enforcement said that they were working with both establishments to rectify the problem … When we got to the subject of Savoy, the commissioner did interject and stated that he would encourage the fine of $100 a day and that if they didn’t comply then they should put a lien on the leases.”
Springer says she did not speak up at the meeting to avoid getting “into a back and forth,” but said several residences did speak out saying they did not want to see that happen.
Stuart says during the meeting all he said was that code enforcement’s goal is to bring businesses into code and the way to do that is to get a permit.
“As a commissioner, my role is not to go through this with them, my role is to make sure they have an avenue to solve this,” Stuart says. “If you have a speaker permit then the code enforcement will stop because they will be in compliance. If they aren’t in compliance the only choice the code enforcement board has is to fine them to bring them into compliance, but nobody wants to do that.
“I’m trying to defend everyone in this situation,” he continued. “There are some in the neighborhood who are complaining. They complain to the police, the police show up. They complain to code enforcement and code enforcement shows up. I don’t know what the role of the commissioner would be other than to say please come into compliance and they’ve not done that.”
In Bracale-Llewellyn’s post, he also addressed an issue with there being no safe crossing on Orange Ave. near Savoy.
“There have been several occasions where myself and neighboring business operators have contacted Commissioner Stuart’s office in the past to discuss traffic concerns and our customers’ safety crossing Orange Avenue. He has left me with no response, nor offered any attempts at a solution,” he wrote.
Stuart says he has no record of being contacted in regard to crosswalk issues but that if any business owner has concerns to juts pick up the phone and give him a call.
“If there is an issue, just say something to us so we can expedite it but no one has said anything to me about it, and I can’t conduct business across Facebook,” Stuart says. “ As far as the crosswalk issue, Orange Ave. is a state highway and the state is looking at making changes and we are working with them to try and do that but we don’t put anything across a state highway unless they allow us to.”
For his part, Bracale-Llewellyn says he has invested in a new sound system that will cut down the noise and hopefully stop any noise complaints going to code enforcement.
“So code enforcement had been out a couple times and we would turn [the music] down, so we had help to design a new system,” Bracale-Llewellyn says. “We spent a few thousand dollars redoing the whole patio sound system so instead of two speakers trying to cover the space, we now have 12 speakers that surround the space so it feels loud inside but the sounds doesn’t carry out. It has been operational for a few weeks now and we haven’t had any noise complaints.”
