Council Backs Idea of Consolidated Film Permit Office

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved in concept a plan to slash red tape and other bureaucratic annoyances that reportedly have made the city an inhospitable place for film companies.

On an 11-0 vote, the council directed a transition team, composed of a Cecil B. De Mille-size cast of city officials and lawmakers, to prepare a contract in 60 days to create a nonprofit entity that would oversee a streamlined system for issuing film permits.

“This is sending a huge positive signal to the film industry that it’s welcome here,” said Patti Stolkin Archuletta, director of the California Film Commission.

In recent years, local economists and industry boosters have complained that a growing amount of the film production business has been slipping away to more aggressive jurisdictions, including Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Canada. “We’ve been losing market share,” Archuletta said.

As with any good Hollywood-influenced production, there was a little something for everyone in Wednesday’s action.

According to its sponsors, the new system should free desk-bound film office staff so they can get into the field and help resolve conflicts between film companies and neighborhoods tired of the traffic and noise that come with hosting movie productions.

Last week, when the matter was first before the council, Councilwoman Ruth Galanter upset the streamlining faction when she proposed that each permit be approved by the local council member.

That drew howls from Mayor Richard Riordan, a fan of less government, who said her motion threatened to derail the streamlining initiative. But on Wednesday, a toned-down Galanter proposal was approved.

The new nonprofit agency, scheduled to begin operations July 1, would also take over the work now performed by the Los Angeles County Film Office.

Together, the city and county film offices issue more than 6,000 film permits per year.

Although Wednesday’s action was applauded as a big step in the right direction of business retention, it also produced some we’ll-believe-it-when-we-see-it skepticism from film industry leaders.

“There’s the devil in the details,” fretted Kathleen Milnes, vice president of the Public Affairs Coalition of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. “This was just approval in concept.”

Still unresolved are what specific guidelines will govern filming in so-called sensitive areas. In these areas of high filming activity, the new film office is supposed to develop guidelines in consultation with local council members and community leaders, according to an amendment authored by Galanter.

Stephanie Hershey Liner, the head of the county’s film office, and Cody Cluff, assistant deputy mayor for entertainment industry affairs in Riordan’s office, said the plan should significantly reduce the time it takes a film company to get a permit.

It now may take 24 hours to a week for such a permit to be approved by the city, Cluff said. Under the new rules, it should take a couple of hours to three or four days, he said. Some cities, such as San Diego, require no permits.

Along with the efficiency from city-county consolidation, Cluff said, it is also hoped that the new agency will create savings that can be pumped into marketing Los Angeles as a film production site. Consolidation also should ease the confusion and inconvenience to film-makers of having to get permits from both the city and the county in an area of confusing jurisdictions and boundaries, Liner said.

The current county film office issues permits to film productions operating in the county’s unincorporated area and in the cities of Santa Clarita, West Hollywood, South Gate, Inglewood and Diamond Bar. Eventually, some planners hope to have a film office that incorporates a six-county Southern California region.