Shooting weddings at City Hall will no longer be as easy as picking up a camera.

Under new rules quietly introduced by city officials, contractors — including photographers — will now need to be on a verified list. The restriction applies to events licensed through the City Hall Events Office and includes evening weddings, corporate holiday celebrations, film wrap parties, nonprofit galas and conventions, but not weddings performed by the county clerk in the rotunda or commercial photography.

The request for applications for the qualified vendor list, which lasts three years and will not be updated until 2020, was posted Feb. 6 and closed March 15. It was later extended to 2 p.m. this Friday after an uproar from contractors who said they didn’t know the list was being put together. About 74 percent of the events permitted by the Events Office are weddings.

“The application was never posted publicly,” said photographer Emily Gutman, who shoots about 120 weddings in City Hall each year. “It’s on the government website, if you know where to look. The problem is they are not announcing this list widely enough, and then they are going to cut people off from even applying to it for three years. If you’re not in the know now, you’re screwed.”

Back to Gallery SF requiring vendors working at City Hall to be on... 6 1 of 6 Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle 2 of 6 Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle 3 of 6 Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle 4 of 6 Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle 5 of 6 Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle 6 of 6 Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle











On Monday, Gutman hurried to drop off an application that will — she hopes — allow her to continue shooting weddings in the historic venue. Gutman, who is based in Oakland, has worked exclusively at City Hall since 2015 and said her small business would have been unduly impacted had the deadline not been extended.

A panel of three city employees is reviewing the applications and will announce who made the list on May 15. There is no cap to the number of contractors to be approved. The only paperwork currently required for permitted events in City Hall is filing a certificate of insurance with the Events Office.

Most city-run and owned public venues already have exclusive concessioners, like Bill Graham Civic Auditorium and city parks. Having a qualified vendor is a common approach to managing areas in which the city has little expertise, like selling cocktails.

City Hall Events Director John Caldon, who was hired last year, said clients booking events in the building have repeatedly asked for a list of recommended vendors. This is the first time the Events Office has tried to compile one.

“I think it will be a drastic improvement,” he said. “Right now, the idea is that anybody who can provide insurance and sign the rules and regulations can work in the building. But without a list, that creates an unfair advantage to the larger firms who are providing event services. We also just can’t throw up a completely unvetted list.”

But he acknowledged outreach for the list, for which the office had no budget, could have been better. Leaflets were distributed around City Hall, and mailers were sent to 305 contractors who had filed paperwork with the Events Office in the past. The information was also tweeted on its account, @sfcityhallevent, which has only 117 followers. About 250 responses have come in so far, he said, and only half came from the office mailing list.

“The important thing is that people’s expectation of city government is that we try to innovate and do our best to provide opportunities for businesses,” Caldon said. “You try something new, and you aren’t sure how it’s going to work. Being that we have extended the deadline, hopefully folks can look at that and say, ‘They are listening to us.’”

Regardless of the deadlines, photographer Jenny Morgan called the list an unwarranted interference with her business.

“This is absolutely ridiculous, because it is an unnoticed application process,” Morgan, of the outer Sunset, said. “I have been shooting at City Hall for the past four years, and this would take away a lot of my business. It also affects a huge percentage of small photography businesses in the Bay Area. It is an arbitrary exercise of governmental power to anonymously pick winners and losers among competing businesses.”

But other businesses see it as an opportunity to expand. Lori Yaralian, a catering manager at Patina, which has an exclusive contract to provide food and drinks at events hosted at the War Memorial & Performing Arts Center, said she hoped the list would help her company pick up more clients.

“It’s great for people like us,” she said. “Since the city doesn’t have a list now, people wouldn’t know that we can cater at City Hall, too. The list isn’t complete, and I don’t know yet whether we will make it, but it could open up more business and give people the opportunity to see what we are capable of.”

The three-year list could be opened sooner than 2020 if there is interest, Caldon said.

“The response has been overwhelming,” he said. “When we try new things, there is always going to be a learning curve. The important thing is to be listening and ready to change course.”

Lizzie Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ljohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LizzieJohnsonnn

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