Delray’s event debate
We will find out tonight whether the Delray Beach City Commission really wants to reduce the number and intensity of downtown events.
Delray Beach Arts., Inc., which sponsors Garlic Fest, has appealed the Special Events Technical Advisory Committee’s denial of the request to hold Garlic Fest next Feb. 10-12. It would take place the same month as the pro tournament at the tennis center. City Manager Don Cooper said the new policy allows just one “major event” per month. The policy defines “major” as an event that lasts for more than one day, draws at least 10,000 people, costs at least $20,000 in city services and requires a road closure.
Nancy Stewart-Franczak is president of Delray Beach Arts, Inc., and a principal of Festival Management Group. It’s the umbrella organization for Garlic Fest, Delray Affair, the Wine & Seafood Fest and the Bacon & Bourbon Fest. Changes to Delray Beach’s special events policy would most affect Festival Management Group.
In a June 8 letter to Cooper, Stewart-Franczak requested an appeal regarding the date and challenged the city’s estimate of the event’s costs. She said Delray Beach has allowed Garlic Fest and the tennis tournament to take place in February for 17 years, and that the 2017 dates “have been on the books since December 2014.”
In addition, Stewart-Franczak said her group has made “extensive changes and upgrades” based on comments from the city. One is to offer free admission to Delray Beach residents. Commissioners, based on comments from constituents, have complained that Garlic Fest and other events draw mostly out-of-towners who make the weekend miserable for locals. The free admission, Stewart-Franczak said, “will give us accurate data” regarding that complaint. She also claimed that denial “seems to be a violation of due process,” griped that the city had delayed a decision, pointed out that she has contracts with sponsors and said the Event Evaluation Form has not been completed.
Two days later, Cooper responded to Stewart-Franczak. He called the one-major-event-per-month policy “a directive from the city commission” that the special events committee cannot waive. Thus the need to appeal. Cooper acknowledged the “positive changes. . .in lessening the pact of the event.” Among other things, the event would have 17 fewer exhibitors and would provide a shuttle service to reduce traffic congestion.
Regarding Stewart-Franczak’s claim that the old policy should prevail because “new policies and procedures have not yet been adopted,” Cooper said the city actually has adopted the policies. The commission, Cooper said, wanted to “implement” those policies for events taking place after Oct. 1. Most of Stewart-Franczak’s other points, Cooper said, were irrelevant to the appeal.
Obviously, Stewart-Franczak has a financial interest in the outcome. Commissioners also understood when they raised this issue that these special events are long-standing and have followings. Commissioners, though, also spoke of hearing from residents who said the events now need Delray Beach more than Delray Beach needs the events, so the city should minimize the impact and not incur costs.
City staff has produced a policy that supposedly carries out the commission’s wish, so the commission’s response will be telling. The limit of one event per month is designed to allow time for cleanup and to avoid subjecting downtown to repeated events. If the commission undercuts Cooper and grants the appeal, what good is the policy? What about all the work that went into it?
Stewart-Franczak argues that the 2017 version of Garlic Fest would require no road closures, thus making it an “intermediate” event. Cooper said Monday that road closures are “not the only criteria for a major event,” and that “cost to the city and numbers are also a factor.”
Mayor Carey Glickstein, who with Commissioner Shelly Petrolia has been most supportive of a new special events policy, won’t be at tonight’s meeting. With luck, Vice Mayor Al Jacquet will show up to run it. Petrolia likely will vote to deny the appeal, as Stewart-Franczak acknowledged in her letter. Stewart-Franczak, however, also implied that Jordana Jarjura and Mitch Katz would support having Garlic Fest and the tennis tournament in the same month.
When I told Jarjura about the letter on Monday, she emailed Stewart-Franczak to say that she has not taken a position and will meet today with city staff. In her letter, Stewart-Franczak said she had commission support because the tennis tournament doesn’t draw big crowds. Jarjura responded that she “would need to know what the actual impact of the tennis event was. . .and whether the city had the capacity to support that event and the Garlic Fest.”
Katz told me that he is “very torn” but believes that tennis is “not that big an event.” He wants to hear from staff and Stewart-Franczak about alternate dates and alternate locations. In another letter, Stewart-Franczak said the former Office Depot site “would be an ideal/perfect location to use as event grounds.”
With Glickstein absent, a 2-2 vote is possible. In that event, Stewart-Franczak would lose the appeal. The vote, though, will be as much about the special events policy as it is about Garlic Fest.
More Boca vs. Beach & Park District
The exchange of communications between Boca Raton and the Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District is training people on both sides for the State Department.
A year ago came the first diplomatic cable. Boca Raton wanted to change the operating agreement between the city and the district, which the Legislature created in 1974. The district responded that the city’s proposed changes would violate its governing legislation.
For months, however, district board members didn’t specify those complaints. After some back channel negotiations, board chairman Bob Rollins last week delivered to the city council a revised agreement.
Rollins told me that the main issues include fee-setting, operating costs and input on scheduling. Unfortunately, the revision wasn’t a comparison. It didn’t show what the district had changed. The most efficient response would have been to underline new portions and draw lines through portions that the district had eliminated. That’s how bills make their way through the Legislature.
As of Monday, the city was reading over the new version. Whoever finally resolves this dispute might have a place in the next presidential administration.
Hold on Harms
Speaking of the beach and park district, Assistant Director Briann Harms has told board members that she does not want them to consider her for the director’s job until after the November election.
Board members were ready to promote Harms this month before she asked for the delay. Three of the five board seats come open this year. Chairman Bob Rollins told me Harms didn’t want to take the job with the possibility of a new majority looming.
So the board’s attorney, Arthur Koski, will continue serving also as interim director. That would be the same Arthur Koski who is suing the city in federal court over approval of Chabad East Boca.
Interim Delray attorney?
With the Delray Beach City Commission in a holding pattern over the choice of a new city attorney, City Manager Don Cooper wants the commission to make Janice Rustin the interim attorney on a short-term basis.
Rustin is the most senior of the three lawyers who will remain on staff after Pfeffer’s last day, which is Friday. The fifth position is vacant. Commissioners have expressed interest in Pfeffer continuing to help the city on a spot basis, but Pfeffer told me Monday that he must work out details with his new firm. Pfeffer expects to submit a proposal this week for his services after Friday.
Pfeffer, however, will be away for about a month, and Cooper believes that Delray Beach’s charter requires that the commission name “a city attorney designate in order to continue the city’s business.” Rustin has worked for the city almost a decade. The other two attorneys were hired in the last few weeks. The commission will decide tonight.
OSS management
A big change is underway regarding Delray Beach’s most popular public place – Old School Square.
The management agreement between the city and the non-profit that operates Old School Square on city land dates to 1990 and has been amended several times. On tonight’s city commission agenda is an item to extend the group’s lease, which expires on July 31, on a month-by-month basis no longer than Dec. 31.
City Manager Don Cooper said in an email, “We are seeking a unified management of the (Old School Square) facility so one entity will be responsible for what occurs at the location.” Not surprisingly, Cooper said that “working those details out is taking some time.”
New job for Harris
Ty Harris, Boca Raton’s former director of development services, has taken a job with the Gray Robinson law firm.
Harris, who has a law degree, will carry the title “of counsel.” He will work out of the firm’s Boca Raton office, whose attorneys often have business before the city. Harris told me Monday, however, that he will be working at first in other areas of Florida for the statewide firm. Gray Robinson’s clients in Boca Raton are developers, but the firm also represents local governments. Harris said his work will be on both sides of development applications.
Meanwhile, the city will hire a recruiting firm to search for Harris’ successor. Harris joined the city last summer. He resigned because of an insurance dispute. The city’s carrier wouldn’t cover a drug Harris’ son needs. Gray Robinson’s carrier will.
