By Marcus McClain
NEA Courier
Council members revisited a discussion on both draft ordinances for special events and block parties within the city in the Tuesday police and fire committee meeting.
In previous months, councilman Matt Perrin introduced a draft pertaining to special events alone. The draft defines special events as “any march, demonstration, walk, run, bike ride/race, procession or motorcade consisting of persons, animals, or vehicles or a combination thereof upon the streets, or within the parks within the city with an intent of attracting public attention that substantially interferes with the normal flow or regulation of traffic upon the streets, and/or public parks.”
In turn it does not apply to private gatherings or activities on private property that may inadvertently interfere with the normal traffic flow. For reasons such as these, police chief Ross Thompson’s focus is shifted to block parties. He also introduced a draft ordinance in previous months in an attempt to resolve issues with block parties.
“In my recommendation, what [Perrin] submitted does not touch the needs that we have. It’s not about me enforcing or not enforcing ordinances, because the parades have not been a problem. But we have had problems with block parties. Part of that is what needs to be addressed. I don’t see anything in the [special events draft] that helps do anything different that we’ve done to this point.”
Perrin offered a rebuttal, stating, “Having served on the Main Street board in previous years, they have never had to fill out an application in the past. If they’re not having to do it, then other organizations think that it’s not a [requirement]. That’s where we got into this whole mess.”
Thompson later went on to state that for recurring city events, such as Christmas parades, he often approves the event without the full application process being filled by the organizers. Using the Christmas parade example he stated, “I just take care of it. I never made them do it. There are a lot of times that I know these events are coming up. You contact us and we work with you. We know we’re going to approve it, so we just do it.”
He also added, “There may be a charge involved in that, but we don’t collect those fees anyway.”
‘That feels like different rules for different folks,” Perrin responded.
Councilwoman Babara McAdoo-Brothers voiced a separate issue with the draft special events draft.
“We’re not checking to see if the vendors and food trucks that come in have city permits, sales tax IDs, health inspections, ect. Everything that the brick and mortar businesses have to have. These events should be required to have the same thing,” McAdoo-Brothers said. “This does not actually cover the content of what’s going on downtown. This gives the vendors coming in for events the right to haul off every dollar they can and leave the city.”
The conversation also shifted to alcohol license permits with those beverages being sold on main street. Human resources director Melisa Logan clarified how these events are organized pertaining to commercial vendors on Main Street.
“Main street submits a packet to the mayor’s office and one of the forms goes to the chief of police. He has to state that there’s no reason to not allow the event with a temporary permit. [Additionally], for any organization in the city, there’s a letter that has to come from the mayor’s office. We give the temporary license to the committee or event holder. It is the responsibility of the event holder and it's their responsibility to make sure sub-vendors are [in compliance].”
No final decision was made concerning either draft as the conversation will be revisited in next month’s meeting.