City Council Cuts In-Kind Support for Street Festivals

Festival goers enjoy the street-fair, arts, and entertainment during the Goombay festivities.

Staff reports

Some Asheville natives and long time residents are raising an eyebrow in opposition to the latest cuts to in-kind sponsorships of festival within the community. Asheville City Council recently voted 4-2 in favor of in-kind cuts for long running cultural festivals to include the Greek Festival, Goombay, the Hard Lox Jewish Food Festival, and 20 other co-supported city events.

Diane Ruggiero, Superintendent of Cultural Arts for the city responded to various questions from Council, some of those being: what was the criterion of public purpose used in the rating procedure? Another was, whether staff had talked to the event organizers of Goombay about this process of not providing non-essential services, and will they (staff) work with them to find other organizations to supplement the city’s cost reduction?

Mayor Bellamy
opposed the cuts stating they should have affected all festivals and
events across the board. However Councilman Mumpower’s opposition was
directed towards eliminating the open-air drug market at the Civic
Center.

Going
forward, the City of Asheville will issue a Request for Proposal (RFP)
in the fall of each year. This is for organizations and individuals
wishing to apply for any city co-sponsored event. The RFP clearly
outlines the program criteria and expectations.

Prior to the RFP deadline, the City of Asheville will conduct a series
of workshops to assist potential applicants through the RFP application
process. Staff will then review all submitted applications followed by
the Recreation Board who will evaluate, score and rank all
applications. The Recreation Board will then make the final
recommendation to Asheville City Council.

Events
with a high ranking will receive co-sponsorship support up to the
amount approved for by council. After each event, applicants receiving
co-sponsorship will submit an event evaluation report, which will be
considered in the event they should apply for support in the future.

Since
the beginning of the year 2008 the cost of co-sponsored city events was
$312,000 of in-kind goods and services (increased by $67,0000), which
included support for the Holiday Parade and Friends of Pritchard Park.
Staff recently obtained additional event information from the remaining
co-sponsorship applicants for 2008. Each event was scored from highest
to lowest based on the event criteria presented to Council on April 5,
2008. City staff obtained additional event information from the
remaining co-sponsorship applicants for 2008 and each event was scored
from highest to lowest based on the event criteria presented.

The
Urban News canvassed the community at-large to get comments and
concerns about the festival cuts. Here is what community members had to
say:

Native
Ashevillian and retired educator Sarah Williams stated, “Cutting the
services to small festivals held in Asheville should be out of the
question. The festivals, (all of them), use city workers and city
services in some capacity, including Bele Chere. City workers are
supported by taxpayers’ dollars; therefore we, John Q Public, should
have some say in how our tax dollars are spent. Cutting the budgets for
small festivals makes it difficult for these festivals to maintain the
quality that we so much enjoy. I am one city taxpayer, but I do have a
voice. Please restore the help to the small festivals that have been
cut. I sincerely doubt that the city will suffer.”

“In my
opinion the cultural experience and education far out-reach any cost to
patrons. Any contributions given are greatly appreciated, but any cost
to develop community and cultural awareness is well worth the price.
The insight and socialization you get from these events is something we
can’t afford to loose.” PFC Joshua Coleman stated.

“It’s
evident that most people feel that something is wrong with this
picture,” says David Gist. “When you pick and choose, something’s
wrong. Who’s to say one festival is more deserving over another?
Goombay has been the ‘step-child’ of all these festivals, and clearly
needs the help. Bele Chere support is mammoth compared to the other
festivals. The African-American business district (the block) has been
the Bele Chere dumping ground for port-a-johns, orange barricade
barrels, and a trash can dump station. One year it was barricaded with
a 10-foot chained-linked fence. So much for diversity, right?” says
Gist.

When
asked what she thought of the in-kind cuts to the festivals Elaine
Robinson stated, “This can be seen as bad news, or we can accept that
change happens and move forward. It’s an opportunity to get more
creative in our support of these wonderful cultural events, to include
looking for business partners, voluntary based assistance, along with
city funding. It’s our community and the input, finances, and
volunteers need to come together from all sectors of the community. It
will take some effort, but it can be done. These festivals can be
successful.”

Finally, one senior citizen who wished to remain anonymous summed it up this way:
“I’m 86 years old and have lived and paid taxes in Asheville all my
adult life. Never have I seen such an uninformed board of city and
county officials. Maybe the voting public should ask that those who are
elected to city or county office take a mandatory local history course
— that way they don’t make unconscionable decisions. They need to be
schooled about what is important to all the people who have been around
here before some of them were born. Then after they know the history of
the area, they will have been informed about what is most important to
this community. Then, just maybe we’ll stop some of this foolishness,
circumvent special interest, and get back to ‘government by the
people.”