:Whereas;
Goods and services required by a municipality must be obtained by competition for best price and value.
And whereas;
Opportunities for business in public facilities are similarly governed
And whereas;
Entertainment in a public facility comes under the heading of business opportunity
And whereas;
In order to obtain best price and value for entertainment in a public facility
Now therefore be it resolved
The Director of Recreation and Parks be directed to prepare a form for Expression of Interest from parties interested in providing a Festival of Music in the Town Park for the August holiday week-end of 2013
*********.
Above is first draft of a notice intended for the next meeting.of Council.
In 2010 , 2011 and 12, town facilities including band shell,
washrooms , park and funds were made available to a private business to organise a music festival during the August holiday week-end.
The park was fenced off to charge admission.
Food vendors paid fees to the organiser to ply their wares in the park
A beer garden was operated, adding to the revenues .
An ATM machine was provided , to encourage revenues to stay within the park environs.
A federal Member of Parliament and a Provincial Minister of Culture lent their presence to promote the endeavour.
The Town's Mayor on the other hand, was excluded :personna non grata.
Goodwill pointedly withheld .
Neither benefit, enlightenment nor cultural uplift of the community
can therefore be contemplated in the circumstance.
Establishing, beyond a doubt the event was an endeavour for other than public benefit. .
It is entirely inappropriate public facilities should again be made available for to the organiser of this event.
For a town park and other facilities to be closed off from public access for the purpose of a music festival during a holiday week-end, Council authority is necessary..
Terms of reference need to be established .
Further still, making town facilities available for rent ,for the purpose of concert promotion, should be open to invitational competitive bids with conditions and limits to occupancy made clear
As a footnote, the Mayor has apparently been informed by the St Kitts woman, he had only to ask her if he wanted to meet the Provincial Minister of Culture.
I mention it to indicate the level of ridiculosity, we have reached in this entanglement.
ReplyDeleteWhy would anyone want to meet a federal Member of Parliament and a Provincial Minister of Culture?
OK, Let's give it a shot. Otherwise we are just going to continue the same old charade.
ReplyDelete12:25 PM Clearly Councillor Ballard wishes to share the photo-ops. Looks good on the wall.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteOn a dart board.
If council will view this simply as good business sense, something positive could finally be done. Even the 3 negatives will be hard-pressed to argue that the Jazz Group are entitled to on-going, special- attention help. There are plenty of other Festivals that work well - we could have one too if we study what others have done and are doing.
ReplyDeleteAnd whereas no Farmers Market monies will be used to start a new festival.
ReplyDeleteTo: 3 September, 2012 12:25 PM
ReplyDeleteThere are those that feel that if they rub shoulders with those in power, they are somehow better than everyone else.
I have rubbed shoulders with both in the past. I was very disappointed with the Culture Minister. You could not understand a word he said.
Maybe Aurora should have it's own Festival that week-end next year, a Birthday Festival in The Park, without fencing. That would solve the problem of the Jazz Gang as you could mess with their timing AND get some stiff rules in place if they pick another date.
ReplyDelete