Sunset Celebration management close to a deal

 

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

After months of discussion, arguments and ultimatums, the city of Key West is close to hammering out a new use agreement with the Cultural Preservation Society allowing the organization to continue managing the popular Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square.

A proposed final draft of a use agreement has been tentatively OK’d by the negotiating parties and has been submitted to Interim City Manager Jim Scholl for his review. Once he signs off, the CPS subcommittee working on the contract will present the draft agreement to the CPS board of directors for approval. The final step will be a vote by the Key West City Commission.

“The city and the CPS are working diligently to craft an agreement. They feel confident they will be able to reach an agreement shortly,” said Marilyn Wilbarger, the city’s senior property manager who has been helming the negotiations with the CPS.

The CPS has been formally in charge of managing the nightly Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square, arguably one of the most popular tourist attractions in Key West, for the past 10 years. That lease expired in March and the CPS has been on a month-to-month lease extension since then.

Former City Manager Bob Vitas had laid down several ultimatums to the CPS in order for their management of the popular event to continue. Vitas told Konk Life in May that he was worried about in-fighting among the CPS membership and between CPS board members themselves, as well as the growing financial insolvency of the organization. In addition, Vitas said, CPS’s obligations to the city to provide an annual audit and quarterly financial statements had not been met.

The possibility of losing control of Sunset Celebration has already pushed the CPS board of directors to make changes to the organization’s bylaws. Some of the most contentious issues are how the performers, artisans and food vendors are selected to win coveted space on the pier, how much each group will pay for that privilege and which CPS members get to vote on the operational guidelines. In the past, according to Vitas and two CPS members who asked not to be identified, factions within the membership would encourage friends to join the non-profit organization right before an important guidelines vote was taken.

Wendell Winko, chair of a CPS subcommittee working on lease negotiations, said the group has changed its bylaws to limit voting privileges to active, dues paying CPS members working regularly at Sunset Celebration.

“That was one major change we did. The buying of votes was eliminated,” Winko said.

Under the current lease structure, the CPS pays the city $5,216 a month for rental of the pier. Food vendors and artisans selling artwork are required to pay $600 a month to the CPS if they work every day. The fee lowers to $300 for working 15 days a month and $200 for 10 days a month. But performers are only required to pay a use fee if they sell merchandise such as T-shirts as part of their act. The CPS is considering charging a flat fee to all three groups going forward.

However, member payments have not been keeping up with CPS’s monthly financial obligations to the city. The new use agreement is expected to address this issue, as well as allow the CPS to extend Sunset Celebration into daytime hours, as well as the regular event in the evening.

Details of the use contract will not be released until it has been presented to the CPS after Scholl signs off, Wilbarger said. But the two sides appear close to an agreement.

“It looks like we’re going to get a lease and if we do, it will be for five years,” Winko said. “It’s looking positive.”

 

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