City puts level field controls on Sunset Celebration
BY PRU SOWERS
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
In an effort to stabilize the troubled Sunset Celebration in Mallory Square, City Manager Bob Vitas is shaking things up.
Vitas sent a letter to Key West Cultural Preservation Society Friday, May 23, outlining the steps the non-profit, which has managed the nightly event for the past 10 years, must take in order for its lease of the Mallory Square pier to be renewed. The CPS has been on a month-to-month lease extension since March, when the original lease expired.
Vitas told Konk Life this week 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 have not been met. Before signing a new lease with CPS, several standard operating guidelines need to be changed, according to the letter. If the CPS membership agrees to the changes, a formal lease will be drawn up by the city.
“We’re cleaning up what has been a difficult situation,” Vitas said, referring to a growing rift within CPS that he said has impacted the organization’s ability to effectively manage the event, one of the top tourist attractions in the city.
The two-page letter laid out several specific changes in the use agreement the city would like to see in order to renew the Mallory Square lease. One of the most contentious issues it addresses is 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 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.
The city wants voting privileges on any Sunset Celebration guideline to be limited to active CPS members who are current artisans, performers, food vendors and special category participants on the pier.
“You can’t now go and rustle up 50 people who pay $20 to join CPS and skew the vote anymore,” Vitas said. “That way we avoid the internal politics.”
Another significant change in the proposed operational guidelines for Celebration is the fee members must pay the city to participate. Currently, artisans selling artwork and food vendors are required to pay $600 a month to CPS if they work every day. The fee lowers to $300 for working 15 days a month and $200 for 10 days a month.
The fee change requested by the city is a flat $300 a month or $25 a day for more sporadic participants. But the more important change is that the new fees will apply to all participants, not just artisans and food vendors. Currently, performers only pay a fee if they sell merchandise such as t-shirts as part of their act. This bi-level payment structure has been a source of conflict among CPS members.
“There will be no distinguishing between those who are performing artists and those selling goods or food,” Vitas said. “It was one of the sticking points. We’re trying to address all concerns on both side of the argument.”
Under the current lease structure, CPS pays the city $5,216 a month for rental of the pier. Celebration participants pay their fees to CPS. However, member payments have not been keeping up with CPS’s monthly financial obligations to the city.
“This [new guidelines] will help to generate revenue, as well. The revenue coming in from those who pay is not sufficient to cover CPS expenses. They’re in the red and their reserve fund is depleted,” Vitas said.
Wendell Winko, chair of a new CPS subcommittee charged with analyzing the city guideline recommendations, said the subcommittee was to meet and report back to the CPS board at its June 2 meeting. “We’re looking at all aspects” of the city’s letter, he said, but no changes will be made to CPS guidelines until they have been submitted to the organization’s entire membership. Whatever the membership as a whole decides, he said, is what the CPS will submit back to the city in the next round of negotiations.
Winko said he personally agreed with the recommendation that voting on Celebration guidelines be limited to active participants. However, he emphasized the subcommittee has not finalized its recommendations.
“There are a few items in there we feel are palatable and some that need to be discussed,” he said, declining to name specific items. “Right now it’s a work in progress.”
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Interesting article. One of the members of the Sunset Celebration board members told me that the reason they are in financially trouble is defending many lawsuits filed against Sunset by a handful of disgruntled members, who also have opposed performing artists having to pay to perform at Sunset Celebration. This board member told me, for some time they have tried to get the city to agree that all Sunset members have to pay, including performers. This board member is a performer, and is in favor of performers having to pay each night they perform. His name is Mark Riggs. He is a world class street performer. He told me, everywhere else he performs, cities pay him a substantial fee, plus he gets to keep his tips. He said he makes lots more more money in other places, than in Key West, but he loves performing here: he tries to help the people who depend on Sunset Celebration be able to make a living, and he tries to keep a few people, who want to be in charge and get special treatment, from not being in charge. I told the City Commission during closing citizen comments maybe two months ago, that I have known Mark Rigss since early 2001, and if he comes before them and tells them something about Sunset Celebration, they can take it to the bank. The centerpiece of Mark’s act is he is up on a 10-foot unicycle, cutting jokes, jugging daggers and fire batons, then he tips off his hat and catches it with his foot, then he kicks his hat back up onto his head. From my observation over 14 years, he is the biggest crowd drawer at Sunset Celebration, he gives his audiences a terrific show, at no small physical risk to himself, and his audiences leave feeling appreciated and well-entertained. Other performers have the same effect on Sunset Celebration audiences, but I don’t think they draw as big of crowds as Mark. I told him, he might ought to consider just paying the $25 nightly fee and get out of the politics; he might be a lot happier, and $25 a night would mean nothing to him. He said probably so, but he feels obligated to do what he can to try to help everyone at Sunset, who is trying to make a living there. For some vendors and performers, he said, it is all they have, and some nights they make very little, or nothing. But for what they make at Sunset Celebration, some of them might, or will, be homeless.
P.S. Mark told me, and I have heard him tell the City Commission, that next to the ocean, Sunset Celebration is the biggest crowd draw in the city; it is known around the world, people come to Key West to see it. I agree, based on my observations since I arrived in Key West in late 2000. I told Mark, if the city takes over the operation of Sunset Celebration, it might turn out like what happened when the city opened KOTS, the city’s overnight homeless shelter. It was a disaster, and the city had to beg Father Stephen Braddock of Florida Keys Outreach Coalition to take over KOTS and straighten it out, which FKOC did. I told Mark, I became familiar with Sunset Celebration politics in 2001, and I learned then that a few people were causing most of the trouble for many people, and I figured those few people were still at it, and were hoping to end up in charge of Sunset Celebration, either directly, or behind the scenes, if the city ends taking it over.
P.P.S. Mark also told me that Sunset Celebration raises a good bit of money for worthy causes in Key West, which might (or will) be jeopardized, if the city takes over Sunset Celebration.