Goombay stays the course

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

An effort by a competing Bahama Village group to take over the annual Goombay Festival failed to convince city commissioners at their June 6 meeting when they voted unanimously to award the event permit to the incumbent organizer.

The fight for the soul of Goombay – and the revenue pulled in during the two-day cultural festival that kicks off Fantasy Fest week – clearly dismayed commissioners, who urged the two neighborhood groups to work together. But Glenwood Lopez, head of The Key West Goombay Festival (KWGF), which has produced the event for the past two years, made it clear that his coalition could not work with the challenger, the Florida Keys Performing Arts (FKPA), headed up by Veronica Stafford, formerly a member of Lopez’ coalition.

“This is not an option. That cannot be done,” Lopez said about the possibility of combining forces with FKPA. “They were a part [previously of Lopez’ coalition] and they were suspended because of not conforming.”

Stafford complained that Lopez’ KWGF did not include the Bahama Village community in the festival planning and often showed up for meetings with decisions already made on how the festival would roll out. Stafford also protested that a large portion of the approximately $87,000 brought in through vendor booth rentals goes to a Miami-based firm hired to handle those rentals.

“I have a real problem with the money. The organizing and the booking of the booths was given to an organization from Miami. That lady leaves with $30,000 or $40,000,” Stafford told commissioners.

Approximately 175 booths are rented each year at $500 each, resulting in revenue of over $87,000, Stafford said. Of that amount, the rental company gave $35,000 in 2016 and $30,000 in 2015 to KWGF and kept the rest as payment for its services.

According to Goombay financial reports submitted to the city in 2016 and 2015 by KWGF, there was a profit of $1,293 in 2016 and a loss of $6,364 in 2015. Total revenue to KWGF for the event in 2016 was $63,988 while expenses were $62,695. However, within the expense accounting over half, $34,114 was attributed to unidentified “miscellaneous” expenses. In 2015, revenue was $62,054, expenses were $68,418, with “miscellaneous” accounting for $42,766 of the total expenses.

Glenwood Lopez, half-brother of city Commissioner Clayton Lopez, who made the motion to award the event permit to his relative, pointed out that Goombay has a checkered history of bad management in past years, including overflowing trash cans during the festival and unpaid bills to the city for police, fire and public works services. Since KWGF took over two years ago, all the bills have been paid, Lopez said.

“The residents have told us they are glad we are the sponsors and that we have really put the Goombay back to prominence as it had been in the past,” he said.

The KWGF group itself fought for the city’s permission to take over Goombay two years ago when another neighborhood group, Bahama Village Goombay Festival, Inc., abruptly pulled out in July 2015, accusing KWGF of making “vicious personal attacks” against its members. The Bahama Village Goombay group had produced the event for the previous three years and KWGF had tried unsuccessfully to oust them in 2014.

Commissioner Jimmy Weekley complained that the fight for Goombay comes before the commission on a regular basis.

“Every few years there’s this inter-fighting amongst different factions on who’s going to run Goombay. Maybe we just ought to stop Goombay altogether if people in the community who it benefits the most can’t work together for the good of the community,” he said.

Mayor Craig Cates agreed but pointed out that Goombay has run smoothly the past few years and KWGF should continue to be the official organizer.

“They’ve done a good job. They paid their bills. They put on a good festival,” he said.

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