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Give The Seafood Fest A Rest
Are you ready for a
Seafood Festival at the Safety Harbor Marina? Don’t start salivating for
seafood quite yet. The public is about to be introduced to the consequences of
the chamber of commerce fighting city hall. The 2007 Seafood Festival — aka
Harbor Sounds Music Festival — may be a bust. It has become the focal point of
a tug of war that has been going on for about two years and now is in a
stalemate that doesn’t leave either side looking good. The Safety Harbor City
Commission is determined to make its point that the chamber must disclose its
finances before receiving any further direct or indirect public financing. But
at this late date, the city is unlikely to find a professional organization
able to produce the high quality show it is demanding and still put it on in
March 2007.
After twice inviting
proposals for staging the event, the city commission twice rejected the chamber
before selecting a Tampa-based firm with a glamorous reputation in public
relations, but no apparent experience in seafood festivals. Not too
surprisingly, three weeks after being selected, Brock Communications contacted
city hall to say it would be “unable to perform” and was withdrawing its
application. At the soonest, it will be mid-November before the city can decide
on its next step.
The Seafood Festival
is the victim, but this battle is raising a host of new questions. Many elected
city officials feel an obligation to promote local events that will educate and
entertain the local citizenry, from events at the library to musicians in the
parks. However, things get complicated as events get bigger. Should the city be
obligated to rent out Main Street or the marina so non-profit groups can raise money? Who should
benefit? How often should that occur? When do events no longer serve local
citizens, but just become major moneymakers? Is that what the citizens want?
In fact the more
than decade-old Seafood Festival, which the chamber has operated the past few
years as Harbor Sounds, has grown to a point that it draws thousands of people
from outside the community and generates tens of thousands of dollars in profit
— supposedly. And that is exactly why the city commission began asking, just
how much money does a festival like this make and why do we not know how that
money is being spent?
The chamber’s short
answer was “none of your business.” That stonewalling succeeded for a time, but
became an irritant that commissioners found completely unacceptable. After all,
the city in recent years has directly and indirectly contributed tens of
thousands of dollars to the local chamber as a sponsor of its events and
through direct subsidy of the reconstruction of its offices in a historic
building on Main Street. Unfortunately, as that battle has dragged on, time has expired to
properly plan what has become a popular annual event.
Given the short
amount of time, the many questions and the enormity of producing an event like
the Seafood Festival, the only answer for this year is to give it a rest. Maybe
by 2008 these issues can be resolved.
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Op-Ed 
