The Columbus Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau board of directors voted unanimously to revisit recent changes to its community grants program.
Members didn’t give a reason for the vote at Monday’s regular meeting, but the guest speaker’s comments after the vote hinted at the possible reason.
Leroy Brooks, District 5 representative to the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors, reminded members they are appointed by county supervisors.
The vote included a directive to send the grant guidelines back to the subcommittee that drafted it. CVB members approved the document at a special-called meeting earlier this month.
Subcommittee members are Mark Castleberry, Harvey Myrick, Rissa Lawrence and Bernard Buckhalter.
When asked near the meeting’s end what that meant for festival organizers who would be planning to present at January’s meeting, members responded they would be operating under the old guidelines.
Brooks opened his comments with “I, Too,” a poem by Langston Hughes.
Brooks then went around the table extolling the virtues of each CVB member’s work in the community with people of different races.
“You all represent the diversity of this community. You all should be the enlightened minds of what goes on in this community,” he said.
He came to the meeting to represent the organizers of six city events sponsored by black residents, he said. The group calls itself the Alliance of Festival Organizers.
However, the handout he shared with the board reported the results of a meeting with organizers of eight events: Juneteenth Festival, Legends Concert, Southside-Townsend Blues Festival, MLK Dream 365, Seventh Avenue Heritage Festival, Senior Citizens Unity Luncheon, Artesia Days and Crawford Cotton Boll.
Lawrence, who lives in Caledonia, asked if organizers of Caledonia Days were invited; Brooks said they were not. Brooks’ festival, Juneteenth, would cease to exist under the new guidelines that grant money cannot be used to pay for entertainment, he said.
Brooks also said marketing and promotion should be left to each festival’s organizers, another departure from the revised guidelines, which provide for the CVB board to approve all marketing materials.
He asked them to continue financial support for the Alliance of Festival Organizers for the next two years so festival planners have some stability as they move forward. Brooks’ handout recommended a $2,000 increase for the Crawford Cotton Boll, a $500 increase for the Seventh Avenue Heritage Festival and a $2,000 increase for the Southside-Townsend Blues Festival.
The CVB board set this fiscal year’s grant budget for $100,000. Last fiscal year, the board approved $154,500 in grants. Further, the board has paid $25,000 this year in carryover costs to fund last year’s grant requests.
The board approved Monday the closing report for the Seventh Avenue Heritage Festival, which included $7,250 in remaining grant money.
At the board’s November meeting, members approved $15,000 for MLK Dream 365.
That leaves about $52,750 to pay for all other festivals for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, 2012.
Brooks said he and the other festival organizers agree with provisions to file a budget, invoices and checks paid. However, he said festival organizers should only have to be accountable for the amount of the grant, not the total festival.
The revised guidelines requested a full accounting of the event’s budget.
He proffered the board should cancel Catfish in the Alley and use that money to help pay for other festival grants.
Catfish in the Alley is not part of the festival grants program. It has its own line item, according to the fiscal year 2012 budget worksheet.
Nancy Carpenter, CVB executive director, said Catfish in the Alley costs $4,000 to $5,000. The event takes place downtown and has large biracial participation. She and her husband attended all the African-American festivals, and they were the only white people there, she noted.
“I think that really this town is more polarized than anybody wants to think,” Brooks said. He added that events sponsored by black people don’t have corporate sponsors.
CVB board Vice President Mark Castleberry said West Point sponsors the Prairie Arts Festival each year. West Point is smaller than Columbus with a larger percentage of black residents. Yet, the festival has used revenues to buy park playground equipment, carpet at the civic center and give $200,000 for a new arts center.
Brooks responded that West Point has a different political dynamic.
“As long as you’re going to give one, we want ours,” he said of grant money.
The CVB has already turned down other events that didn’t meet the new criteria. The only event members have funded this fiscal year is MLK Dream 365.
Learnard Dickerson, Dream 365 organizer, said the alliance’s proposal was not something drawn up quickly. He noted that total grant funding for events sponsored by black residents was $73,000 from the previous fiscal year, whereas a single event — The Pilgrimage — cost $60,000.
The Pilgrimage is also its own line item and not a part of community grants. Its estimated budget this year is $46,150.
The community grants are funded by a 2-percent sales tax on restaurants.
The board’s next regular meeting is Jan. 23.
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