When the Columbus city council voted 5-1 against granting the annual Juneteenth Festival, held each year at Sim Scott Park, permission to sell beer this year, county supervisor Leroy Brooks denounced the decision as election-year politics.
Although Brooks is no longer officially connected with the Juneteenth Festival, which he helped found 20 years ago, the event continues to be widely regarded as “his baby.” Brooks stepped down as the event’s director last year after the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau amended its policy to prohibit the CVB from providing funds for any event directed by an elected official. Even so, Brooks’ connection to the event remains unquestioned, if less well defined.
Juneteenth has been allowed to sell beer in Sim Scott Park for at least the past three years.
So when the council voted Tuesday against granting permission, with hardly any discussion as to why it was changing its position, Brooks took it as a political jab from the council as a whole and Ward 4 councilman Marty Turner, in particular. Turner is running against the six-time incumbent supervisor this fall.
Wednesday, Turner denied that his opposition to the beer license was politically motivated, saying instead that he was opposed to the sale of beer on the grounds of any city park.
While we have no interest in moderating a squabble between candidates, we do believe the issue raises an important consideration when it comes to alcohol sales at public events in the city.
We believe that the city’s policy should be enforced equitably and consistently.
In the absence of some compelling turn of events, the idea that beer sales is OK at an event one year, but not OK the following year is hard to accept.
Likewise, the argument that beer sales should not be permitted at a park is greatly undermined when beer is sold in the middle of Main Street every year during Market Street Festival and at Sounds of Summer at the Riverwalk. To rule, by apparent whim, that some festivals should be allowed to have beer sales and others should not is not good policy.
We hold no position on what the city’s policy should be on this matter. The city could decide to ban beer sales at all public events or could require beer sales to end at a certain time. It could insist on other stipulations. Or it could prohibit the practice altogether.
The primary concern when it comes to beer sales at public events should be public safety.
In fact, Market Street made a change two years ago that was a direct response to some acts of violence that occurred on Saturday nights at the nearby Riverwalk. Organizers did away with the Saturday evening concert and Market Street now ends at 5 p.m. on Saturday. The move has produced the desired effect.
What is lacking here is a clearly stated and consistent policy on alcohol sales. That said, we believe the council acted improperly in denying the Juneteenth Festival the beer sales permit it has previously held.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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