Amid public outcry, Gastonia spares Juneteenth festival from $15k in fees

After an hour of public comment and lengthy discussion on the dais, Gastonia City Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to make a local Juneteenth festival a city event — helping the organizers avoid thousands in fees prompted by a controversial city policy.

The outcry was centered around a 2024 policy change that went into effect this year. The change required non-profit organizers, not the city, to pay for in-kind services such as staffing for police, fire and parks and recreation.

Dozens of supporters of EbonyFest, which puts on the Juneteenth festival, and two other African American-led events came en masse to oppose the newly implemented policy and called on the city to act fairly and equitably in the organizations it supports.

This year, EbonyFest found itself facing a $15,630 bill to cover staffing, lead organizer Tasha White said. This was a major additional cost to the $20,000-$30,000 required to put on the event each year.

White claimed that non-profits that partner with the city on events such as the Summer Concert Series and the Christmas Parade don’t incur the same charges as those who don’t have partnerships with the city.

Dandria Bradley, the city’s public information officer, could not confirm whether the city covers staffing costs for events in which they partner with non-profits.

The topic garnered passionate and heated discourse from council members and the mayor.

City Council member Cheryl Littlejohn took to the podium during the public comment period to give a speech expressing her own disappointment and frustration about the policy and city operations.

“If we can fund the Fourth of July, we can fund Juneteenth,” she said.

With the city making Juneteenth a city event, White no longer has to pay the $15,000 fee. But she says there is still work to do to ensure all organizations are treated fairly.

“Although this is a victory for Juneteenth, I want it to be a victory for the city,” she said.

Gastonia policy change

In 2023, the Gastonia City Council began talks about changing the in-kind services policy due to an increase in requests and strain on city staff, council member Donyel Barber said.

Barber said local organizations that had utilized in-kind services were sent letters notifying them of the potential changes and the costs the city previously absorbed.

In January of 2024, the City Council was presented with four options to alter the policy, including putting a cap on the amount of in-kind services the city would cover, or excluding city staffing from in-kind services.

Ultimately, the council unanimously decided to make all non-profits incur the cost of city staffing for their own events. Council members cited not wanting to “pick and choose” which events received these services in their decision.

In city documents presenting the options, city staff warned council members that the decision to exclude staffing costs from in-kind services would “discourage many new (in-kind services events) and pre-existing (in-kind services events) due to the large cost that this will present to the non-profit.”

While the vote took place last year, the council agreed to wait a year before the policy fully went into effect, Barber said.

“I felt that we as a city were giving those organizations a year to pivot, revamp and perhaps engage in some type of fundraising activities to be able to offset the cost of their events,” she said.

Making a pivot

White said as soon as she became aware of the policy change, she went to the city to try to find ways to mitigate the cost.

For her event, which draws 1,000-3,000 people over two days, city staff said she needed 51 police officers, 10 firefighters and 8 parks and recreation staff.

White said instead of having so many officers, she suggested putting up barricades to keep festival goers safe during the parade.

“In seven years, we’ve never had an issue or problem,” White said. “No major issue, no minor issue, no problems at all. But the police are saying, ‘We need all those officers for those two city blocks.’”

Before the city voted this week to make White’s Juneteenth Festival a city event, she took to Facebook to ask the community for donations to help meet the required cost from the city.

If she didn’t raise the funds, she feared changes to her festival would have to be made.

“When we get closer to Juneteenth… I’m going to have to make a decision,” she said before last night’s vote. “Do we cut the parade? Do we cut the fireworks? What do we cut?”

But while the Juneteenth event has been spared from the costs, other longstanding events that rely on in-kind services don’t yet know if they’ll have to pay fees.

This year will be the 39th year of Gerald Tate’s annual Toys for Tots Motorcycle Run. Each year, the event raises between 700 and 1,000 toys for local children. But this year, the city quoted him $4,340 for first responders and city staffing.

Tate said it wasn’t until he got this year’s quote that he knew how much it would cost to run his event.

“How are you gonna charge us and charge us taxes too?’ he said. “We’re the taxpayers here.”

While they await the city’s decision on the future of the in-kind services policy, Tate says regardless, his motorcycle run will go on.

“I’m gonna run this run regardless,” he said. “I got the flyers ready, and I’m gonna run it.”