The city of Gastonia absorbed EbonyFest at a meeting Tuesday night and will now partner with the Juneteenth celebration’s organizers to host the event.
Organizers with EbonyFest, the Highland Festival and Gaston’s Toys for Tots Ride showed up en masse to the meeting to ask the city to revert back to its former in-kind services policy.
At a council meeting on Jan. 2, 2024, Gastonia leaders voted to change the service to no longer cover the cost of hiring off-duty police and fire personnel to facilitate outside-organized events.
Before that change took effect earlier this year, those costs would be covered by the city while the event organizers would pay to use the city facilities.
Although the city opted to give organizers one year to prepare for the change, some said they were only alerted through a letter that didn’t mention the difference in costs.
Tasha White, the organizer of EbonyFest, a Juneteenth festival typically held in Gastonia, said the change would have cost the non-profit more than $15,000 to host this year’s event.
Finland Faire, a community organizer with 101 Black Men of Highland, said the Highland Festival will be difficult to put on with the current policy as they were told it will cost $17,000 to host this year.
Public comment
At Tuesday’s meeting, more than 15 people spoke during public comment, telling the council that the new in-kind services policy is disproportionately impacting the Highland community and asking them to change the policy.
Among those who spoke included Councilwoman Cheryl Littlejohn, who represents Ward Four. She left her seat to stand among two other community members who gave their time to her, “not speaking on behalf of Councilwoman Littlejohn,” but as a resident.
Ranlo Commissioner Robin Conner also spoke during public comment and said it was disheartening to hear the city announce a proclamation to recognize Juneteenth and yet choose not to assist with the celebration. Conner then offered to host the event in Ranlo.
“So, city of Gastonia, if you don’t have it, don’t sweat it, we have got your back,” she said.
Later in the meeting, the council added an item to the agenda to consider changing the in-kind services policy. Councilwoman Jennifer Stepp said during discussion that the intention was never to hurt certain groups but rather to save money.
“I do want to make it clear that there was never any intention to hurt any particular community, and it was all or nothing for everybody. There were other organizations that did either have to not have their event or come up with it. It was not like it was just these three that were denied or told they weren’t going to get it,” Stepp said. “It was to try to find some savings.”
Stepp added that the city was looking for ways to drop its tax rate at the time and was considering anything it could to make the tax rate lower.
Outcome
Littlejohn made a motion to revert back to the city’s former policy, which did not pass. She then made a motion for the city to take on EbonyFest as a city-run event to absorb those costs. The council voted unanimously to approve the motion and make the Juneteenth celebration a city-run holiday event. The council said it will revisit in-kind services at a meeting in June.
White did not have a comment after the meeting except that she is looking forward to meeting with the city to discuss what the EbonyFest and Gastonia partnership would look like.
EbonyFest is set to take place from 2-10 p.m. June 14 and 19.
Check out was real simple, can't wait for the tote bag