Page One

The City Council put a damper on the Guinness & Oyster Festival by voting down a request to waive $2,600 in event fees because the festival has a corporate alcohol sponsor. 

After some snapping between moderate and progressive council factions, progressives stuck together to vote down Mayor Shirley Dean’s recommendation. The final vote was 4-3-1, with Dean and councilmembers Polly Armstrong and Betty Olds voting to waive the event fees. Councilmember Miriam Hawley abstained.  

The festival, which is being held in Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park on Sept. 22, is being promoted by the Downtown Berkeley Association as a cultural event, whose primary purpose is to promote downtown businesses, according to a Sept. 13 DBA letter that was submitted to council. The event, which is being sponsored and organized by the DBA, will present food and beer vendors and a variety of bands, including a well known band that is currently on the MTV play list. Beckett’s Irish Pub, a new business on Shattuck Avenue, is also one of the main sponsors of the event. The fees the DBA wanted waived included $2,000 for 15 portable toilets and $450 for dumpsters and trash cans. 

The request to waive city fees ran afoul of council progressives because one of the event sponsors is Guinness Beer, an international brewing corporation. A policy, approved by the council in 1995, apparently precludes the city from sponsoring events that serve alcohol unless the alcohol vendor has a brewery based in Berkeley. 

Progressives argued waiving fees for the first Guinness & Oyster Festival would be a violation of city policy and unfair to other events like the Juneteenth and Cinco de Mayo festivals which only have fees waived if there is no corporate alcohol sponsors. 

Moderates argued the festival will be good for downtown businesses and the city should support the event. Armstrong said that not waiving the fees was an attempt by some of the councilmembers to impose their morals on people who enjoy drinking beer.  

“I freely admit that I like to drink beer and listen to good music,” Armstrong said. “I’m 56 years old and this is America and it’s just not a crime.” 

Dean agreed there was more to the progressives’ opposition than simply city policy. She said there are city policies that are in place to assure responsible drinking at public events. “Nobody wants a big drunken party for crying out loud,” she said adding that “Beckett’s is a wonderful addition to the downtown and I plan to attend the festival to show my support.” 

The progressives, led by Councilmember Dona Spring, cited the city’s 1995 alcohol policy as the basis for her opposition to waiving the event fees. “My main concern is Berkeley has a policy that it will not sponsor public events, including waiving fees, if that event features alcohol products unless it is a locally-owned brewery,” Spring said. 

Prior to adopting the policy in 1995, there was a 1990 policy that precluded sponsoring any event that sold alcohol, according to Spring. “That policy was adopted because there were police problems at the Juneteenth and Cinco de Mayo festivals,” Spring said.  

In 1995 the wording of the policy was modified to allow sponsorship of events featuring locally brewed beers. 

Councilmember Linda Maio added that waiving the fees would send a mixed message to other event organizers. She said the council refused to waive fees for a Juneteenth Festival a few years ago because a large beer company was prominently displaying ads promoting beer. “It seems to me it would be selective if we waived fees for this event,” Maio said. “We have to be consistent in the application of this policy.” 

Armstrong said on Tuesday that Maio made a good point, but contended there are clauses in the city’s policy that allow fee waivers if the event promotes local businesses. “Linda’s point was fair and well taken but we have to admit there are businesses downtown and we should help them.” 

Spring said serving alcohol so close to Berkeley High School and to the Multi-agency Services Center, a homeless day center where counselors attempt to help clients with substance abuse, was unwise. Both the high school and center are right across the street from the park.  

“Allowing alcohol in the park creates a schizophrenic standard for the surrounding community and police to attempt to address,” Spring wrote in a memorandum to council. “While people are told on a regular basis in the park and surrounding area that it is illegal to drink in public, certain favored groups, are given special permission from the City Council.” 

DBA Executive Director Deborah Bahdia said while organizing the event she followed city policy very closely and made sure there were no scheduled events at Berkeley High School. 

“The park is the only place near the downtown for an event like this,” Bahdia said. “It’s close to BART and the downtown parking garages.”