By Richard Sullins | richard@rantnc.com

The first four concerts in Sanford’s Summer Concert Series have been canceled due to “unforeseen circumstances,” following attempts by a city councilman to persuade both the city council and the Lee County Board of Commissioners to suspend the “no alcohol” policy at Kiwanis Family Park, where the concerts had been scheduled.

Councilman Charles Taylor told The Rant the first concert this year will be on July 4 and a shortened schedule for the year will follow after that. The show that was set to kick off the season on June 6, along with three others that had been booked for June, have been cancelled.

Taylor had spoken with individual members of the county commission in an effort to suspend the county’s ban on alcohol sales at Kiwanis Park during the evenings when the concerts were held. He also contacted his fellow city council members as part of that effort, but he failed to gain support from either group.

County Commission Chairman Kirk Smith told The Rant, “County staff reviewed the (Memorandum of Understanding) with the City concerning Kiwanis Family Park, which states the City will abide by the Lee County park rules, which prohibit the sale and consumption of alcohol. County staff has provided suggested changes to the MOU, and once the City has taken action to approve the MOU, the Board of Commissioners can address the matter.”

But with a lack of apparent support among city council members, it seems unlikely at this point they’ll take up consideration of any changes to the MOU in time to allow alcohol sales or consumption at the Park on concert nights.

The Summer Concert Series had been moved to Kiwanis Park this year because of restoration work going on in Depot Park, which has been home to the concerts for years. Work on a performance stage at Kiwanis Park has been going on in recent months and indications are it will be ready for events by the middle of June. It’s not clear at this point whether the move to Kiwanis Park will be a permanent one.

This is the third year of the Sanford’s sponsorship of a summer concert schedule. Downtown Sanford Inc. has provided a series of concerts in the spring and fall for years, and sentiment on the city council led to the establishment of the Summer Concert Series in 2022. Taylor said he volunteered to lead the summer schedule then because of his contacts in the music industry.

“It’s all about relationships,” he said. “Having those relationships can sometimes allow us to get bands that otherwise might not be within our reach.”

Taylor said 143 bands were vetted for this year’s series, and that number was narrowed down to a group of just 20 to whom offers were made. Each of these was subjected to background checks and sent through the e-Verify system to confirm they were eligible to work.

But solid credentials aren’t enough to raise the curtain on a show. The hosting venue also needs to be ready when showtime comes, and that’s where the controversy began.

A stage for performances and concerts has been under construction at the park for the past several weeks, and City Parks Administrator Nick Fortune told the council his department had looked at a number of options in an effort to have a stage ready for the first scheduled event on June 6 when weather delays made it seem the project might not be finished on time.

Fortune said using a temporary stage with portable generators for electricity and lighting was one option. But Taylor said in an email to City Manager Hal Hegwer on May 7 that the first four concerts had to be cancelled “due to unforeseen circumstances.” In the same email, Taylor told Hegwer that “this has zero to do with the completion of the stage.”

“Just what were these ‘unforeseen circumstances,'” Council member Linda Rhodes asked at a city council workshop on Tuesday.

“The big thing is, as you were aware, as you were polled on, was alcohol. Just leave it at that. It’s in the county’s hands now. But our first band was sponsored by Coors,” Taylor responded.

Council member Walter Ferguson wondered aloud who was securing the bands, and Taylor said he had been doing it for the past three years, with the approval of Hegwer. There’s no record, though, the city manager ever asked Taylor to do that.

The Rant on Monday made a request for the contracts between the city and the performers for the concert series, as well as the city’s RFP for concert vendors. As of Thursday, the documents had not been received.

Council member Mark Akinosho is against the sale and consumption of alcohol at the park, but he reserved his comments instead to object to the methods that Taylor had allegedly used in an attempt to gain his support. Akinosho said he felt he had been strong-armed and pressured by his fellow councilman as Taylor tried to build support, and for Akinosho, that became a moral issue.

“As good as our process is, I don’t believe that any council member should be pressured for anything. In voting, whether for alcohol or not for alcohol, or anything else, we should vote our conscience. I saw that happen, that I was pressured these past few weeks, and I said ‘no.’” he said, explaining the issue goes beyond alcohol sales. “I don’t believe that none (sic) of us should be pressured to do anything against our conscience. I voted my conscience on alcohol. I feel pressured. I feel insulted by my colleague, and that is not acceptable by me.”

Rhodes said she had similar feelings and thanked Akinosho for bringing them to the table, saying dignity and respect should be the cornerstones of how the council conducts its business.

Akinosho later returned to the themes of full disclosure and group action, saying “no individual is bigger than the whole. As individuals, we all bring something to this council. We shouldn’t have a situation where everyone is doing their own thing and then we all get mad at each other. We hired our city manager as our staff person. Everything should flow through him and if something goes wrong, we blame him instead of each other. That is what we hold him accountable to do.”

Two sides to a coin

But Taylor responded that other members of the council had previously acted on their own without getting the full body’s approval. He pointed to the placement of what he called a “monument,” but what is actually a marker, honoring the life of Akinosho’s late wife, Caroline, in the park by her family and friends along a walking trail she loved. The marker had been supported by several members of the council but had not been voted on by the full group.

Taylor observed that during last summer’s concerts, held at Depot Park, beer was available from local vendors for concertgoers after being approved on a unanimous 7-0 vote of the city council. There were no incidents and at times, no police presence was even required, according to Taylor

Taylor later told The Rant he felt ambushed on Tuesday.

“It was very obvious, very well-scripted,” he said. “Nobody pressured anybody on that. It was all scripted and very bad acting, in my opinion. But people see it for what it is.”

He defended his action as trying to build support for his initiative behind the scenes before taking it public when the tipping point of support he needed had been reached.

“What I want is some consistency in our policy making,” Taylor continued. “We offer beer now at our golf course and we are taking responsibility for it. People can go to many public places and have a beer. You can go to Lowe’s grocery store and drink a beer while you are shopping. It’s not for me, but regardless of that, I think you should have the right to do so if you want. The city manager has known every step and I have nothing to hide about it. At the end of the day, I’d like to know how many concerts (other council members) attended, did they ask any questions, and why everything was so orchestrated and so set up at Tuesday’s meeting. And when were people pressured? I want to know that.”

Mayor Rebecca Wyhof Salmon attempted at the meeting to strike a conciliatory note and bring the two sides together.

“I believe we all owe each other the respect of our own votes, and that’s why each of you as individual council members are here, to make choices that you feel right to make on behalf of your own constituencies. That doesn’t come forward every time, but I think we should all be thankful to Mr. Akinosho for reminding us of it,” she said.

Meanwhile, the show goes on

Fortune told the council that in addition to the July 4 activities around the splash pad at Kiwanis Family Park, there will be face painting, balloon twisters, a DJ providing music, and a drive-in car show event. Food trucks will be on-hand, and the fireworks show is expected to start around dusk.

Salmon believes the July 4 activities will also serve another purpose, that of bringing people together and allowing them to experience all the park has to offer. She observed that the park was created so that people from across Sanford and Lee County would have the opportunity to have fun, get exercise, and have an opportunity to get acquainted and have the kind of conversations that build the kind of community that make people want to live here.

“So much conversation Saturday (May 11) was about the desire that people have just to be together, and I think that, along with our new slogan of ‘Come Connect,’ comes out in everything we do,” she said. “Our parks serve this function in our community, as the community’s gathering place. And the more types of activities, and the more folks that feel included in that conversation and feel included in our activities, that is building the kind of community we want to have.”