At their last meeting, the Humboldt County Planning Commission set a condition for approval of the Reggae Rising permit for this year — Tom Dimmick must pay off a slew of agencies he owed money to, or the party’s over. (See previous blog post for details.)
When I tuned in the meeting tonight on TV, the discussion was almost over. I came in just in time to see Dimmick return to the podium clutching a handful of checks made out to the Sheriff’s Dept., the CHP and others.
His apparent success at rounding up the money did not convince Commissioner Ralph Faust. When the chairman asked, “What’s the pleasure of the commission on this matter?” Faust put forward a motion to “adopt the resolution circulated by staff … to cancel the Reggae Rising event because of failure to comply with the conditions of approval and mitigation measures.”
Faust pointed out that some of the public agencies had said “unequivocally” that they would not sign off on the event. (Based on that and a planning staff report the Times Standard basically rang the death knell for the festival in today’s paper.) Faust said he regretted that, “This has the potential of a significant economic impact upon the county,” particularly the southern part of the county, but…
But he still wanted it canceled. He went on to say he was not impressed by Dimmick’s “grandstanding” at tonight’s meeting.
Commissioner Bruce Emad, identifying himself as a longtime supporter of the festival, said he agreed with Faust. He too thought Reggae Rising should be cancelled for this year.
“When I say ‘Yes,’ I give him a license to go one more year and defraud a whole bunch of merchants and people who put their heart and soul into this thing,” said Emad.
Dimmick’s only hope was a motion to continue the item — and that’s what he got from Commissioner Dennis Mayo, who noted, “I want to see him pay the money with the checks he brought tonight.”
(We could not see it on camera, but that’s apparently what was happening during the commission discussion.)
Mayo added that another condition for approval was that “everything will be done” by the commission’s July 1 meeting. Commissioner Jeffrey Smith seconded Mayo’s motion. A vote was taken. It passed.
Reggae Rising got another reprieve: Dimmick was given another two weeks — until July 1 — to get his ducks in a row.
In the end, the chairman called Dimmick back to the podium to tell him, “You have an enormous task in front of you… . I expect you plan to be busy as a beaver.”
Dimmick assured him he’s already been as “busy as a beaver” and will stay busy in the weeks ahead.
Reggae Rising is scheduled for August 6-8. Tune in July 1 for the next episode of the RR Planning Commission saga.
This article appears in Los Hechados.
“Commissioner Bruce Emad, identifying himself as a longtime supporter of the festival…”
It’s only happened 3 times…started in 2007. “Longtime supporter” is a bit of an overstatement!
This is a clear case of cutting off your nose despite your face. The amount of money Reggae brings in to the county is enough to offset some hurt feelings. Try backing Dimmick up and helping him to put on the world class festival we enjoy year after year. If it does not happen this year alot of us will never spend another dime in your county.
I live in Washington State and for the last 9 years I have been traveling 700 miles every summer to Southern Humboldt for Reggae Vibes(Reggae on the River &Reggae Rising). I have had a fairly good (outside/inside)view of some of the issues with putting on these type of festivals. I say, put aside the issues, unite as a community and people to throw the biggest and best reggae show in the world. Unity for my favorite strip of Highway 101. Till then I will be spending more time in the Pacific Northwest.
Peace & Love
MC
Unity, love, peace, it’s all good … but organizing a world class festival is not something to be done around the kitchen table. You need a professional. Local business owners, managers, property owners, just don’t have what it takes to do a good job and as long as SoHum relies on local business talent to organize, promote, manage, run this huge event there will alwasy be some kind of FUBAR situation. Form a non-profit “Reggae Vibes” organization and put out a request for proposal for an experienced events coordinator. You could write in as part of the proposal to hire local people and use local resources.
Ooops sorry seems I posted my comment before thoroughly reading both articles and getting the facts straight. No offense to anyone was intended. I see this is a much more complex issue than I realized. Peace. love, unity to all.
wow! pretty good reporting (finally) by mr doran. The ill planned heist of the goodwill and branding established by 20+years of Reggae on the River could not so easily be carried out now could it>?< this was a bad idea from the get-go. Too bad the commissioners didn’t have the heart and wisdom to see that in ’07 and cancel the CUP THAT year, thus forcing dimmick/bruno/bassis to negotiate with the mateel who had entrusted their beloved event to them for many years. Oh well. Onward. See u at benbow on the 17th-18th 4 reggae on the river!!