Update: Tomorrow’s Emancipation Day activities will go on as planned because of an agreement struck between Mayor Gray and Council Chairman Phil Mendelson. According to the Post, the city will absorb the addition $161,000 for this year’s festival, but in exchange, future Emancipation Day activities will be in the hands of the mayor instead of the Council.
“All outstanding issues with the Executive branch have been resolved,” Orange said in a release. “The District’s only public holiday will proceed as scheduled and we’re planning on a great day of celebration.”
Original post
On Wednesday, D.C. will celebrate Emancipation Day—the sparsely attended annual commemoration of the 1862 freeing of slaves in D.C.—and, as promised, Vincent Orange spared no expense in making sure this year’s celebration is grand.
Unfortunately, the $350,000 budgeted by the Council wasn’t enough. The Post reports that the At-Large Councilmember “wants city agencies to absorb another $116,000 in spending related to the typically sparsely attended parade.” A majority of that money—approximately $79,000—will go to paying police and fire department costs. This year’s Emancipation Day features a celebrity town hall, a festival parade, a free concert, and a number of different workshops.
But Mayor Vince Gray’s office won’t give Orange anymore money. “We have told [Vincent Orange] and his staff all along that they would be expected to pick up the costs,” Gray spokesman Pedro Ribeiro tells DCist via email. So what happened to that $350,000 budget? According to a budget obtained by the Post’s Mike DeBonis, the cost for all of the activities totals more than $400,000, with $11,050 allotted for an Emancipation Day brunch at The Hamilton and $15,120 budgeted for parade balloons. Other costs on the budget include the rental of The Lincoln Theatre ($8,750), another Emancipation Day breakfast at the Willard Hotel ($13,500), and the cost to pay the entertainment ($100,000).
According to Orange’s Chief of Staff James D. Brown, Orange thought that the city expenses—to pay police and fire department costs—would be picked up by the city in addition to the allotted $350,000. But Gray Chief of Staff Christopher K. Murphy told the Post that that was never the understanding. “It was never anticipated . . . that the city would bear costs associated with the day in addition to that $350K — and certainly not the $116K more in expenses you presented me with today,” Murphy says. “Our expectation is that you will use some of that $350K allocation to pay for the city services you seek to utilize.”
Manny Geraldo, a spokesman for Orange, tells DCist that tomorrow’s Emancipation Day celebrations will go on as planned and that are no cancellations. A request for comment from Brown as to who will pay for the addition costs for Emancipation Day activities has not been returned, but Ribeiro says that Gray’s office “NEVER agreed to incur the extra costs above [Orange’s] $350k budget.”
