Chalk Festival May Receive Grant Money After All

It appears the Sarasota Chalk Festival is back on.

The city of Sarasota and the international street painting festival have come to an informal agreement that would qualify it for the $25,000 Community Redevelopment Agency grant that the city had and . 

The new CRA grant requirements passed on Monday require grant recipients to be designated a 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(6) for two years. The Chalk Festival has only been a 501(c)(3) nonprofit for one year, but claimed it was a 501(c)(6) the year before, when the Burns Square Property Owners Association was the organization that ran the festival. 

The 501(c)(6) designation — which classifies an organization as a tax-exempt "business league" — was the snag on Monday that city staff said would disqualify the festival from receiving funding. Deputy city manager Marlon Brown told Patch on Wednesday the city has verified the street painting festival's 501(c)(6) status. 

Now that the city recognizes that status, festival director Denise Kowal must provide an audited review of the 501(c)(6). Once she does that and the documents are verified by the city, the festival would be awarded the CRA grant.

"If she provides the financials that verify that, and if she gives us the requested information in terms of an audit review, that would meet the intent of the commission's [vote]," Brown said.

In an email to Chalk Festival supporters on Wednesday, Kowal wrote, "While I personally find the mismanagement of the city grant process inexcusable, I bent over backwards to [work] out a deal with the city manager this morning and they have implied they will grant the process — I asked for that in writing."

At Monday night's meeting, the city commission voted 4-1 on new CRA grant regulations that effectively disqualified the Chalk Festival from the grant. The vote meant there had been two major changes to the CRA grant process in one month.

That night, Kowal told commissioners their action had resulted in the cancellation of the festival. "You have just made the decision to have the [Chalk Festival] event canceled," Kowal said following the vote.

"Basically the city has absolutely created a situation that can cause the event not to happen," Kowal said an interview Tuesday. "It’s not just the money, it’s the uncertainty; the amount of time they are making us lose on the critical things we are doing … every day is major thing."

In August the commission approved 14 CRA grants with the stipulation that the organizations submit certified audited financials. Kowal said she has spent days getting those documents ready and spent more than $4,000 for the audit.  

In less than 48 hours, Kowal said she went from being almost in tears at the commission meeting to being cautiously optimistic that the festival is going to happen as she originally planned.  

"I will do whatever I can to make this event a success," she said. "I haven’t thrown up my hands and decided to take a vacation."

Before Wednesday's news, Kowal said she was left scrambling for more donors and seeing what parts, if not all, of the festival would be canceled. She said the city gets far more out of the festival than it recognizes.

"The $25,000 is miniscule to the amount [the festival] brings to the city; the message is horrible [if they don't award the grant]," Kowal said. 

What Kowal said is most disturbing is that she cannot trust the city to not change the process yet again.

According to city documents and emails provided to Patch, the Chalk Festival followed the grant process to a T. The festival submitted proposals on time, supplied required documents and was ranked the No. 1 grant proposal two different times. The city then required a new stipulation, an audit. Kowal complied. 

Even though it appears an agreement is in place, Kowal wonders if the city could change its mind again as it did on Monday. 

"Who's to say two weeks from now they can't come in with more rules, more hoops for me to jump through?" Kowal said. 

Brown said that once all of the festival's documents are submitted and verified, Kowal does not have to worry about any additional changes. 

"Nothing will change again," he said. "The commission has given its final vote on this, gave [staff] the marching order."

The Sarasota Chalk Festival is scheduled to take place along South Pineapple Avenue from Nov. 1-7. This year's theme is "Pavement Art Through the Ages."