After asking Warren’s city administration to clarify the guidelines for the rental of city facilities, Councilman Jonathan Lafferty discovered there seems to be no clear-cut policy in place.

Last year, a moratorium was put into effect with regard to the rental of city property after inequalities were uncovered.

According to documents given to the Warren City Council by the city attorney’s office and documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, it was revealed organizers of last summer’s Bangladeshi Association of Michigan festival at City Square paid $1,500 per day to rent space at City Square Park and a stage. Meanwhile, those who put on the Asian American Heritage and the Warren Pride festivals were not charged a rental fee.

A group that rented the area on the sidewalk in front of City Hall on May 1, 2024 for a one-hour National Day of Prayer event was charged $850. This year that group was told that the area was not available for rental due to the moratorium, but Warren Pride and Bangladeshi Association of Michigan festivals are scheduled this summer.

According to rental contracts, Pride festival organizers did not pay a security deposit for this year’s event and are not being charged for rental of city property. Organizers of the BAM festival paid a $500 security deposit.

“There is a moratorium in place,” said Lafferty. “It is either not being followed or being ignored.”

At the May 20 City Council meeting, Lafferty cited the Asian American and Pacific Islander festival held at the Warren Community Center on May 17 and questioned why the group was allowed to hold the event if there is a moratorium and asked for the details of the rental agreement. During that meeting Warren Mayor Lori Stone said the event was sponsored by the city and that the group was not charged for rental of the community center.

The Downtown Development Authority is responsible for rental of the city hall atrium; parks and recreation oversees rental of City Square Park, the Warren Community Center and other city park property. Council was supposed to receive revised rental guidelines in November, but to date officials have not received any information about rental charges for any city facilities.

This week, Lafferty received a written response from community outreach directors Rhonda Hawe and Olu Jabari to eight questions he submitted to the administration regarding the Asian American and Pacific Islander festival. According to that response, the festival was a city event so there was no rental agreement.

The outreach directors assert no taxpayer dollars were spent on the festival and that it was organized as a city event in response to a Warren resident asking administration to consider hosting a festival. No festivals for other nationalities have been planned, the document states, because no one has requested one.

The document also implies council does not have the authority to request the rental guidelines from the administration and that rental policies are at the discretion of the administration.

“I will be requesting an item on the June 10 City Council agenda to follow up on this,” Lafferty said.

Councilman David Dwyer is also concerned about the inequality in rentals and with a recent social media promotion for the upcoming Warren Pride festival on June 14 at City Square Park that advertises a drag show that is part of the event.

“This is being advertised as a family-friendly event and this type of drag show belongs in a bar or a club where crowds are 18 and over,” Dwyer said. “You would have thought the event organizers would have learned something from last year’s travesty, but clearly that is not the case.”

Last year, three vendors at Warren’s first-ever pride festival were openly displaying adult novelty items near the splash pad where children were playing. At the time, event organizers said they did not see the items and were not aware there was a problem.

The festival raised a question from Dwyer: “Just like the Asian festival, no fees are being charged to the organizers of the pride event so who is covering the cost of setup, breakdown, trash removal and police coverage as well as insurance?”

Warren City Council meets at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 10 at the Warren Community Center auditorium.