Rehoboth Beach suspends events fee, early notice

Prompted by a letter from Delaware ACLU and continued citizen pressure, Rehoboth officials have agreed to suspend the fee and application submittal deadline for its special-events ordinance.

During a commissioner workshop March 4, city solicitor Glenn Mandalas announced he had spoken with police Chief Keith Banks and Lt. Jamie Riddle, and it was agreed the enforcement of a $600 up-front-fee and the requirement to submit an application 8 weeks in advance would be put on hold while city officials review the ordinance.

Mandalas said for the duration of the review, each application would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. He said the $50 application processing fee would still need to be paid.

Crafted by the city’s police department, the ordinance faced little resistance before it was passed by commissioners in October. As it’s currently written, the ordinance requires applicants to submit a request at least eight weeks before the event and pay a nonrefundable base fee of $600. The fee allows the use of city facilities, including the Bandstand and Boardwalk, and provides an extra-duty police officer for three hours.

Mandalas supported the police department’s reasoning behind the creation of the special events ordinance. Rehoboth continues to grow and host events that are getting larger, so there’s a need for law enforcement. But, he said, the city also needs to find a balance that doesn’t infringe on the right of peaceful assembly.

Public questioning of the ordinance began in January, when half-a-dozen citizens raised concerns during a workshop over its constitutionality. Then, in a Feb. 12 letter, Ryan Tack-Hooper, Delaware ACLU legal director, challenged the constitutionality of the ordinance. First, he said, the notice requirement is too long and lacks exceptions. Second, he continued, the cost-shifting requirements are impermissibly broad.

During the March 4 workshop, Commissioner Pat Coluzzi introduced an ordinance that would create an expressive activity permit, which was defined as, “A public gathering by individuals not reasonably expected to have a significant impact upon the ordinary use of the public streets, rights-of-way, sidewalks, Boardwalk, beach or other public areas, where the primary purpose is to exercise the rights of assembly and free speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.”

Coluzzi said the definition isn’t done being refined, but most importantly a starting point to fixing the situation.

“Something needed to be done and I wanted to do it,” she said.

A number of the citizens from the January workshop were again at the March workshop. One of them was Joanne Cabry, a county resident with a Rehoboth mailing address, who said she was concerned numbers were still being discussed to define the threshold between an expressive activity and a special event. It shouldn’t matter if it’s two or three people, or a couple thousand people, she said.

Cabry said she was also concerned about qualifiers like reasonable and significant. Those are red flags, she said.

Ultimately, the commissioners agreed to have Mandalas, Coluzzi and representatives from the police department work together to try and blend the new ordinance into the original ordinance.