Denver 4/20 2017 event permit coverage
Denver’s 4/20 event gets a 3-year permit ban and $12,000 fine
By Ashley Dean
The Denverite May 20, 2017
Denver Parks & Recreation announced Saturday afternoon that the organizer of the city’s annual 4/20 rally has been fined more than $12,000 and banned from receiving an event permit for the next three years.
The penalties are being imposed after a “thorough review” ordered by Mayor Michael Hancock found violations related to trash management, public safety, security and more.
In an 11-page letter to Miguel Lopez, permit-holder for the 4/20 event, Parks & Recreation Executive Director Happy Haynes wrote:
“I appreciate you meeting with me yesterday to provide further information regarding the problems at the event, and your plans to correct those problems in future. However, there were numerous issues at the event. Generally, I find the most significant concerns involve the follow issues: noise, trash, security, health code violations, and other city department violations.”
The fines issued total $11,965, and there is an additional $190 fine for damages.
The 4/20 event has also lost its priority event status, which is granted to longtime recurring events and gives them priority when permitting for the year ahead begins in November.
The permit ban applies to Lopez and does not stop someone else from applying to run a 4/20 event.
Lopez told Denverite he couldn’t comment on whether someone else would apply for such a permit.
“We’re just going to have our day in court with them and appeal it,” he said.
“We repudiate everything they say, and we’re just going take it to court and appeal it. There was simply no harm done. We picked up the park, and there may have been security issues but, you know, people jump the fence at the White House, too. There was no harm done here.”
Mayor Hancock ordered a review of the event in response to the large amount of trash left behind in Civic Center Park and reports that people broke through the fence to get in without going through security screenings. There were also concerns about the behavior and language of attendees.
“Seeing our Civic Center in a state of disrepair was for many in our city — including myself — deeply disappointing and discouraging,” Hancock said at the time. “Our parks and public spaces are held in the public trust, and when organizers hold an event at one of these spaces, they have a responsibility to uphold that public trust.
When organizers leave one of our parks trashed, they violate that trust.”
Lopez said a month ago that he wasn’t expecting a fair hearing.
“Government and police typically fish for whatever justifies their ends,” he said. “They’ll come up with with what they need.”
In addition to finding that organizers did not effectively prepare for and manage the amount of trash produced during the 4/20 event or supply enough security staff, the letter says, the review found that 10 vendors were operating without a permit. It also found that seven vendors — six of which were ones without a permit — posed an imminent health hazard. That can mean food prepared at home, the lack of a hand-washing sink or an unapproved source of food, among other things.
The letter also lists noise complaints, primarily from people working inside the City and County Building who said the volume of the music made it extremely difficult to work.
The event was also found to be in violation of street closure permit requirements because barricades and vehicles were blocking sidewalks.
“We’re a controversial event, and they don’t seem to like us and that’s just too bad,” Lopez said. “They don’t realize that they’re hurting their very own people.”
Cyndi Karvaski, spokeswoman for Denver Parks & Recreation, said the department does not consider the content of an event when it grants permits and reiterated that Lopez is being penalized because of violations of his permit.
“We can’t discriminate on that,” she said. “Anyone can receive a permit if they fulfill all the requirements of that permit.”
Denver 4/20 rally organizers receive 3-year ban after event left Civic Center Park trashed
The rally’s organizers pledged to appeal, say penalties motivated by anti-marijuana views
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s administration banned the organizer of this year’s 4/20 rally from hosting the event for three years citing a series of violations at the marijuana celebration.
In a letter released Saturday, the administration identified “substantial violations of city requirements” after conducting a review of the 2017 event and imposed $11,965 in fines and $190 in damages in addition to the temporary ban.
“We will continue to ensure that events in our parks are safe, compliant and of high quality,” said Happy Haynes, the executive director of Denver Parks and Recreation in a statement.
An attorney for the Denver 4/20 rally organization called the three-year ban “extreme overkill” on the part of Hancock’s administration and suggested the real explanation is the mayor’s opposition to marijuana. He pledged to get the decision overturned on appeal.
“I think we’ll be able to show … the city’s motivation is to silence the message (of the event) because there aren’t any actual concerns or problems, they are all technical in nature,” said Rob Corry, the group’s general counsel.
The city outlined five concerns in its 11-page letter to the 4/20 event organizers — enough to trigger the three-year ban for future event permits. The violations of the city’s public event policy included four noise complaints, untimely trash removal, limited security guards, unlicensed food vendors and street closures.
Corry disputed each issue and the city acknowledged in the letter it never notified the organizers about the noise complaints.
“None of these things remotely come close to justify revoking the event,” Corry said.
The trash issue received the most attention after piles of rubbish remained in Civic Center Park the morning after the event concluded. The rally attracted several thousand people for the 4:20 p.m. marijuana smoke-in and a concert by rapper 2 Chainz.
Corry said the permit issued for the event allowed them to continue the cleanup the day after, and in the end, “we leave the park cleaner than we received it.”
The Denver 4/20 rally organizers have 15 days to file an appeal, and Corry said if the violations are not overturned, then they will also consider taking the case to court.
In the meantime, the controversy surrounding this year’s festival is drawing attention from outside organizations — particularly the Centennial Institute, a think tank of Colorado Christian University, the faith-based school that stood against recreational marijuana sales in its home city of Lakewood.
Jeff Hunt, director of the Centennial Institute, told The Cannabist earlier this year that his organization would become more proactive in “highlighting what’s happening with Colorado in the legalization of marijuana.” The Centennial Institute is planning an Aug. 11 summit on that topic, featuring speakers from law enforcement, education and the medical community.
“It’s not just one thing, it’s a series of things that have gone wrong with this rally,” Hunt said.
Hunt said he walked through this year’s 4/20 event and was disheartened to see cannabis consumed openly in public and in the view of children. He said he and others were concerned about reports of gunshots near the event as well as people pushing down a perimeter fence to gain access to the event.
The Centennial Institute drafted an anti-4/20 petition that was later circulated via email blasts, social media, radio ads, and via CCU’s website. The petition asked Hancock to disallow future 4/20, claiming that the rallies “have become unsafe, flaunting blatant illegal activity, and trashing a national historic landmark, and with incidents of a knife attack and gunshots, the rally is a threat to attendees and the people of Denver.
Police incidents included the arrests of two individuals after at least one shot was heard a block away from Civic Center Park; five arrests at the event; civil citations given to 20 people; and a report at 10:45 p.m. of a man threatening the post-event clean-up crew.
On Wednesday, Hunt delivered the petition and 4,091 signatures to Hancock’s office.
Colorado residents represented about 40 percent of those 4,000-plus signatories, Hunt said. It was unclear how many of those signatures were from Denver residents, Hunt said his office would need more time to tabulate those numbers.
“We felt like it was time to strengthen our voice and tell our mayor there’s a strong contingency of people who are opposed to this rally,” he said, noting that opposition is from people both inside and outside as well as prominent members of the public such as Archbishop Samuel Aquila.
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