Special Event Permit Proposed to Address Events On or Near City Property

Chief Judge Alia Moses informs the council about special event issues near the Federal Courthouse downtown, during the Regular City Council Meeting on August 13, 2024.

Towards the end of Tuesday, August 13, 2024’s Regular City Council Meeting, an Ordinance “amending Article V, Chapter 20 of the Code of Ordinances and Adding Special Events Permitting to Chapter 20,” as it reads on the agenda, was presented to the council for a vote. 

Chief Judge Alia Moses, who presides over cases at the Federal Courthouse, located downtown, took to the podium to share her concerns about the current handling of special events in the downtown area and the issues that have arisen as a result of the lack of regulations surrounding special events. “I’m here because we’ve had some incidents that came up in the last few weeks regarding special events that affected the federal courthouse property,” she began. “Since the Oklahoma Bombing, we have to have a buffer zone around the courthouse.” 

Judge Moses explained some of the new rules and safety measures that have been put in place since that incident for the protection of federal buildings and courthouses. “If there’s a new courthouse built in Del Rio, we have to have 5 acres as an offset for the protection of the courthouse,” Moses stated. “Because we entered this building prior to the Oklahoma Bombing, we don’t have the offset, so that creates some special problems for the federal courthouse.” 

She went on to detail a recent event held near the courthouse that posed several issues for herself, her staff, and others at the courthouse. “In the last couple of weeks there was an event that happened that was at first, blocking the federal courthouse parking lot, after bringing it to attention, it was changed to a certain extent, but we still had some problems using the federal courthouse because we still had to block off our parking lot, so we weren’t able to work on that Saturday, and yes we do work on Saturdays,” Moses stated at the podium. 

“What I found out in the process, is that the city doesn’t have any limitations on the type of events that you have on the public streets of Del Rio,” she began. “What I understood is, the only ordinance that you have is that if everybody meets the qualifications for the closing of the streets, that's all that they have to do.” 

Chief Judge Moses informed the council that the agreements to close the street were not made by every business and building affected, but the event was permitted to occur anyways. “For this particular event, those required agreements by everybody did not occur, although the city still had to give the permit to the people that were conducting the business,” she informed. “I am the Chief Administrative Officer for the Del Rio Division, I am the Chief Administrative Officer for the Western District of Texas, I was not notified of any of these matters, I did not give my consent, now my concern is, without some kind of ordinance that also considers the special circumstances of the location around the federal courthouse, then we’re gonna having this same conversation in the future.” 

She concluded by stating that she “doesn’t want to get in the way of the city having any types of events, but you don’t have anything that monitors any kind of events before you have them and that is my concern in terms of our (the federal courthouse) situation.”  

Councilperson James DeReus thanked the judge for her comments, said he was not aware of that buffer zone, and asked the City Attorney, Ana Markowski Smith, if any of those types of changes had been made to the ordinance, to which she replied, “There’s a statement that says that the event holder has to comply with and contact the local governmental entities, which are the city, school district, county and federal government.” The city attorney also stated that, “It’s my understanding that Judge Moses is working on some rules and recommendations, so if she submits recommendations, then event holders will have to follow those rules.” 

Judge Alia Moses and Interim Zoning and Planning Director, Scot Carcasi offer their recommendations on the Special Events Permit to the city council before the motion was raised to either approve or not approve the ordinance.

Councilperson DeReus asked if those rules will be attached to applications for special events, asking, “How would they get that information?” he began. “That would be great for something downtown but what about the different governmental agencies scattered throughout the town?” To which the city attorney recommended reaching out to each governmental agency for their own set of rules and regulations to be attached to the applications and added to the ordinance. 

Questions were raised by Council about whether this vote would need to be postponed in order to avoid further confusion in the application process for events and whether this permit would only apply to the downtown area or all city streets/buildings across the city. 

City Operations and Compliance Auditor and Interim Zoning and Planning Director, Scot Carcasi took to the podium to address these questions. “This ordinance applies to city property, so if you approve this ordinance tonight, there’s a 60 day delay before the ordinance takes effect.” This statement caused some confusion among council members, causing Councilperson Carmen Gutierrez to ask, “Would the permit be issued on an honor system or would you withhold the permit until you get something from the government agency clearing the event?” 

Carcasi responded, “With approval of this ordinance, the application wouldn’t be accepted until there was approval from the government agency.” 

He continued by stating, “This ordinance allows us to review a location and evaluate how it affects police, fire, and EMS response, there’s a section of the ordinance that requires emergency service access during events because sometimes it gets really crowded and we don’t think about what happens if emergency vehicles need to get through, so the fire department adopted a manual that has those guidelines, and that’s included in this ordinance.” 

Carcasi also clarified that this special events permit would apply to any organization, business, or individual applying to hold a special event on or near city property, including city streets. “The current application that exists, the street closure application, applies to a block party scenario and talks about residences, so this kind of clarifies the application and approval processes and all the requirements,” he stated.

The ordinance is still missing information about fees and doesn’t clarify that there is a 60 day delay before it goes into effect, among other government regulations to be added in the future, but Scot Carcasi recommended that it be approved by council so that it could be amended, finalized and adopted as soon as possible. 

The motion to approve the Special Event Permit was raised by Councilperson James DeReus, seconded by Councilperson Carmen Gutierrez, and approved in a unanimous vote by the council.