Posted July 6, 2009
For many years, city-run festivals have been well-enjoyed for encouraging family fun with music, food, arts and crafts, and outdoor activities for the whole community. Display booths by individual political groups typically were not set up, particularly for hotly disputed issues of national interest.
Whenever special interest groups or religious organizations want to take advantage of the public forum, they are (and always have been) allowed to do so and are encouraged to move throughout the crowd to present materials and talk to people individually.
However, at this year’s Freedomfest event, a special interest group wanted a booth at a fixed location, so the city created a designated area, labeled Section B, in a centralized location of the event where booths set up that were not food and arts vendors, which also were grouped by type. The area was at the heart of all activity, and was available to any politically motivated group, non-profits and religious organizations.
Though some people may have preferred to exclude the groups from the event, city management was unwilling to limit free speech rights, or to spend taxpayer money on needless legal fees and court costs.
Instead, a sign was posted at the entrance to the festival area for non-vendors saying, “The City of Port St. Lucie does not endorse, support or condone the views or products of the organizations or individuals in this section. However, we are required to make this space available to avoid the cost of litigation.”
While being clearly visible, the sign did not obstruct the view of any booths, which were widely viewed by many festival patrons.
The purpose of the sign was to balance the needs of people of all points of view, including those who were not at the event for political purposes, to make known that the city took no official position to agree or disagree with the statements presented in Section B, and that attempts at legal action to support or discourage the presentation of political views would be an unwise use of taxpayer money.