St. Augustine Beach Mayor Dylan Rumrell questioned St. Augustine officials this week for hiring an external consultant to address Nights of Lights’ logistical woes.
Speaking at a meeting of the county’s Tourism and Development Council, Rumrell said the assignment should have been handed to local stakeholders — without a cost to taxpayers.
“We have enough people in this city that are smart enough, who live, breathe, and eat Nights of Lights, that we could have probably helped them for free,” he said.
Rumrell, who serves on the TDC board, argued that the challenges posed do not require specialized expertise.
“What data are they going to collect?” he asked. “Except that there were a lot of people, a lot of traffic, a lot of trash, not enough bathrooms. They could just pay us to say that.”
St. Augustine city officials have argued that an external party can better assess the situation through an objective lens.
The TDC discussed Nights of Lights at length Monday, with member Irving Kass, owner of the St. George Inn, calling for the event to be taken to the “next level” — but not necessarily by drawing more visitors.
“There’s ways to grow it and not have more people come,” he said. “If you’re going to do Nights of Lights — currently, besides Christmas songs, trinkets, and lightbulbs, what are the real things that are bringing people here other than their Christmas spirit?”
Kass suggested that showcasing “world-class” exhibits would beckon a higher tier of visitor.
TDC member and St. Johns County Board of Commissioners Chair Krista Joseph said she wants the event “refined” rather than enlarged.
“I do think we should start looking at who we are advertising to, to make sure that it’s a higher quality market,” she said. “I think that’s important.”
Joseph was circumspect about allocating county dollars to St. Augustine city coffers to address Nights of Lights concerns.
“You can’t just throw money at a problem,” she said. “The city has to take some responsibility.”
As reported by The Citizen this week, St. Augustine City Commission member Barbara Blonder plans to introduce a bill that would shorten the duration of Nights of Lights by more than a third.
5 Responses
Thank you for saying this Mayor Rumrell. The consultants are an incredible waste of money.
I agree. St Augustine has always hired consulting firms to do study after study.. started long ago with the water issue. Better get another study before making a decision. If they put our SJC citizens first, schedule local debates on our issues; try committees made up of SJC citizens, where each committee can submit a recommendation on whatever the issue might be, not just Nights of Lights. We all saw this coming over the last few years, the downtown area is just not large enough to handle our festivities any longer… any of them. Tourists. Too many. Even with higher clientele, where can they go? Where can they park? How do employees get to work downtown? What about us??? The citizens of SA. How about not advertising at all for Nights of Lights this year? Are you afraid no one will make money downtown? Please. Better pay for another study… find out what to do.
Having people on these boards who don’t care about the businesses or the people of the city is getting ridiculous. There are members with disdain for this holiday and for its existence, yet they hide it behind a false facade of civic duty. Who had road construction planned downtown during the NOL’s?? Who ok’d it ?? This traffic in itself was probably cooked up but the same political hacks who now are throwing money at some consultants stealing money and with no ties to our city or the livelihoods of our businesses. Step down or we should impeach those members for authorizing this absolute disgrace and being a disgrace to our city
NOL started a week later this year and ended a few days earlier. Maybe this contributed to the concentrated influx? By shortening it, won’t the same people who make this an annual tradition still come in that reduced timeframe, creating an even larger crowding issue? I wish they would open Francis Field again. The year they did that made things so much easier!
I agree with Rumrell. Being a native local as well as working in the hospitality industry myself the consultants are a waste of time and money. The city/county need a local board that can truly shed light on the concerns of NOL. The historic district can not support the amount of people that are being drawn down there. Not enough road and infrastructure. Honestly I used leave 2 hours before my shift to get through traffic at 16 and 95, get through traffic of downtown/US1, find parking, walk whatever distance to get there, etc. That’s not even the concerns getting to my car at night. They need a board who can TRULY shed some light on the issues. Not an outside consultant that has no idea of all the variables that come into play. Also, shortening NOL I don’t think is the solution either. Most of the people that work in the Hospitality Industry downtown depend on those months to help make it through the year. If you want to refine and bring a different clientele I’m all for that. However, do it to where it benefits our expanding community as a whole.