The Manhattan Beach City Council has elected to hold off on a vote to fund a Juneteenth celebration, giving residents until January to better understand the proposal.

The proposed agenda item would have appropriated $30,000 from the General Fund for a two-part event that would begin with a small ceremony at Bruce's Beach and a large celebration at Polliwog Park. 

However - aside from residents who said that there should be no city-funded Juneteenth celebration at all - the proposal in recent days had drawn criticism on two grounds. Critics said 1) that the detailed cost information provided by staff was given too late (supplemental information was provided to the public only on Monday); and 2) that responses to the city's survey on the Juneteenth event had been dominated by responses from (non-voting, non-taxpaying) high school students.

The council agreed to hold off on a vote until its January 16 meeting to give residents more of a chance to evaluate the proposal and options. Nevertheless, all councilmembers appeared to be in favor of some sort of Juneteenth celebration — noting a few times that City Council itself had decided this year to pursue an event, tasking city staff and the Parks and Recreation Commission with fleshing out details for a proposed event.

As it currently stands, the Juneteenth observation would most likely involve a small ceremony at Bruce's Beach on Wednesday, June 19, followed by a large celebration at Polliwog Park on Saturday, June 22.

Mayor Pro Tem Joe Franklin at one point suggested a compromise that would have the city providing $10,000 and private donors providing the balance of the cost. Council member Amy Howorth later suggested a $20,000 city contribution, with private donations to make up the balance. Later in the meeting, Councilmember Steve Napolitano noted that he had received multiple texts during the meeting from individuals willing to help sponsor the project.

The Juneteenth celebration project has been in the works for several months. In April 2023 City Council considered, and then rejected the idea of holding a Juneteenth celebration in 2023, in favor of allowing more time to prepare for a "high-quality" event in 2024. 

In preparation for the 2024 event, the city held two public conversation/"listening" sessions and created a survey for residents to weigh in on the celebration. (In describing where these participatory events had been covered and promoted, staff oddly failed to mention MB News, the most widely read Manhattan Beach news source.)

The Juneteenth survey was open for five months, between July and November. While it contained a question about whether to have such an event, councilmembers and staff pointed out that the survey was not designed to be a comprehensive or scientific measure of public opinion as to whether to host an event. Its detailed questions focused on what sorts of features residents might like to see as part of the celebration.

In October, Mira Costa students responded to the survey en masse, providing more than 1300 of the 1700+ votes cast in the survey.

That overwhelming student response prompted criticism from multiple residents, who said that taxpaying adults should be the ones deciding on how city money is spent. 

Nevertheless, at the meeting Mayor Richard Montgomery turned to the students who had shown up at the meeting in support of the Juneteenth event and asked them, "Do you eat at McDonald's? Do you buy coffee at Starbucks? Yes? Then you're a taxpayer. So take that theory away."

The budget estimate for the Juneteenth celebration at Polliwog Park was provided by staff on Monday as follows:

Stage and Sound: $7,000

Performers - Band(s) and DJ: $5,000-$10,000

Portable Toilets: $3,000

Permits: $500

Supplies and Signage: $1,000

Promotion: $2,000

Event Coordinator: TBD. (Proposals will be requested. Likely $100/hour or set price of approximately $2,500-$3,000)

Subtotal: $21,000-$26,500

Staff also provided an estimate for a June 19 "processional" from Bruce's Beach Park down to the beach. However Tuesday night's City Council conversations indicated that there would not be a processional and the event would be just a small ceremony at the park, reminiscent of the ceremony held for the unveiling of the Bruce's Beach Park plaque. Nevertheless, an estimate for the Bruce's Beach Park event (and possible processional) was given as follows:

Sound: $3,000

Gospel Choir: $500-$1,000

Refreshments: $500

Promotion: $1,000

Event Coordinator: TBD. (Proposals will be requested. Likely $100/hour or set price of approximately $500-$1,000)

Subtotal: $5,500-$6,500

As a comparison, the city provided the following amounts spent on other holidays and/or installations:

North End and Downtown Manhattan Beach Holiday Decorations: $21,400

Flags for Memorial Day, Flag Day, Veterans Day (71 flags hardware, installation, and removal): $24,000

Flags for Salute the Troops at Polliwog Park: $7,000

Veterans Day Event (wreath, sound): $3,000

Pier Lighting (sound, entertainment, city staffing): $37,500 (costs reflect staff overtime only)

Juneteenth (a portmanteau of "June Nineteenth") is celebrated as the official end of slavery in the U.S. It marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to bring the news that slavery had ended. (Although this technically occurred two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, the news had taken that long to get to Galveston.)

Juneteenth was named a federal holiday in 2021.

Juneteenth events were held this year in numerous other nearby cities, including Redondo Beach, Gardena, Inglewood, Carson, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Ventura County, L.A. County, and Santa Barbara. L.A. County Supervisor Holly MItchell - who represents Manhattan Beach, among other cities - hosted a Juneteenth event in South L.A.

However, in Manhattan Beach, ever since the revival of the Bruce's Beach issue, the question of celebrating Juneteenth has become an issue fraught with emotions for residents, particularly those neighbors who are weary of the renewed attention to Bruce's Beach Park.