Sides clash over X-Fest at Modesto council meeting

Nearly three dozen speakers sang the praises of Chris Ricci and X-Fest – his annual downtown Modesto music festival – at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting as council members weigh whether to grant him a permit to hold this year’s festival on Aug. 20.

The speakers included festival-goers and musicians who perform at the event as well as the people who work it. They said X-Fest provides entertainment for the entire community and creates a positive image for the city as well as a boon for the local economy.

“For me, as a person who loves to attend musical festivals, this is our Coachella,” John Ervin III said in an interview, referring to the annual Southern California music festival. “It’s our opportunity to showcase not only national talent but [also] up-and-coming talent both nationally and locally. We always get a treat when you go to X-Fest.”

“This has put us on the map as a community that embraces music and diversity of music,” said the 50-year-old Ervin, founder and executive director of the Project Uplift Mentoring Program. He has attended the festival about 11 times and plans to go this year.

But city officials are concerned about security at the event, especially as the number of law enforcement personnel working the event has declined in recent years – from 171 in 2013 to 81 last year, according to the Police Department. Those numbers include off-duty personnel hired by Ricci and on-duty officers paid for by grants. Ricci also hires security guards.

Police Chief Galen Carroll said many of his officers don’t like working the event because of the festival-goers who have been drinking.

And while X-Fest – which debuted in 2000 and draws about 15,000 people – helps many downtown restaurants and bars, other downtown businesses close or see far fewer customers during the festival. The city closes downtown streets for the festival, which has grown to 14 blocks and 20 stages.

The council is expected to decide at its April 26 meeting whether to grant X-Fest a permit.

Ricci said city staff had put up unnecessary roadblocks and provided inaccurate and incomplete information to the council (for instance, he said, they left out many of the restaurants and bars that thrive during X-Fest). He singled out Deputy City Manager Brent Sinclair and the Community and Economic Development Department.

“A combination of lackadaisical communication and purposefully throwing up roadblocks has resulted not only in unnecessary delays in my application process but also in crucial information being left out of my application packet,” Ricci said to council members. “As a result, the department that is charged with economic development for our community is instead jeopardizing events that have long had a positive economic impact on the area.”

He said Galletto Ristorante asked him for $20,000 last year to make up for its losses during X-Fest. Ricci said that when he refused, the restaurant demanded the festival be moved. The restaurant submitted a petition to the city with about a dozen signatures from downtown businesses.

There is nothing on the petition that says why the businesses signed it, but Galletto head chef Michael Goularte said in March he supported X-Fest and the petition was for moving it from downtown. A city report characterizes the petition this way: “Staff has a list of signatures gathered by Galletto Ristorante, an important fine dining establishment in the downtown, opposing the event.”

Ricci said moving X-Fest from downtown would not work.

Goularte said in an interview Tuesday he meet with Ricci last year and did suggest compensation – not as a threat but as an option to deal with the festival’s impact on Galletto. Goularte said the restaurant was inside the festival area last year and that customers from outside the festival could not access it. He said the potential compensation was much less than $20,000.

Galletto owner Tom Gallo told council members he and his wife support the festival but want to do it in a way that does not hurt downtown. He suggested X-Fest be held elsewhere or, if it stays downtown, that the city not allow food and beverage booths, which he said hurt the restaurants.

Councilman Bill Zoslocki told Ricci the issue was not about the city opposing X-Fest, which Zoslocki said is not true, or the concerns of one restaurant. He said the core concern is safety and Ricci developing a plan that ensures this year’s festival is safe. Ricci said he could do that.

This story was originally published April 6, 2016 at 11:01 AM with the headline "Sides clash over X-Fest at Modesto council meeting."