Annapolis weighs donation, not fee waiver, for concert

An Annapolis city committee recommended Wednesday donating $10,000 to the Capital Gazette Families Fund instead of making the city a co-sponsor for the July 28 benefit concert. The Annapolis City Finance Committee voted to strike a resolution that would make the city a co-sponsor of the Annapolis Rising benefit concert honoring victims and first-responders of the June 28 mass shooting in the Capital Gazette newsroom. The committee will recommend that the council oppose the resolution and instead donate $10,000 directly to the Anne Arundel Community Foundation’s Capital Gazette Families Fund. The Annapolis Rising Festival, organized quickly in the weeks after the shooting, amassed $34,000 in city-related fees. Mayor Gavin Buckley introduced the resolution after the concert and suggested the city retroactively waive those fees. The council voted Sept. 10 to postpone the decision to spend taxpayer money to help pay for the concert. Buckley’s resolution was brought up again at Wednesday morning’s finance committee meeting, at which several aldermen expressed reluctance to bypass procedures for municipal sponsorship of events and to waive the fees. —