South Miami adopts special-events fee-waiver policy and approves waivers for Unity Reunion and a car show

The City Commission of the City of South Miami voted Jan. 7 to adopt a special-events fee-waiver policy and approved two fee-waiver requests for community festivals.

The policy establishes a $25,000 annual benchmark for waived direct costs, clarifies that 501(c)(3) organizations would not automatically be exempt from all direct costs (application fees and certain indirect costs may be waived while staffing and other direct expenses remain the applicant's responsibility), and directs staff to provide a historical accounting of event-related direct and indirect costs to the commission no later than February. Commissioner Monique, who introduced the policy, said, "If it's if we're saying 25,000 is what we're gonna waive per year, then that's what we should waive, period, for everybody." The commission voted to adopt the policy and asked the manager to bring back the requested cost breakdown as part of a future report.

Under the new policy the commission approved two individual waiver requests. The first, a request from the South Miami Black Cultural Affairs Foundation for the Unity Reunion Music Festival at Murray Park on Feb. 15, asked the city to waive $9,457.83 in event-related fees. Deborah Powell, president of the Black Cultural Affairs Foundation, told the commission the festival draws a regional audience and estimated attendance last year at "a safe number would be 600." After discussion about folding long-running, recurring events into the annual budget, the commission voted to grant the waiver.

The second waiver concerned a three-day car-show activation proposed by Patrol Views LLC. Applicant Pablo Rodriguez described the event's growth and said he wanted a "partnership" with the city that could yield legacy benefits such as scholarships and youth activations; he said, "we're very happy to be back." Commissioners praised the event's local economic impact but several members, including Mayor Fernandez, said the application arrived too late in the planning cycle and urged stronger year-round coordination before approving substantial city support. Mayor Fernandez said he was reluctant to approve a large subsidy without prior partnership work and marketing coordination, and ultimately voted against the car-show waiver; the motion to grant the waiver passed 3–1.

Why it matters: The fee-waiver policy creates clearer rules for how the city treats nonprofit and for-profit event applicants and sets a budgetary benchmark for waived direct costs. The commission's direction to staff to report historical spending is intended to inform whether recurring events should be moved into the city's regular budget rather than handled individually at the dais.

Next steps: Staff will report historical direct and indirect event costs by February to inform the FY26 budget process and the commission's oversight of recurring city-sponsored events.