Mayor Martin J. Walsh vowed yesterday to crack down on the city's lax collection of rental fees for City Hall Plaza after learning the Big Apple Circus owes $80,000 for its long-running use of the publicly owned venue — part of a more than $200,000 tab the New York-based nonprofit had run up since 2009.
"This rental fee collection for City Hall Plaza has not been working properly. I don't know if it's mismanagement or a lack of follow-up … We can't have that," Walsh told the Herald, adding his new tourism director will adopt more stringent accounting practices so renters do "not go on for years without paying."
Just weeks before the Big Apple Circus rolled into Boston on March 15 and set up its big top in City Hall Plaza, a lawyer for the city threatened to pull its permit, warning in a letter that it was "seriously delinquent" in paying $205,000 in rental and service fees accrued since 2009.
The circus scrambled to cut checks, coughing up three payments totaling $125,000 between Feb. 26 and March 11 — four days before the start of its seven-week run.
That money covered fees, set forth in a 2009 contract, to cover the costs of an on-site event manager and licensed electrician, as well as security and custodial services.
That contract also required the circus to pay $20,000 in rental fees each year, according to the city's Law Department.
The Walsh administration said yesterday those rental fees have gone unpaid for four years, amounting to $80,000.
The Herald reported yesterday that Matthew Cahill, head of the Boston Finance Commission, is urging Walsh to redo contracts cut with the organizers of large ticketed events, saying the city is losing a lot of money by giving away use of the space at bargain rates.
"I'm glad that the new administration is being aggressive with these vendors," Cahill said yesterday.
Lynn Stirrup, executive director of the Big Apple Circus, told the Herald she understood that under its arrangement with the Menino administration, they did not have to pay rent.
Instead, she said, the circus was expected to donate each year $20,000 to the Boston Children's Museum and the Fund for Boston Neighborhoods, give thousands of tickets to the needy and host two free circuses, one for disabled kids and another for which the mayor's office gives away tickets to charities.
"We give away two tents outright … Those two things alone are an $80,000 value," Stirrup said. "That's part of our mission … Our goal is to always give back to the community."
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