Kiwanis Lose Lease For Chili Cookoff – Boys And Girls Club Plans Labor Day Fair There
Written by 991KBU on May 16, 2018
THURSDAY UPDATE – ORIGINAL STORY BELOW
An uproar over the Malibu chili cook off.
The owner of the land used for the popular Labor Day carnival has canceled the lease for the Malibu chili cook off … after 36 years of operation by the Malibu Kiwanis club.
Instead … the Malibu Bay Company will lease the land at no cost to the Malibu Boys and Girls Club …
That organization will put on some other sort of carnival and fundraiser on Labor Day Weekend.
The decision was apparently made by Dave Resnick … a long time Malibu community volunteer who handles management of the Malibu Bay Company land.
That land is all being sold off following the death of the Malibu bay company’s owner, Jerrold Perenchio.
Perenchio had given use of vacant land at the Civic Center to the Kiwanis for their Chili Cookoff for 36 years … he also gave use of the Point Dume flatlands to the Malibu High School Christmas tree lot for decades.
Both of those events were managed by the same man … for the Kiwanis club at the Cookoff … and for the Shark Fund at the high school.
Complicating the issue … the City of Malibu is in the midst of buying the Cook-off land … in the heart of the Malibu Civic Center … for possible park use.
The city will inherit the Boys And Girls Club as a tenant this year … but only for the one weekend.
City Manager Reva Feldman tells KBUU News that the land sale should close just a couple days before the carnival starts this year.
And she says the Boys and Girls Club has applied for permits to run the event.
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It appears that the Malibu Boys and Girls Club has laid groundwork for taking over the land for a carnival over several weeks.
They’re not willing to speak for the record yet.
But officials at the other Malibu youth organizations have already been contacted by the Boys and Girls Club about participating in the Labor Day carnival as a fundraiser and a community event.
A professional event handling company has already been brought on board … as well as a security company.
Past Malibu cook-offs have been plagued by reports of groups of youth fighting at night … and even drug dealing.
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But what about the Malibu Kiwanis Chili Cookoff ????
Kiwanis officials say it will go on at a different site … leading to the possibility of two carnivals on Labor Day weekend in Malibu.
Kiwanis club president Nicholas Ficklin put out a statement yesterday … asking people in Malibu if anyone has a site for the 37th edition of the event.
There are virtually no flat places left in the city … other than a few vacant lots right next to the site with the boys and girls club Carnival will be set up.
The Malibu Kiwanis club has been blasted by anonymous critics on the Internet … all sorts of dire claims about financial improprieties involving proceeds from past chili cookoffs.
The club’s chili cookoff manager has said publicly he was ready to retire.
The Kiwanis club has donated tens of thousands of dollars to local youth athletic programs.
Like all service clubs in America … it has seen a declining and graying membership.
Kiwanis president Ficklin told KBUU news … apparently from his home in Camarillo … he had nothing more to say beyond the statement.
And the statement says they are calling out to the community of Malibu to join with them … in locating and securing a suitable property for this year’s event.
WEDNESDAY STORY:
The longtime operator of the Malibu Chili Cook-off has been ousted from its traditional Labor Day site at the Civic Center.
And the Malibu Boys and Girls Club has a one-year lease to run a community festival at the site.
Kiwanis Club president Nicholas Ficklin confirms that the club has lost its lease — with the Malibu Bay Company.
The company owns the various pieces of land that the Kiwanis Chili Cookoff had used for 31 years.
The Malibu Bay Company is selling that land to the City of Malibu … but this year, it has been leased to the Malibu Boys and Girls Club for the Labor Day weekend.
The Malibu Boys And Girls Club confirms that it is deep in planning for a festival of some sort, at the Civic Center, on Labor Day.
That has left the Kiwanis Club to make a public appeal to try to find a site for its Labor Day Weekend Chili Cookoff.
And it leaves open the possibility that Malibu will have two community festivals runnign Labor Day.
Given the lack of available land, it makes it more likely that the Kiwanis Club has been put out of the festival business in Malibu after 31 years.
DEVELOPING STORY – MORE DETAILS LATER
