WPB mayor balks at speaker, orders city to rescind sponsorship of Black Chamber event
Update: The city not only had purchased two tables, it had been the event's largest sponsor, at $17,000.
This story has been updated since it appeared on Jan. 30 in Stet Palm Beach.
From the Lessons in Political Retribution Department comes longtime practitioner Keith James, the mayor of West Palm Beach.
The city canceled its $17,000 sponsorship, which included two tables, for the Black Chamber of Commerce’s Feb. 10 Ascension Awards when James learned that F. Malcolm Cunningham Jr. would be the keynote speaker.
Who is Malcolm Cunningham? He’s the local attorney who is suing city over its failure to award his client, Vita Lounge, the contract to operate the refurbished but still-shuttered Sunset Lounge in the city’s historic Black downtown neighborhood.
And how do we know about this? Cunningham filed the mayor’s email exchange Jan. 12 in court documents to buttress his case to find the city in contempt for failing to negotiate a contract with his client nearly a year after a court ordered the city to do so.
The exchange started at 2:51 pm Dec. 18, when Sandra Hammerstein, a compliance officer in the city’s Office of Small & Minority Women Business Programs, emailed the mayor and City Administrator Faye Johnson. Hammerstein also copied her boss, Frank Hayden.
She wondered if the mayor would be attending the chamber event and informed him that the city had bought two tables.
The chamber lists tables at $2,200 for members and $2,250 for non-members. But the city had signed on as the event’s biggest sponsor, paying $17,000.
“Who is the keynote speaker this year?” the mayor asked seven minutes later.
Hammerstein responded: “Malcolm Cunningham.”
“As in the lawyer who is suing the City over the Sunset Lounge?” James replied.
“Yes, sir,” Hammerstein said.
“Rescind the purchase of the tables. The city will not support any event at which he is the keynote speaker,” the mayor wrote back.
An hour later, Hammerstein sent a letter from Hayden to the chamber, rescinding the ticket purchase.
“This action is based on the selection of the keynote speaker,” Hayden wrote. “I warned the group last year that this would cause a rift between the Black Chamber of Commerce and the City of West Palm Beach but apparently that was not important enough because the group selected him again this year.”
Hayden is a Black Chamber of Commerce board member. Cunningham did not speak at the 2023 event.
Minutes later, James wrote to Johnson, his city administrator:
“So Mr. Hayden KNEW it would be a problem BEFORE the tables were purchased??”
She replied: “This is totally unacceptable. Are we brain dead or just don't give a d—-? Wow.”
The chamber board had agreed the year before to rescind an invitation to Cunningham at the city’s request but refused to back down again this year, no matter how big the sponsor.
They figured the lawsuit was still fresh then and certainly would be over by 2024. But the city’s refusal to negotiate with club operators Vita Lounge, despite the court order, leaves the suit very much alive.
Cunningham was instrumental in the creation of the chamber 20 years ago and plans to speak on the importance of having a Black chamber in Palm Beach County.
The city’s $17,000 check had to be returned, leaving a gaping hole in the event’s fundraising, event Chairperson Keely Gideon-Taylor said.
Tables remain for the 6 pm dinner at the Palm Beach County Convention Center. Sales close Feb. 7.
Retaliation is not unusual in the political arena, as many people in powerful positions prioritize loyalty and, to some degree, subservience over all else. It’s of particular interest when taxpayer money and public spaces are affected.
Some other James’ actions that have aired publicly:
The James administration shuttered the vibrant alley between downtown buildings leased to restaurateur and nightclub operator Rodney Mayo after Mayo ran an aborted bid against James for mayor. The alley remains unused.
The city also stopped Mayo from shutting down the 500 block of Clematis Street on weekends, which helped Mayo’s businesses. The James administration also moved to end Mayo’s lease of city space for Subculture Coffee on the 500 block but at the insistence of city commissioners, backed off.
Developer Michael McCloskey accused James in 2015, then a city commissioner, of refusing to back his project unless McCloskey made payments to James’ campaign. McCloskey did not win city support for his project.
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