2) Liquor service
The beverage service at the 2013 Ford Fests was provided by Muzik nightclub. The bars last Friday bore the logo of Muzik Beach, and a liquor sales licence issued to Muzik Clubs Inc. on July 3, 2013 (two days before the Scarborough event), was conspicuously displayed.
Muzik is located in the Horticulture Building at city-owned Exhibition Place and has been there since 2004. It currently enjoys a 20-year lease, which it has recently sought to extend by another decade, through 2034 [pdf]. Last December, the Exhibition Place board of governors chaired by Ford ally Mark Grimes approved a sole-source lease extension.
Five months later, however, Ex Place staff returned to the board to let them know there’d been a hitch: per city bylaws, a lease of 21 years or longer is considered a sale, which would require – among other things – approval from council [pdf].
When reports from the Exhibition Place board are forwarded to council, they are placed on the agenda of the mayor’s Executive Committee.
There are currently two consultant lobbyists with active registrations to lobby the city (and/or its boards) on behalf of Muzik. There is also a policy concerning council-member-organized community events that says members of council “shall neither solicit nor accept support in any form” from registered lobbyists or their clients. In this context, “support” means a donation of goods or services for the purpose of holding a community event.
Questions to Muzik concerning its relationship with the Fords and whether it charged them full market value for Muzik’s services were referred to the business’s PR firm, which explained that the club’s owner was out of town and unavailable to comment. The mayor's office did not respond to requests.
Councillor Mike Layton, whose ward encompasses Exhibition Place and who’s sat on its board since January, tells me that Muzik’s lease extension has been “stalled” since he convinced the board to roll that discussion into the ongoing process of crafting a broader strategic vision for the grounds.
But he’s intrigued when I tell him about Muzik’s involvement with Ford Fest.
“I think [the relationship is] a valid concern and that’s something that we need to ask questions about,” he says.
