An application for the annual Hometown Christmas festival in Warrenton this year is drawing criticism from a local government watchdog.

At issue: Warrenton aldermen didn’t approve the festival within the time frame that they themselves established just this summer.

In July, the board of aldermen set new standards for Main Street festivals, including that they need to be applied for at least 120 days in advance, and approved by the board of aldermen within 30 days of application. 

The rules were controversial at the time because they were passed when Papu’s Cuban Cafe was trying to plan a festival, leading to a conflict between the city and restaurant owner Maria Beyer.

The Hometown Christmas festival having a December date means it needed to be applied for by August and approved by September. So when the city scheduled approval of the festival in mid-October, it triggered third-party accusations that the city government was giving special treatment.

Brandie Walters, the city’s director of operations, said Hometown Christmas organizers with Warrenton Downtown Association submitted their application more than 120 days in advance, but that a mistake by city staff caused a delay in approval. 

“With this being a new process, unfortunately, city staff mistakenly did not follow all steps of the new procedure,” Walters told The Record. “When it was brought to our attention on this special event application, the board agreed to postpone their review to allow the mistake to be corrected.”

Walters said the board of aldermen, which voted on Oct. 20 to waive its 30-day approval timeline, would instead vote on the permit Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Government watchdog Joshua Poore, author of the “Liberty in Warren County” Facebook page, is criticizing the board of aldermen for ignoring their own rules, and accuses them of giving special treatment to the downtown association.

“The city decided to make hoops for everyone to jump through, the event was not approved according to the code, and now the (board of aldermen) decides to ignore the code because they did not do the job,” wrote Poore. “The city suddenly has to scramble to clean up the mess they made and make sure the event goes on, regardless of city code.”

Poore advocated for the board of aldermen to follow the letter of the law, which he said means denying a permit for the Christmas festival because it wasn’t approved in the 30-day window.

“If it is approved, any future applicant for a permit would have to be granted special waivers and considerations that violate the ordinance,” Poore told The Record. “When the city created the ordinance with the time frames involved, they were responsible for realizing that these filing and approval windows would require prompt attention.”

He added that a mistake on the part of the city staff or administration shouldn’t be an excuse to ignore Warrenton’s ordinances.

“This situation has nothing to do with the nature of the event at hand. It has everything to do with the integrity of the board and their willingness to follow through on what they swore they would do — support the law,” Poore said.