Vendors pushing carts filled with balloons, horns, and other trinkets during Sunday’s Flag Day Parade did not have Criminal Offender Registry Information (CORI) checks run against them before being allowed to work the parade, despite a policy requiring them to do so.Many of the vendors were not registered with the Town at all, and did not pay a $25 per cart fee a myDedhamNews review has found.
In August 2008 Selectmen unanimously adopted a policy requiring that anyone working or volunteering at a Town sponsored event with unsupervised access to children must have a CORI check performed.The policy was adopted only weeks before the annual Dedham Day celebrations at Memorial Park.The Parks and Recreation Department, which sponsors the event, had to scramble to find volunteers who had already been CORI checked by the schools or a youth sports organization in order to run the bovine extravaganza.
Assistant Town Administrator Nancy Baker said that it was “nearly impossible” to check all the vendors in advance of the parade.Occasionally a vendor will approach the Town in advance, but most arrive on the day of the parade with their wares, she said.
Parks and Recreation Commissioner Don Reisner, author of the sex offender residency bylaw, said he hoped to propose a new bylaw for the expected Special Town Meeting in the fall that would regulate vendors.Reisner would require vendors to pre-register with the Town and receive a clean CORI check before being issued a badge allowing them to work the parade.
“Obviously some changes have to be made,” Reisner said, adding that he witnessed one vendor openly drinking a beer along the route.
Reisner said he also hopes to raise the fees charged by the Town, as well as require vendors to remain stationary throughout the parade.In addition, the Commission is looking into selling trinkets themselves at future parades.
Baker traveled the route of the parade before it began issuing licenses to vendors and collecting a $25 fee per cart.The 23 vendors she issued to permits to brought in a total of $575 to help pay for the expense of the $30,000 parade.Parks and Recreation Commissioners say they counted approximately 50 vendors throughout the route.
A spot check of 19 vendors who passed by the corner of Sanderson Ave and Mt. Vernon Street found that the vast majority of them did not have town issued permits, however.Several did not have state issued Hawker, Peddler and Transient Vendors licenses, and one had neither.
Of the 19 vendors checked, 13 were not carrying town-issued permits and five did not have state issued licenses.The $475 in lost income from those vendors is nearly enough to make up the additional $500 it cost the town in overtime because the parade was held on a Sunday, which requires workers to be paid double time.
The extra expense was a point of contention at the last Commission meeting when Director JuJu Mucciaccio suggested fundraising for it after Finance Director Mariellen Murphy balked at the cost.Murphy sent Mucciaccio an email questioning the wisdom of the parade during a time when residents were losing their jobs, but Commissioners were adamant that the parade would go on.
Officials estimate between 15,000 and 20,000 residents and visitors viewed the parade, which otherwise went off smoothly.This was the 42nd year Dedham has hosted the Flag Day Parade.
