Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 17, 1995                   TAG: 9505170050
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VENDORS FEE

Ask Marsha Compton Fielder, Roanoke city's commissioner of revenue.

Fielder, in her post for less than two years, ran into a buzz saw of criticism for her attempt to collect the local $50 itinerant-merchant license fee on vendors planning to work the crowds at this year's Festival in the Park.

To be sure, the fee might have discouraged artists, craft-makers and food vendors from participating. That, in turn, might make it less fun for thousands of local folks and visitors drawn to the downtown event in part by the cornucopia of colorful wares and taste treats.

The stubborn fact, however, is that the fee has been required by the city code for about 40 years.

Fielder got it right: If she doesn't try to enforce it, someone is sure to accuse her of not doing her duty. If she does try to enforce it, she's a party-pooper - an overbearing bureaucrat threatening to ruin the festival in exchange for a little extra revenue for the city. The rock and the hard place she was caught between wasn't made any more comfortable when most members of City Council took the side of the festival's promoters and vendors.

Though Fielder said last week she would not back down, this week she ... backed down. Fees will not be imposed on vendors at the upcoming festival; moreover, fees already collected this year from those selling wares at other special downtown events will be refunded. Fielder says she'll ask council for legislation to address the license-fee issue for events, like the festival, staged by nonprofit organizations.

Meanwhile, she might want to have a chat with Evelyn Dorsey, the city's zoning administrator. Dorsey, recall, also had to back down from enforcing the law this year. In her case, the issue was the city's rooftop-sign ordinance, and its applicability to punked-up Big Boy atop Roland "Spanky" Macher's new downtown restaurant. In that case, too, public sentiment went against a city official trying to do her job.

Maybe Dorsey would offer Fielder a sympathetic ear. Maybe they could do lunch - at Macher's place, of course - and discuss why City Council keeps laws on the books that aren't supposed to be enforced.