Parade planners press on despite uncertainty

League City's Holiday in the Park Parade & Festival draws ever closer, but Mayor Toni Randall still isn't saying whether the city might pull its funding.
Unhappy that the city's been kicking in $15,000 to $17,000 a year for the event, the mayor's been scrutinizing costs since last summer. Holiday in the Park Parade & Festival, which is in its 12th year, is to be held Dec. 4-6 at League Park, 200 N. Park.
Although the event is put on by a nonprofit group of volunteers called League City Proud, the city's police department, public works department and parks department help with the event.
That's a lot of money that we're spending . . . however, that's my personal opinion, " Randall said. "That doesn't mean that's the reflection of council."
Although League City Proud has previously said it would have to cancel the parade portion of the festival if the city backs out, it's getting too late to cancel. League City Proud continues to sign up sponsors for the holiday event and right now anticipates having the parade.
We're going to move forward and continue having the parade," said Thomas Cones, the organization's vice president and a former councilman. "No one's told us any different."
If the city's support is pulled just before the event, Cones said Randall would be considered Scrooge by the entire city."
If she pulls it, she pulls it," Cones said. There's not much we can do about it. It's kind of late."
Randall said her interest in the city's costs remains strictly informational" and she's not done with her research.
When the city is spending taxpayers' money, we need to know what it costs to put events on," Randall said. That's part of the problem with the city in the past. We just do things without realizing what they cost us. It's just being a good steward of taxpayers' money."
Randall said last month that the City Council would vote on funding at this month's meeting but the issue was not discussed when the council met on Nov. 10. City Council is not scheduled to meet again before the event, but when asked if there was anything that could happen that would stop or change the city's participation in it, Randall said that she couldn't say one way or the other."
I wanted council to be aware of what they were spending for this event," she said. Now, council is aware of it and they can do with it what they want to."