Juneteenth celebration organizer still waiting on funds Pittsburgh City Council approved for event

There’s a new wrinkle in the Juneteenth event controversy in Pittsburgh.

William Marshall, the organizer of the huge event downtown nearly two weeks ago, says he still hasn’t been paid and neither have some vendors and performers.

The big question now: Where is the money?

“It’s really kind of sad that we are going through this process we just came off the largest Juneteenth celebration in Pittsburgh,” Marshall said.

Marshall has hosted an annual Juneteenth Celebration in the city of Pittsburgh since 2018. This year, he again hosted another successful celebration but he says that was without the help of the city’s mayor who he believes has blocked approved city funding that he is owed.

“We expected much more out of this mayor not to be vindictive and retaliatory but we are where we are at,” Marshall said.

In September, the mayor’s office opted to have a city-run Juneteenth celebration , making funding that was already awarded to Marshall available to any organization. While Marshall applied, the money was awarded to Bounce Entertainment, leaving City Council with a difficult decision.

“It was the wrong thing to do so it’s created a mess, they’ve created a mess that now they are asking us to clean up,” Marshall said.

City Council, hoping to make good on their promise to Marshall approved a resolution to fund his event through a separate grant of the same amount of money, $125,000.

But now the mayor’s office is delaying the release of the funding and in a statement said they are seeking clarity to see if they can pay Marshall saying:

“Letters were sent to the City Controller, City Council, and the District Attorney office to ensure everything follows established due process.”

City Council President Dan Lavelle says that it is within the council’s power to issue the funding.

“We believe we are certainly in compliance,” Lavelle said. “I am going to reach out to the administration to talk through how that can be done.”

Marshall says the delay is not only impacting his organization, but it is preventing dozens of small businesses that provided a service from getting paid.

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter . | Watch WPXI NOW

TRENDING NOW: