City to Pay $42,500 Over Canceled Tet Festival

The city has agreed to pay Tet Festival organizers $42,500 to settle a lawsuit filed over the cancellation of last year’s Tet celebration.

Festival organizers had contended that the cancellation was a violation of Vietnamese Americans’ right to freedom of religion.

“This vindicates the organization,” said attorney Jonathan Slipp, who represented the Little Saigon Tet Festival Committee. “It strikes a blow for the right of diverse organizations to celebrate their own traditional, social and religious holidays without interference from the city.”

The Tet Festival, which attracted 70,000 people in 1996, celebrates the most important cultural and religious holiday in Vietnam.

City officials said they denied the Tet Festival Committee a permit to hold the event in February 1997 after merchants complained that the celebration would hurt businesses along Bolsa Avenue.

In its lawsuit, the Little Saigon Tet Festival Committee contended that Mayor Frank Fry Jr. abused his position when he canceled the three-day festival without a public hearing. A smaller, two-hour parade organized by another committee took place instead.

Attorneys agreed on the $42,500 by estimating how much money the festival would have earned last year, then adding attorneys’ fees. A portion of the money will go to charity, they said.

“It’s a win-win situation,” City Atty. Richard D. Jones said. “It was a situation where there was a lot of conflict. . . . This allows the city to move forward.”

Members of the Little Saigon Tet Festival Committee said they will not try to hold the event again in Westminster. The 1999 celebration is being planned for Midway City.