At his weekly press conference this morning. I asked Mayor D.C. Reeves to explain how a permit given to Boots for Matt Berry allows Food Not Bombs to gather at Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza on Friday evenings to distribute food. His answer surprised me.
- “Well, first, it’s not a permit,” Mayor D.C. Reeves said. “It’s a park rental agreement, and any applicant can have a park rental agreement, and any activity taking place in the park is at the discretion of the person with a park rental agreement.”
So, Boots for Matt Berry is the one who determines where the Food Not Bombs can be at the park under this agreement?
The mayor stated that was the case under a park rental agreement while the park is closed. “I think that’s the important distinction,” he explained. “What we’re discussing is when a park is closed, and what we are simultaneously discussing is thoroughfare versus park, changing hours later.”
Reeves continued, “And what I can tell you now is we haven’t had any issues there the last couple of weeks. We don’t expect that there will be any issues.”
- He said his position has been: “We want folks to do what they want to do, and any perception or theory that we are trying to stop anybody from doing what they want to do at the location where they want to do it is incorrect. We are trying to balance all of these things, including a park that looks a lot like a sidewalk.”
The mayor said his staff has met with the police department about park hours. “Of course, there’s other opinions on council about the ordinance as a whole, or is that hour correct. So we have been working on the administrative side to come up with a solution.”
The mayor added, “I can tell you our solution is more focused on clarity around park hours. That’s what I can say at this moment. But we obviously want to hear out our council members too before we come make a quick change of which they don’t necessarily agree. So I would say we’re kind of in the analysis phase alongside our council members at this moment about what they feel is the best way to handle that situation.”
Can Boots for Matt Berry boot Food Not Bombs from MLK Plaza?
Mayor D.C. Reeves replied, “They have a permit through whatever the exact date…So yeah, you’d have to talk to them. So what I can tell you is I certainly don’t expect that because the spirit of the reason the permit or park rental agreement came in first place was to try to support that effort.”
He said the media would need to talk with the applicant about whether they plan to not allow Food Not Bombs in MLK Plaza. “I would suspect from our side it isn’t, since the indication given to our staff when that came in was to try to be in support of that activity taking place.”
- One problem: The applicant’s name has been redacted from the Permit.
“Boots for Matt Berry” is just the latest grift ran by Julie “Jules” Ward. Matt Berry was my nephew, Julie was his mother. Matt was estranged from Julie for years before he died in a car accident in 2024. Julie has used GofundMe, and now this fake 501(c)3 in order to grift money from well meaning people. She pretends to be the victim of stalking or abuse or whatever in order to have her name and address hidden, while simultaneously harassing her ex husband (my brother) and her estranged living children despite a no-contact order that was part of her divorce proceedings from Denver, CO in 2022.
Julie is only doing this to try and garner more attention. She constantly harasses my entire family, accusing all of us of “murdering” Matt (while using Matt’s deadname) despite the fact that Matt was struck by a car in Kentucky during a mental breakdown. Matt wanted nothing to do with Julie and refused all contact with her during the last few years of his life despite his mother’s hateful messages insisting that Matt wasn’t Trans.
Although the 501 organization filing description says all proceeds will go to Matt Berry’s estate, Julie recently lost administrative control of the estate by court order, I believe (but am not certain) for spending insurance money on personal items. She’s also bragged on social media that she would be using that insurance money to, “book an appointment for some store bought titties and a tummy tuck”.
Julie Ward was divorced by my brother in 2022. We are exhausted by her unceasing harassment, and her constant threats, accusations and repeated summons to court. She repeatedly sues my brother – her ex husband for custody of their nearly 17 year old daughter who wants no contact with her as well as stalking her at her bus stop and using the Escambia County Sheriff’s Department to harass my brother and our parents with wellness checks – so often that ECSO said they will no longer take her calls.
The courts continue to refuse to grant any of us protection orders or no-contact orders. It seems there is no one that can help our family.
On behalf of the Ward family, we sincerely apologize for what this severely mentally disturbed person is doing to such a wonderful organization. We the Ward family stand with Food Not Bombs and their critical mission to assist Pensacola’s most vulnerable members of our community.
Im told Julie isn’t even show