Last Thursday: Is this the last one?

A Southeast Portland man has formed a nonprofit to manage Last Thursday. Allison Milligan/The Oregonian

A Southeast Portland artist has created a nonprofit with the intent of taking over Last Thursday. But city leaders say he does not have the authority.

Michael O'Connor emailed staff in Mayor Charlie Hales' office Friday informing them that his nonprofit,

, will now control the Northeast Alberta Street fair. Artists United will take over charging and registering vendors, O'Connor wrote in an email to project manager Chad Stover.

"It's now my job to communicate with these people," O'Connor wrote. "If there is something you want to communicate to the vendors, get in touch with me and I'll relay the information."

Stover, who has led a team that has studied and managed Last Thursday over the past year, said O'Connor is not authorized to take over the fair or charge vendors a fee.

"As a private citizen you have no authority to charge vendors set up in the public right-of-way or public space without having been given permission from the City of Portland in the form of an actual permit," Stover wrote in response to O'Connor's email.

O'Connor replied an hour later: "I don't need your authority. We'll collect money if we want on behalf of our organization and the community. I am taking over the responsibility of managing this event whether you give me permission or not."

O'Connor was a member of Friends of Last Thursday, the volunteer group that ran the festival for a few years until 2013 negotiations with Hales' office about permits broke down. He left the group in 2012 to form a nonprofit to manage the Southeast Belmont Street art fair

.

He held a fundraiser in July to raise $600 to pay to register his new Last Thursday nonprofit with the state, file proper paperwork with the IRS and set up a website.

Alberta-area residents have complained for years that their monthly street fair, meant to highlight the neighborhood's art scene, has become more of a street party. All-night revelers partied too loud and drunken people routinely urinated on neighborhood yards, they said. The city took over management of the festival last year.

Hales

a fee to offset the $80,000 a year the city spends on portable toilets, barricades, street closures and more for the street fair. The mayor's office has also begun closing the event earlier and enforcing noise and open container rules.

O'Connor said he formed his new nonprofit in response to the regulations, which "cause harm to good people."

Hales spokesman Dana Haynes said city leaders are still looking for a nonprofit to take over the fair, which brings between 15,000 and 20,000 people to Alberta Street each summer. Haynes said city staff have not received much other criticism about the rules.

"The changes are coming slow and thoughtfully," Haynes said. "So far, the Last Thursday community has been pretty cool. It remains a neat event."

-- Casey Parks