A proposed birthday bash for the late Godfather of Soul at James Brown Arena in early May would be merged with the James Brown Music Festival if all parties involved agree and can work out the details.

The Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority voted Friday to have its executive committee meet with the trustees of Mr. Brown's estate and with Charles "Champ" Walker Jr., the organizer of last year's festival, to see whether they could agree to have one event honoring Mr. Brown.

The Coliseum Authority had planned to hold the birthday bash this year as in years past and use the proceeds to continue Mr. Brown's tradition of giving away turkeys at Thanksgiving and toys at Christmas. But at Friday's meeting, Mr. Walker proposed a joint event.

"Our thought process is to have the Coliseum Authority come on board and use its managerial expertise, and come on and let's put it on together and donate the money to the toy drive," he said.

Mr. Walker said he had talked to Mr. Brown's attorney, Buddy Dallas, and his manager, Charles Bobbit, and had planned to talk to Deanna Brown Thomas.

Mrs. Thomas was at Friday's meeting but didn't speak.

"The more people you have the better," Mr. Walker said. "The broader the expertise, the better." Mr. Walker said his Heritage Crest Foundation has the rights to the James Brown Music Festival, and that Deep End Entertainment wants to produce the event.

A firm that wants to do the audio production also has signed on, he said.

Board member Mildred McDaniel said the authority has a very capable manager in Robert "Flash" Gordon, who has ties to entertainment people throughout the country. She also questioned how much of the potential proceeds from the festival would go to a production company and whether it would be possible to "cut out the middle man."

Mr. Walker said a tentative hold has been put on the Augusta Common for the music festival for March 31 but that it would be better to have one event in May.

"Two events takes away from what we will be doing, and it takes away from what you all will be doing," he said.

Early in the meeting, board member Wayne Frazier noted that there was a lot of controversy surrounding the James Brown festival last year and that the authority didn't need to be involved in controversy. Later, however, he made the motion for the joint meeting.

Member J.R. Riles made a substitute motion to allow the trustees of Mr. Brown's estate to approve the plan before continuing, but he did not immediately get a second, and Mr. Scott pushed to vote on Dr. Frazier's motion, which passed 5-2, with Mr. Riles and Mrs. McDaniel voting no. Dr. Frazier then called for the board to vote unanimously, which it did.

Member Joe Scott said the timing of Friday's meeting was "very bad."

"You can feel the electricity in the air," he said. "We need time to sit down and plan. We shouldn't be meeting now. Mourning is not over. ... A meeting of this nature is not what we need now."

Authority Chairman Harry Moore III said he would choose an authority member to meet with the trustees and Mr. Walker's representative but wanted Mr. Walker "to stay in the very background of the picture."