Honorable Mayor and Members of the Hermosa Beach City Council
Regular Meeting of February 9, 2021
Title
APPROVAL OF THE PARKS, RECREATION AND COMMUNITY RESOURCES ADVISORY COMMISSION’S RECOMMENDED LANGUAGE UPDATES TO THE SPECIAL EVENT FEE WAIVER POLICY TO ALLOW ELIGIBILITY TO RELIGIOUS GROUPS; AND DESIGNATION OF A MAXIMUM AMOUNT OF FEE WAIVERS TO BE GRANTED FOR SPECIAL EVENTS HELD IN 2021
(Community Resources Manager Kelly Orta)
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Recommended Action:
Recommendation
Staff recommends that City Council:
1. Approve the Parks, Recreation and Community Resources Advisory Commission’s recommendation to update the Special Event Fee Waiver Policy to allow fee waiver consideration for religious groups; and
2. Designate a maximum amount of $20,000 in fee waivers to be granted for special events held in 2021.
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Executive Summary:
The City’s Special Event Policy Guide, adopted by the City Council in 2017, outlines policies and procedures required of event producers to hold an event on public property within the City of Hermosa Beach. An updated Special Event Fee Waiver Policy was included following its adoption by the City Council on October 10, 2019, which stated that religious or political events were ineligible for fee waiver consideration. Recently, the United States Supreme Court concluded that a policy of the State of Montana refusing the use of publicly funded scholarships for those attending religious schools violates the “free exercise” clause of the First Amendment. The Parks, Recreation and Community Resources Advisory Commission recommends a language modification to the Special Event Fee Waiver policy to be consistent with this ruling and allow religious events to be eligible for fee waiver consideration.
The Special Event Fee Waiver Policy also requires the City Council to annually designate a maximum amount of fee waivers to be granted for special events held in each calendar year. As staff continues developing the 2021 calendar of events, assuming a relaxation of COVID-19 precautionary measures, the Commission’s consideration of fee waiver requests must take place soon to ensure event producers have time to financially plan for their events. Therefore, staff requests the City Council to designate the maximum amount of fee waivers that can be applied to qualified events held in 2021.
Background:
The City’s Special Event Policy Guide, adopted by the City Council in 2017, outlines policies and procedures required of event producers to hold an event on public property within the City of Hermosa Beach. At the City Council’s October 10, 2019 meeting, it approved the Parks, Recreation and Community Resources Advisory Commission’s recommended Special Event Fee Waiver Policy (Attachment 1).
The proposed policy provides the Commission with the ability to approve the award of fee waivers through a grant process. As detailed in the policy, the City Council will annually affirm the maximum amount of grant funding available to the Commission to award to qualified events for the upcoming calendar year. The Council designated a maximum of $20,000 for events held in 2020. Those funds awarded to each organization may only be applied towards event-related City fees.
Following its adoption, this policy was intended to go into effect for those events approved to take place in 2020. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, events were unable to be held and, therefore, no fee waivers were granted for that calendar year. As the City continues to approve events to be held in 2021, assuming the relaxation of COVID-19 precautionary measures, consideration of fee waiver requests is the next step for event producers to financially plan for their events. In order to initiate this review and fee waiver approval process, the City Council is required to designate a maximum amount of money that the Commission can award for 2021.
Lastly, a recent decision of the United States Supreme Court concluded that a policy of the State of Montana that refused the use of publicly funded scholarships for those attending religious schools violated the First Amendment. The existing Special Event Fee Waiver policy is inconsistent with this ruling. The Parks, Recreation and Community Resources Advisory Commission recommends a language modification to this policy to be consistent and allow religious events to be eligible for fee waiver consideration.
Discussion:
Special Event Fee Waiver Policy Update
Currently, the Special Event Fee Waiver Policy (Attachment 1) includes the exclusion of religious or political events from being considered for a special event fee waiver under the premise that fee waivers are considered a gift of public funds. However, if an event or activity is being produced by a religious or political group but has a charitable objective or provides a community-benefit, and the proceeds do not provide financial support to the organization producing it, fee waivers would be eligible for consideration. In other words, an event would not be eligible for a fee waiver if the intent of the event was to further the religious or political nature of the group producing it. Otherwise, an event would be eligible for consideration if there was no religious our political message behind the event itself, regardless of the interests of the group producing it.
The City Attorney advises that in 2020, the Supreme Court decided in Espinoza et al. v. Montana Department of Revenue that disqualification of groups for public funding based on religion violates the United States Constitution’s free exercise clause. The Special Event Fee Waiver policy’s exclusion of religious events from fee waivers conflicts with this new ruling. At the Commission’s December 1, 2020 meeting, it recommended the City Council’s approval of proposed language updates to the policy reflecting the removal of the prohibition of public funding to events based solely on their religious nature. The redline of this policy update is included as Attachment 2.
2021 Special Event Fee Waiver Maximum Grant Allocation
The Special Event Fee Waiver policy outlines the level of fee waivers that can be awarded in addition to the types of fees that are eligible for fee waiver consideration, including:
“Grants will be awarded up to a maximum of $2,500 per event or a 50% reduction of indirect City special event fees, whichever is the lesser amount.”
Each organization, if determined to meet the qualifications of the grant policy, may receive the lesser amount of $2,500 or 50% of applicable special event fees (indirect costs) eligible for reduction. Fees applied toward the application fee, staff time, inspections, Police or Fire services, etc. are ineligible. Those fees that are eligible for fee reductions include daily permit fees, set-up and tear-down fees, etc. Included in Table 1 are the various special event fees categorized between indirect or direct fees:
Table 1: “Direct” versus “Indirect” Special Event Fees
As required in the Special Event Fee Waiver Policy, the City Council must annually determine a maximum amount of fee waivers the Commission can award to qualifying events for each calendar year. The City Council designated the maximum of $20,000 in fee waiver grants for 2020. As previously noted, grant funding was not awarded in 2020 due to event cancelations associated with COVID-19 precautionary measures. A majority of events already granted approval for their upcoming 2021 events are returning to Hermosa Beach and would be eligible for fee waiver consideration. Unfortunately, it is unknown at this time how many intend to apply for this aid.
General Plan Consistency:
This report and associated recommendation have been evaluated for their consistency with the City’s General Plan. Relevant Policies are listed below:
Parks and Open Space Element
Goal 3. Community parks and facilities encourage social activity and interaction.
Policies
• 3.1. Community-friendly events. Encourage, permit, and support community group, nonprofit, or business organized events on City property that support physical activity, beach culture, and family-friendly social interactions.
Goal 8. Special events at the beach are balanced to support community recreation and economic development without restricting coastal access or impacting the community.
Policies
• 8.2. Off-peak season events. Incentivize event producers to host special events during off-peak seasons through reduced fees or accommodating location/reserved area preferences.
• 8.6. Special event impact fees. Require special event applicants pay a fair share of costs associated with impacts on City services and facilities required to support special events.
Fiscal Impact:
The fiscal impacts are unknown at this time since the 2021 Special Event Calendar is still in the development stages. An increase in special event revenue from the previous fiscal year is anticipated, although this amount can’t be actualized due to the uncertainty of when events would be allowed to take place consistent with COVID-19 precautionary measures.
Attachments:
1. Current Special Event Fee Waiver Policy
2. Proposed Special Event Fee Waiver Policy
Respectfully Submitted by: Kelly Orta, Community Resources Manager
Noted for Fiscal Impact: Viki Copeland, Finance Director
Legal Review: Mike Jenkins, City Attorney
Approved: Suja Lowenthal, City Manager