Honorable Mayor and Members of the Hermosa Beach City Council
Regular Meeting of November 3, 2022
Title
DESIGNATION OF A MAXIMUM AMOUNT OF FEE WAIVERS
FOR SPECIAL EVENTS HELD IN 2023
(Community Resources Manager Lisa Nichols)
Body
Recommended Action:
Recommendation
Staff recommends City Council designate a maximum amount of $20,000 in fee waivers for special events held in 2023, as per the City’s Special Event Fee Waiver Grant Policy.
Body
Executive Summary:
The Community Resources Department is tasked with overseeing special event requests and permits on public property. The Special Events Policy Guide (Attachment 1) serves as a comprehensive document for event producers with information on the review and approval process, applicable fees, policies, and Hermosa Beach Municipal Code chapters and sections pertaining to special events. At its October 10, 2019 meeting, City Council adopted the Special Event Fee Waiver Grant Policy, which requires City Council to annually designate a maximum amount of fee waivers that may be available for special events held in each calendar year. Therefore, staff requests City Council designate the maximum amount of fee waivers for qualified events held in 2023.
Background:
The Community Resources Department is tasked with overseeing special event requests and permits on public property. The Special Events Policy Guide serves as a comprehensive document for event producers with information on the review and approval process, applicable fees, policies, and Hermosa Beach Municipal Code chapters and sections pertaining to special events. At its October 10, 2019 meeting, City Council adopted the Special Event Fee Waiver Grant Policy.
The Special Event Fee Waiver Grant Policy provides the Parks, Recreation and Community Resources Advisory Commission (Commission) the ability to approve the award of fee waivers through a grant process. As detailed in the policy, City Council is to annually affirm the maximum amount of grant funding available to the Commission to award to qualified events for the upcoming calendar year. City Council designated a maximum of $20,000 annually for the last three calendar years: 2020, 2021, and 2022.
Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, events were unable to be held in the 2020 calendar year or from January through March of the 2021 calendar year. Therefore, no fee waivers were granted during these time periods. The fee waivers granted in the remainder of the 2021 calendar year, from April through December, and in the 2022 calendar year, can be found in Table 1 and Table 2 below.
Table 1: Awarded 2021 Fee Waiver Grants (April-December)
Table 2: Awarded 2022 Fee Waiver Grants
City Council adoption of the Special Event Fee Waiver Grant Policy at its October 10, 2019 meeting resulted in several events that had previously been awarded fee waivers to no longer be eligible under the new requirements. As a result, City Council directed staff and the Special Events Subcommittee (Subcommittee) of the Commission to expedite the creation of a Long-term Agreement (LTA) Policy, to serve as another opportunity for event fees to be subsidized with a decrease or elimination through a negotiation process between the City and event representatives.
At its January 14, 2020 meeting, City Council adopted the Long-term Agreement Program as a three-year pilot program. Following the implementation of the program with the 2020 calendar year, several events were cancelled due to COVID-19 precautionary measures. Therefore, at its August 4, 2020 meeting, Commission recommended City Council approval to extend the pilot program by one year, ending in 2023. At its October 27, 2020 meeting, City Council approved the extension. Since the adoption of the program, the City has entered into 10 Long-term Agreements. For educational purposes, Attachment 13 provides an informational table of current Long-term Agreements including: the event representative; event; the term of the agreement; fees payable to the City; and the estimated total of fees waived annually for each agreement.
At its October 12, 2021 meeting, City Council approved a waiver of Pier Plaza Use fees, totaling $23,542 for the 2021 Hermosa for the Holidays event organized by the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Bureau (Chamber) with the City to serve as cosponsor. At its October 25, 2022 meeting, City Council approved a waiver of $47,793 for all indirect costs for the 2022 Hermosa for the Holidays event with the City to serve as cosponsor. Through the agreement between the City of Hermosa Beach and the Chamber to provide the Fiesta Hermosas, the Chamber is to fund and produce an annual holiday celebration and tree lighting event. The approval for the City to cosponsor the Hermosa for the Holidays event in 2021 and 2022 resulting in fee waivers was due to the primary purpose of this contractual, community event being for public involvement, benefit, and not for profit. Future fee waivers for the Hermosa for the Holidays event would be considered through the negotiation process between the City and the Chamber for the next agreement for the Chamber’s events held in 2023 through 2025.
Past Commission and Council Actions
Discussion:
The Special Events Policy Guide includes the Special Event Fee Waiver Grant Policy and 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 percent reduction of indirect City special event fees, whichever is the lesser amount.”
Each organization that meets the qualifications of the grant policy, may receive the lesser amount of $2,500 or 50 percent of indirect costs eligible for reduction. Fees applied toward the application fee, staff time, inspections, etc. are direct costs, and ineligible. Those fees that are eligible for fee reductions include daily permit fees, set-up and tear-down fees, etc. Table 3 includes the special event fees categorized between indirect or direct costs.
Table 3: Direct versus Indirect Special Event Fees
As detailed in the Special Event Fee Waiver Grant Policy, City Council is to annually affirm the maximum amount of grant funding available to the Commission to award to qualified events for the upcoming calendar year. City Council designated a maximum of $20,000 for events held in each of the last three calendar years: 2020, 2021, and 2022.
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.
Policy:
• 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 impact associated with the recommended action is unknown since the 2023 Special Event Calendar continues to be developed and it is unknown at this time how many event producers intend to apply for this subsidy.
Attachments:
1. Special Events Policy Guide
2. Link to October 1, 2019 Commission Staff Report
3. Link to October 10, 2019 City Council Staff Report
4. Link to November 4, 2019 Commission Staff Report
5. Link to December 3, 2019 Commission Staff Report
6. Link to January 14, 2020 City Council Staff Report
7. Link to August 4, 2020 Commission Staff Report
8. Link to October 27, 2020 City Council Staff Report
9. Link to February 9, 2021 City Council Staff Report
10. Link to October 12, 2021 City Council Staff Report
11. Link to January 25, 2022 City Council Staff Report
12. Link October 25, 2022 City Council Staff Report
13.Table of Current Long-term Agreements
Respectfully Submitted by: Lisa Nichols, Community Resources Manager
Noted for Fiscal Impact: Viki Copeland, Finance Director
Legal Review: Mike Jenkins, City Attorney
Approved: Suja Lowenthal, City Manager