#2 Council direction on development of special event fee waiver policyCity Manager’s Office Memorandum
January 24, 2011
TO: Janesville City Council
FROM: Al Hulick, Management Analyst
Shelley Slapak, Acting Recreation Director
SUBJECT: Update and City Council Direction on development of a Special
Event Fee Waivers Policy
Summary
The City Council has asked that staff provide information regarding special event
permit fees and the number of fee waivers issued over the last three years.
Special event fees are required whenever an event takes place on City property.
There are a variety of methodologies that could be used to address potential
waivers so staff has attempted to narrow potential options and has developed the
following options for Council to consider when evaluating future Special Event
fee waiver requests.
Waive No Special Event Fees
Waive Special Event Fees for events hosted by a “Friends Group” of a
park where the event’s sole intent is to benefit a City Facility.
Waive Special Event Fees for non-profit groups that do not charge a fee or
take donations.
Provide an option for special event fees to be collected and dedicated for
a City Youth Camp scholarship fund.
Eliminate Special Event Fees for Not-for-profit sponsored events.
Staff Recommendation
City Staff recommends that the City Council implement a policy from the options
presented or a combination of the options presented that would enable not-for-
profits to have a reliable and consistent policy when submitting a permit
application.
One concern that Staff has is when special event fees are waived, costs
associated with the event are not recovered and become an unaccounted for
General Fund expense. Therefore, it is our recommendation to remove any
perception of inequity from the process.
City Manager Recommendation
The City Manager concurs with staff’s recommendation.
Background
Special event applications and permit fees are required whenever an event takes
place on City property. The event fee varies depending on the number of
attendees, the length of the event, what facility is being used, equipment rentals,
and any scheduled or unscheduled work completed by City employees. It is
important to note that these fees attempt to recover all City costs associated with
the event, but rarely match the actual costs. Staff conducted a peer City survey
and found those communities that responded did not waive fees unless directly
waived by the City Council or City Manager.
The City Council has the authority to waive special event fees. However,
historically the City does not charge a special event fee for School District athletic
events, Veterans events, or events that the City of Janesville hosts or co-
sponsors. The following table indicates the total number of events, including
those events which fees have been waived by the City Council or are considered
a City, School District, Friends, or Veterans event.
Special Event Permits and Waivers 2008-2010
Year 2010 2009 2008
Total Events 109 105 99
City Sponsored Events 24 16 23
School District Events 2 1 2
Veterans Events 2 2 2
Friends Event 4 3 2
Council Waived Events 3 2 5
Total Fees Due $11,532 $11,086 $10,435
Total Fees Collected $7,535 $6,854 $5,898
City Sponsored Events
The Leisure Services Department does not charge a special event fee for events
that the City hosts or co-sponsors. The City of Janesville hosts a number of
events each year including National Night Out, Enchanted Forrest, and Sugar,
Spice & Ice. The City also co-sponsors a number of events each year including
Poochfest, Disc Golf Tournament, Annual Fishing Derby, etc. The actual cost of
these events vary due to their wide variety of activities, facility and equipment
needs, and the amount of staff time involved in their administration and setup.
However, Leisure Services typically co-sponsor these types of events when they
directly compliment a City function or benefit a facility.
School District Athletic Events
As part of their shared use agreement, the Leisure Services Department does
not charge the School District for athletic events held on/in City facilities. These
events typically involve the use of barricades and/or trash receptacles and have
very little staff and equipment costs associated with them. This agreement ends
in 2011 and is currently being negotiated.
Veterans Events
The City has had a history of supporting Veterans groups by not charging a
special event permit fee for veteran related events such as Memorial Day
nd
Parade, 192 Battalion, P.O.W./M.I.A. Day, and Vets Day Events. These events
typically involve barricades, trash receptacles and some additional staff time to
cordon of streets and parade routes.
Friends Events
Friends Group Events are events that are coordinated by the various “Friend”
groups throughout the City such as, Friends of Rockport Park, Friends of
Riverside Park and several others. Similar to City Sponsored Events, these
events are typically held on City owned land and are intended to directly benefit a
specific City Park and or facility. These events typically vary in size and scope
and can incur considerable staff and equipment costs.
City Council Waived Events
The City Council has the authority to waive special event fees. Typically, these
fees are waived after a specific group makes a direct appeal to the City Council
during a regular Council session. In the past, the Council has granted waivers to:
The Janesville Farmers Market, Family Fun Fest, Fourth of July Celebration, and
a portion of the costs associated with The Janesville Air Fest. The costs
associated with these vary but can incur considerable staff and equipment costs.
In the past these costs associated with these events have varied from $327.00
for Family Fun Fest, to $908.00 for the Fourth of July Celebration, to $2,125.00
for the Janesville Farmers Market. When waived, these fees are not recovered
and become an unaccounted for General Fund expense.
Staff Analysis
Administrative Policy 14 establishes a procedure which permits adults,
organizations and agencies to conduct special events in the Janesville Park
System or within the street right-of-way in accordance with Janesville Code of
City Ordinances: Chapter 12.20 and 12.62. The policy defines, regulates and
sets forth minimum standards which will control the application process,
scheduling, conduct of and cleanup of special events.
According to Policy 14, Leisure Services reserves the right to deny a special
event permit if the event is incompatible with the park area or conflicts with other
scheduled or unscheduled park usage. Additionally, any denied application may
be appealed first to the City Manager and then to the City Council. Actions of the
City Council are final. However, the Policy does not explicitly define how “City-
Sponsored” events will be handled, and what constitutes a City sponsored event.
The City Council has asked that staff provide information regarding special event
permit fees and the number of fee waivers issued over the last three years.
Therefore, staff has developed the following options for Council to consider when
evaluating future Special Event fee waiver requests.
Waive No Special Event Fees - Staff prefers to create an environment
where subjectivity in fee waivers is removed. By implementing this policy
all Special Events held at City Facilities would be required to pay special
event fees. This would eliminate any subjectivity in the waiver process
and provide a consistent revenue stream to offset incurred expenses.
Waive Special Event Fees for events hosted by a “Friends Group” where
the event’s sole intent is to benefit a City Facility. – The City has
developed relationships with the various “Friends” groups throughout the
Community. These friends groups provide fundraising opportunities,
volunteer labor and other resources for their respective mission. City Staff
feels that these groups should be afforded some additional recognition
and benefit from their commitment to the Community. Therefore, Staff has
prepared additional language that is recommended for inclusion in
Administrative Policy 14 that waives fees for Special Events hosted by a
“Friends Group” where the sole intent is to benefit a City Facility.
Waive Special Event Fees for non-profit groups that do not charge a fee or
take donations. – City Staff understands the importance of non-profit
partnerships in the Community. However, as previously noted, all special
events are typically for a good cause. Additionally, all special events
require some level of service from City Staff, and have an associated cost
to the City. Therefore, Staff is hesitant to provide a blanket exemption for
all special events that simply do not charge a fee or take donations, based
on fixed costs associated with any event.
Provide an option for special event fees to be collected and dedicated for
a City Youth Camp scholarship fund. - City Staff remains committed to
City Youth Camps. With this option, event coordinators would still pay the
requisite special event fees, but would have the option to have those fees
dedicated to a City Youth Camp Scholarship fund for camp participants
that demonstrate financial hardship. At this time, no such fund exists.
While the fees would not be waived, events would have the knowledge
that the proceeds would be directly used for scholarships. However, loss
of revenue for other activities could impact programming.
Eliminate Special Event Fees for not-for-profit sponsored events. – Almost
every event is hosted by a not-for-profit entity. Therefore, if event fees
were waived for all not-for-profit sponsored events, it would effectively
eliminate the vast majority of all special event fees.
City Staff would like to add language to Administrative Policy 14 to specifically
address what constitutes a City-sponsored event. The Recreation Division would
define City sponsored events as those events that directly benefit a City function
or facility. This language would apply to those events where:
the City is in sole discretion of the events implementation (i.e. Enchanted
Forrest), or
the event is hosted by a “Friends Group” and the event’s sole intent is to
benefit a City Facility (i.e. Riverside Park, Rockport Park, etc.), or
a Veterans Group looking to honor Armed Forces Veterans.
The Recreation Division has seen an increased number of requests for the City
to sponsor or co-sponsor events. By including this language in the Staff feels
better prepared to evaluate future requests.
cc: Eric Levitt
Jay Winzenz