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HomeMy WebLinkAbout22 - Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Special Event Support Funding Recommendations - AmendedAMENDED STAFF REPORT CITY OF y ' NEWPORT BEACH City Council Staff Report July 14, 2015 Agenda Item No. 22 TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL FROM: Dave Kiff, City Manager — (949) 644-3002, dkiff@newportbeachca.gov PREPARED BY: Tara Finnigan, Assistant to the City Manager / Public Information Manager PHONE: (949) 644-3035 TITLE: Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Special Event Support Funding Recommendations ABSTRACT: The City of Newport Beach Special Event Support Program gives financial assistance to Newport Beach based community events. After a review and evaluation of the grant applications, staff is recommending that the City support 14 Community & Charitable events for a total of $62,400 and five Signature events for a total of $235,000. RECOMMENDATION: a) Approve the Special Event Support recommendations for Fiscal Year 2015-2016 as detailed in Staff Report Attachment A; b) Authorize staff to execute grant agreements with each Signature Event organizer; c) Approve the transfer of $35,000 from 0110-8250 to 0340-8250; d) Approve waiving the Special Event Permit Fees and any City site rental fees for the Art in the Park event and the Bunnies & Books Kids Festival; e) Approve changes to the FY 2016-2017 Special Event Program as detailed in this staff report; and f) Approve one-time waiver of the eligibility requirements and a $15,000 Signature Event grant for the Newport Beach Wine and Food Festival. FUNDING REQUIREMENTS: The adopted FY 2015-2016 General Fund budget includes $200,000 (0340-8250, City Manager's Office/Economic Development) in support for Signature Events and $100,000 (0110-8250, City Council) for the Community and Charitable event support. As proposed, the total recommended support for Community and Charitable events is $62,400, $37,600 less than budgeted. The recommended support for Signature Events is $235,000, $35,000 over the budgeted amount. If approved by the Council, $35,000 would be 22-1 transferred from account number 0110-8250 to 0340-8250. DISCUSSION: Background Since 2010, the City of Newport Beach (City) has followed an administrative process for allocating special event support. The process is designed to provide transparency and equity in how the funding is allocated, comply with the Municipal Code, and help contain City costs, while continuing to support local events that provide charitable fundraising opportunities, encourage community engagement, and/or foster economic development. Following recommendations from a working group comprised of Council Members Petros and Peotter, in April 2015, the City Council approved changes to the process that better defined the types of events the City would support, set total funding levels in the adopted fiscal year General Fund budget, and established new eligibility, qualification, and evaluation criteria (Attachment B) for the program. Event organizers can now apply for a grant under one of two categories. 1. Community and Charitable Events — Events that serve or benefit locally based organizations and causes and/or provide recreational, cultural, or social benefits to Newport Beach residents. Newport Beach - based organizations and events that serve the Newport Beach community specifically, receive priority in funding. Grants will be in the form of a credit toward City fees. If an awardee incurs costs (fees) higher than the grant award, they will owe the City the difference. If the awardee's costs are lower than was projected during the grant award process, the City will keep the difference. 2. Signature Events — Large-scale events, based in Newport Beach that promote Newport Beach regionally, attract visitors and provide measurable, economic benefits to the City of Newport Beach. Signature event grant recipients will be required to enter into a City Sponsorship Agreement and agree with the City's terms and conditions. All agreements will include right to audit language and include measurable objectives and performance measures for evaluating the event's marketing and economic impact. Grant Application Process The City opened the application submission period on May 11 and advertised the program in the Daily Pilot, promoted it on the City's website and social media channels, emailed past applicants and others that had expressed an interest in the program, and issued a news release. The deadline for applications was Monday, June 8 at 4 p.m. Twenty-seven applications were received under the Community & Charitable event category and six were received under the Signature Event category. The applications are available for the City Council's and the public's review at the City Clerk's Office at Newport Beach City Hall. Application Review and Evaluation A staff committee comprised of Sean Levin and Raquel Valdez from Recreation and Senior Services and Tara Finnigan and Mary Locey from the City Manager's Office reviewed and evaluated each of the 33 applications received. The applications were evaluated based upon how well each fit the program's eligibility, qualification and evaluation criteria. As detailed in Attachment A, 10 applications were disqualified and one was withdrawn by the applicant. The Mariners Independence Day Parade and Celebration application was removed from consideration because the City is already a long-standing co-sponsor of the event. Two other applications were for events - Art in the Park and the Bunnies & Books for Kids Festival - sponsored by City support groups. Staff is recommending that the City Council approve waiving the associated City permit and/or site rental fees since the event proceeds come to the City for programs. In addition, the City was notified in late June that the Balboa Island Wine Walk organizer wished to remove her application from further consideration. It should be noted that the application for Speak Up Newport's Monthly meetings was disqualified because staff believes its mission is better suited for the Community S9PViGG 148G90RitiGR qFaRtS pregpam recently approved by the City Council as a change to Council Policy A4—A-12. Programs Grants 22.2 The Newport Beach Wine and Food Festival is not run by a nonprofit or community organization, but by a somewhat recently created for-profit entity. The event's founder is a Newport Beach resident and staff believes the festival has the potential to one day be a regional visitor draw for the city. Therefore, staff is asking for a one-time exception to the eligibility requirements and recommending funding $15,000 in City support. (This amount is already included in the $235,000 total recommended for Signature event support.) Determining Recommended Funding Community and Charitable event grants are to be awarded at set, not -to -exceed levels that correlate to the amount of City fees the applicant is expected pay. To assign funding recommendations, staff used historical data from previous years' events or estimated what an event would pay in City fees. The committee incorporated the information from the application evaluation and assigned funding recommendations accordingly. Signature events grants are to be awarded at set, not -to -exceed levels based upon an evaluation of the event budget, an estimate of related City fees, and the estimated economic benefits to the City of having the event based in Newport Beach. Staff took these elements into consideration and assigned funding recommendations. Signature Event Grant Agreements Signature event grant recipients are required to enter into a grant agreement with the City that include mutually agreed upon performance measures for evaluating the event's marketing and economic impact. The event organizer will be required to submit a post -event report indicating how the event did or did not meet the agreed upon performance measures. Staff is proposing to work with Council Members Petros and Peotter, along with the event organizers, on the performance measures for each grant recipient. Recommended Changes to the Process for Next Year Staff has received favorable comments from some of the event organizers about the recent changes to the grant program. There are, however, some elements of the program that staff recommends amending for future years. 1. Currently, Community & Charitable event grants are based upon an estimate of the event's City Special Event Permit fees. Once the process was underway, staff discovered that a couple of organizations that would have applied under this category had to apply under the Signature Event category because their events do not require a City Special Event Permit. Moving forward, staff is recommending that the City has the ability to assign funding support to an event (one that does not require a Special Event Permit) at a level between $100 and $15,000 that takes into account the size and scope of the event and how well it otherwise meets the program's evaluation criteria. 2. The Signature Events category needs to be more thoroughly defined because some event organizers weren't sure which grant category best fit their event. The current definition reads, "Large-scale events, based in Newport Beach, that promote Newport Beach regionally, attract visitors, and provide measurable, economic benefits to the City of Newport Beach." Staff is proposing adding the following: . At a minimum, a Signature event must demonstrate that it does or can attract visitors from throughout Southern California (Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino) and ideally, the Southwestern United States. . It must have at least 3, 000 participants. • The event organizers have a strategic, measurable marketing plan and can immediately produce the plan and metrics from past years (if applicable) upon the City's request. . Event organizers must clearly demonstrate how the event will provide substantive and measurable economic benefits to the City of Newport Beach by supporting tourism, generating room nights, PP -3 supporting local business, and providing measurable marketing exposure. 3. A number of applications were incomplete and were disqualified from further consideration in this year's process because the applicant did not submit a complete event budget and/or the organizer factored in a City support level that would have made the event's viability dependent upon City support. (The program eligibility criteria state that an event must not be dependent on receiving City support.) Staff recommends more thoroughly defining the City's expectations, i.e., "Applications must include a complete copy of the event budget that clearly states the anticipated revenues and expenditures. Potential City support should not be listed as a revenue line item." Should the City Council agree with these recommendations, they will be incorporated into the Special Event Support Program beginning in 2016. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW: Staff recommends the City Council find this action is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA") pursuant to Sections 15060(c)(2) (the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment) and 15060(c)(3) (the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378) of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly. NOTICING: The agenda item has been noticed according to the Brown Act (72 hours in advance of the meeting at which the City Council considers the item). ATTACHMENTS: Description Attachment A - Funding Recommendations Attachment B - Support Overview 22-4