A local car club’s request for a full ride expense waiver to temporarily use a Guadalupe-owned venue in June reminded the city of a lingering oversight.
“We don’t have a policy [on fee waivers to use city-owned facilities], and we need one,” City Administrator Todd Bodem said at the Guadalupe City Council’s April 23 meeting, during a discussion on the Touch of Style Car Club’s appeal.
City Attorney Philip F. Sinco described the issue as “somewhat long-standing,” as the City Council has dealt with similar requests, usually from nonprofits, “several times over the years,” starting in 2018. Prior to a fee increase resolution passed in 2018, the city didn’t normally charge nonprofits to use city-owned facilities for fundraisers and other events.
At the City Council’s May 14 meeting, Sinco presented staff’s proposal for a formal fee waiver policy, applicable for governmental agencies, nonprofits, and “certain community service organizations” that aren’t nonprofits “but provide benefits to the Guadalupe community,” according to the staff report.
Under the proposed policy, these types of groups have the opportunity to apply to host public events at city-owned facilities, including Guadalupe City Hall’s auditorium, without paying the city an hourly fee. Private events—regardless of whether the host is a nonprofit or not—are not eligible for the waiver, and the policy requires each applicant to state its reason or reasons for pursuing the waiver, such as financial hardships.
“If you need a full waiving of the hourly fees, you would have to provide this criteria,” said Sinco, before asking the City Council for direction on whether the policy should require that applicants submit formal proof of hardships in the form of bank statements or other documents.
Mayor Ariston Julian suggested that applicants summarize their reasoning in some form of writing without the initial bank statement requirement, as the City Council will have the power to deny requests or ask for supplemental info on a case-by-case basis.
While the policy was designed to cut certain costs for groups to host public events in Guadalupe, one condition of the fee waiver requires the event host to pay the city a refundable security deposit, to be returned as long as “the terms of rental were agreed to,” Sinco said.
“In other words, [they’re refunded] if there’s no damage caused through malfeasance, or failure to supervise attendees, or failure to clean up adequately if that was part of the arrangement,” Sinco said.
With a 5-0 vote from the City Council, staff’s proposed fee waiver policy passed unanimously.
