After a massive amount of money from local donors flowed to mostly businesses outside Colusa County for four summer festivals, the Colusa City Council has implemented tighter controls on any events planned in the future.
The council voted 5-0 on Nov. 2 to approve a new event and tourism policy that will put oversight into the hands of the public’s representatives and away from overzealous staff.
The decision to develop a policy for city-sponsored events came after City Manager Jesse Cain and Tourism Director Kristy Levings spent in excess of $129,000 on unbudgeted expenses related to large events, such as the costly and exclusive Country in Colusa festival, without any discussion or authorization from the City Council.
Council members also heard complaints that nonprofit organizations, which rely heavily on fundraising at most community events, were completely shut out of opportunities, and that city staff continues to justify breaking the city’s established credit card, purchasing, and procurement policies because donations were solicited specifically for the city to host events.
“I’ve been disappointed by this activity,” said Councilman Greg Ponciano, who also disputed the event costs. “Most of it comes from the fact that this has never been vetted by council. We’ve spent $143,700 plus $15,500 on staff time. That’s like $25 for every man, woman, and child in this town – without council direction.”
While Cain insisted the city has long solicited donations for events like Fourth of July and Concerts in the Park, many still question staff trying to correlate them with four costly events, since Concerts in the Park requested small (typically $200-$500) sponsorship from business throughout Colusa County, and donations for fireworks were never run through city coffers but non-profits, including the Firefighters Association and the Colusa County Chamber of Commerce, before it was turned over to the Colusa County Fairgrounds in 2016.
While Levings insisted that the events benefited Colusa merchants and inspired people to return to Colusa as “repeat customers,” Ponciano disagreed because so much money was “marched out of Colusa County” to begin with.
“There’s been about 8 percent of the total expenditure that happened with Colusa merchants,” Ponciano said. “The notion of helping our businesses is completely backwards. I don’t see where our merchants are getting a direct return out of these events.”
Levings disagreed and said there would be a “measurable” increase in sales taxes for those days, proving the businesses and city coffers did well, but claimed the events themselves were designed to lose money or break even as the price of marketing Colusa as a tourist attraction.
While the event reconciliation was placed on the agenda as a “workshop,” historically allowing the free exchange of ideas or to have questions asked and answered, councilmembers mostly sat in silence, after Councilman Tom Reische blew up at Ponciano and a Colusa resident – and said he would not allow the discussion to go on at any length.
Colusa Mayor Josh Hill, while present, also refused to answer questions posed directly to the council, and did not direct staff to answer questions, leaving most of those attending the meeting (including those who were there for another issue) in shock that the council treated citizens as if they were commenting on matters not on the agenda.
“I can’t believe you’re not going to say anything,” said local businessman Mike West. “Every report has been delivered. You’ve got one council person who has retorted or refuted those numbers and all of you sit there and don’t say anything? These people (staff) work for you; you work for us.”
Citizens, several who said they were intimidated into remaining silent, said after the meeting they believe staff was purposely evasive about the events, were completely dishonest about the level of transparency with the public prior to the events, and that it is inaccurate that staff has sole authority to spend money donated to the public however and with whoever they saw fit but were very pleased the City Council decided to put in place stricter policies for any future city-sponsored events.
The new policy, unanimously approved, requires a council ad hoc committee to be formed to vet each event prior to approval by resolution, requires the establishment of a budget, and requires staff to purchase locally whenever possible.
The policy also requires the city to reach out to nonprofits and volunteers for their participation, and to make sure everyone knows their duties and responsibilities.
“After each event, the ad hoc committee will meet and weigh out whether it was worth it,” Councilwoman Denise Conrado said. “Is it something we want to continue? What were the successes? What were the drawbacks?”
The policy also requires city staff to be aware of the fiscal impact and availability of funding, especially since citizens have questioned whether the same few donors, including those who have not yet paid what they promised, would each be willing to donate those large sums annually to keep the events going.
Reische and Cain also pointed out that the city used CARES Act funds to purchase assets (chairs, umbrellas, wine barrels) for outdoor events during the COVID-19 pandemic, which are allowable expenses, the City Council never actually discussed or approved (in a properly noticed public meeting) the use of those funds for those purposes, according to their agendas and minutes. Instead, the City Council had authorized pandemic-related expenses such as technology to conduct meetings online, and presented to the public that most of the money would be given to struggling businesses in the form of loans or forgivable grants, which Cain admitted did not occur.
While Levings stated the goal of the city hosting events is to create tourism and provide the public with a better quality of life, members of the public asked the city to define exactly what that means, especially now that events in the city and county have resumed, which brings people into the city without costing the taxpayers money, especially in staff time and overtime.
Resident Don Bransford asked the council to answer if they believe events should be dependent on the general fund – or at least have a robust discussion about the city’s overall budget and where general fund money would be best utilized.
“Someone spoke earlier about the police department not having enough money and I totally agree with that,” Bransford said. “I would rather have any general fund money go to the police department than to an event.”
Bransford also asked the city to address the conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest of taking large amounts of money from businesses with a vested interest on matters of immediate consideration before the planning commission or council.
“It looks horrible, and you need to consider that,” Bransford said. “Are you willing to take the heat? If you look at the cannabis industry, that’s a huge chunk of money – and you are considering an ordinance. I wouldn’t want that on my back. Regardless, it just doesn’t look good and I think you as a council need to work through that.”
Sue Gibbs, who started Old Tyme Christmas (now Christmas Tyme in Colusa) reminded the council that the success of events rely on the backing from the community and an active collaboration between many organizations.
“The City Council helped me, the Chamber did, the casino did; people came out of the woodwork to help with things that I needed,” Gibbs said. “That is really important in our community. We already have functions that are already going on – and events. We just need to support them.”
Gibbs said by supporting the already well-established events, the community is supporting the businesses and nonprofits, who rely on them for survival.
Ponciano said the questions and concerns that have surrounded these summer events, the lack of transparency, and the lack of oversight by the representatives of the public, have now inspired other groups to step up and have also given the City Council new direction, which is not necessarily the government taking the lead in hosting events – one after another.
“This whole process has at least opened up that discussion, so hopefully that leads to the city being more in the support role,” Ponciano said. ■