Florida-based Biker Design is making a final attempt to breath
life into the Hollister Independence Rally a week after the City
Council killed the annual motorcycle gathering in a 3-2 vote to
cancel the event for 2006.
Hollister – Florida-based Biker Design is making a final attempt to breath life into the Hollister Independence Rally a week after the City Council killed the annual motorcycle gathering in a 3-2 vote to cancel the event for 2006.
“We’re trying to resurrect the rally,” said Gary Nowicki, vice president/special events coordinator for Biker Design, a Daytona Beach, Fla. company that manufactures and sells motorcycle clothing and promotes small biker events.
This week, Biker Design – a private company incorporated since 1997 that the owners say makes about $10 million per year – will submit a detailed rally proposal to the City Council, guaranteeing $300,000 to the city. It also will advertise the plan in local newspapers in hopes the council will reconsider the Feb. 6 vote that canceled the event for 2006.
“I’m not looking to make money this year,” Biker Design President Tom Recel said. “I don’t look for things to hit a jackpot and leave. I’m here to promote this rally, to use my money and experience and grow it into a profitable event.”
Despite a proposal that projects profits without financial obligation for the city, Recel and Nowicki will be hard-pressed to convince one of the council majority who voted to cancel rally to reconsider their vote. To have the rally issue reconsidered, one of the council members who voted in the majority would have to request that it be revisited, according to City Manager Clint Quilter.
Both Council members Doug Emerson and Pauline Valdivia said Monday that, at this late date, there is no offer that Biker Design can make that will move them to reconsider their votes against the rally.
“To me we’re past the drop-dead date, and that was at the council meeting last week,” Emerson said. “I’m not going to change my mind.”
Councilwoman Monica Johnson said that she is willing to look at new information, and if there is enough of a public outcry she may request that the rally issue be revisited by the council.
“That doesn’t mean I’ll change my vote,” she said. “I’m very clear about that.”
Along with the cost of the rally to the city, Johnson said she is concerned about safety at the rally and thinks downtown isn’t a good venue for the event. Also, she said, many Hollister residents throughout the city that she speaks to say the rally is a nuisance.
Just before the fateful Feb. 6 City Council meeting, Biker Design gave council members an outline of a proposal to pay the city $300,000 and organize a downtown rally for 2006. The proposal seemed to address the council’s chief concern – the rally was an expense that Hollister’s general fund couldn’t afford.
But, saying that the Biker Design proposal was too little too late, the council majority wasn’t swayed by the last-minute effort and voted not to hold a rally on city property in 2006. The decision was the culmination of more than three months of discussion about the event. Mayor Robert Scattini and Councilman Brad Pike cast the dissenting votes.
Today, a more comprehensive Biker Design proposal, which includes financial information about Biker Design, will be hand delivered to each council member, according to Recel. Recel and Nowicki then hope to have individual, face-to-face meetings with council members on Thursday and Friday to try to convince them that Biker Design has the time and the resources to organize a successful rally for 2006 and beyond.
Biker Design proposes a contract with Hollister in which it will pay the city $300,000, organize a rally downtown and retain vending rights for the event. Under the proposal, the $300,000 will be paid in six monthly $50,000 increments – the first to be paid upon acceptance of the offer and the last to be paid on July 4. Biker design will also pay for garbage and clean-up and will be insured for $2 million.
With the $300,000 from Biker Design and money from business licenses, tent permits, sanitation fees and tax revenue, Recel said the city will bring in $420,000 if it accepts the deal. Public safety – which cost the city $350,000 last year – will be paid for out of that revenue, Recel said, leaving about $70,000 in profit for Hollister. Biker Design will also donate, “Quite a bit more than done in the past,” to local charities, he said. Under the proposal the contract would be for three years, with first right of refusal after the three years have passed.
Before last week’s fatal vote, the rally had been in danger of cancellation since October, when the City Council began discussing the pros and cons of the event.
In November, the City Council voted 3-1 to terminate the Hollister Independence Rally Committee’s contract with the city to organize the rally. The majority of council members cited financial reasons when they voted to terminate HIRC’s contract, after that group had organized the rally for nearly a decade.
During the intervening months two groups stepped forward with rally proposals – one which would have moved the event to the Hollister Municipal Airport, and another that was similar to the HIRC model. Neither proposal gained traction, and both groups withdrew.
Following the Feb. 6 vote canceling the event for 2006, the Hollister Police Department began to focus on preparing for the bikers who many say will come into the city in early July regardless of whether there is a planned event, Police Chief Jeff Miller said. Without a rally, Public safety costs will be significantly less, he said.
Luke Roney covers local government and the environment for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or at [email protected].
