The fate of the Hollister Independence Rally is still uncertain,
but the City Council now has a Feb. 6 deadline for making a
unequivocal decision on whether to cancel the annual event or find
a group with enough capital to run it.
Hollister – The fate of the Hollister Independence Rally is still uncertain, but the City Council now has a Feb. 6 deadline for making a unequivocal decision on whether to cancel the annual event or find a group with enough capital to run it.
City Manager Clint Quilter told the council Tuesday that a decision was needed by Feb. 6 in order for city staff to have enough time to prepare for the event or publicly state that it would be canceled.
In November, former Hollister Independence Rally Committee members Dave Ventura, Helen Nelson and Bruce Beetz formed Ghostrider Promotions and submitted a rally proposal to the city that would have moved the event to Hollister Municipal Airport. But the group officially dropped out of the contract contest on Tuesday for running the rally in 2006. Ventura told the council that Ghostrider would not have enough time to organize the event this year, but would be interested in hosting the rally the following summer.
“We are very interested, but just not for this year,” Ventura said. “We would really like to look at 2007 to put this on at the airport.”
Two months ago, the council voted 3-1 to terminate HIRC’s contract with the city to put on the biker rally after the group had organized it for nearly a decade. Council members said they couldn’t condone spending at least $300,000 from the city’s general fund each year for a single event – the 2005 rally stuck the city with a $360,000 law enforcement bill, which HIRC won’t be able to reimburse.
HIRC, which had already taken thousands of dollars worth of deposits from vendors planning to attend the rally in 2006, has since closed the doors to its San Benito Street office and taken down its Web site. A sign on the door the office said that HIRC had suspended its operations and directed visitors to a Santa Clara bankruptcy attorney.
Ventura said he did not know if vendors who had already put down deposits to reserve locations would be reimbursed.
“I wish them the best of luck,” he said.
Ventura would not confirm if HIRC had filed for bankruptcy and referred questions to HIRC Treasurer John Loyd, who did not return phone calls Wednesday.
Quilter, on direction from HIRC, has been referring vendors who call him asking for refunds to the same bankruptcy attorney. However, no Chapter Seven filings have been made in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Northern District of California as of press time on Wednesday.
Quilter said the city would not refund deposits and that it had no contractual agreement with rally vendors to do so.
City Council members discussed the rally, defined their positions on its financial impact to the city and heard input from the public Tuesday night, but did not make a decision on a contract proposal it received from Marlon Moss in November. Moss, representing a group called the Hollister Rally Commission, had proposed keeping the rally downtown and moving the main stage and beer garden to the vacant Fremont School yard on Fourth Street.
Although Moss has not drawn up a formal contract for the city, he told the council Tuesday that he was willing to secure a $150,000 bond to prove that he had the capital to cover rally expenses.
But Mayor Robert Scattini and other council members didn’t appear assuaged.
“The reason we’re not taking (Moss’s proposal) too seriously is because it’s going to take more than $150,000,” Scattini said. “If he came back and said he had a $450,000 bond, that’s different.”
Since November, the council has been hoping for a group to come forward with enough money to finance the rally without putting any financial strain on city coffers.
“My priority is the financial part of it right now,” Councilwomen Pauline Valdiva said. “You can’t do it without the money.”
Although time is limited, Scattini is convinced that another group still has time to come forward with an acceptable rally proposal.
Brett Rowland covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or br******@fr***********.com.
