Help save the rally.
That idea for a theme to this year’s Fourth of July event was
one of several thoughts broached at Thursday’s monthly meeting
among rally organizers.
Help save the rally.
That idea for a theme to this year’s Fourth of July event was one of several thoughts broached at Thursday’s monthly meeting among rally organizers.
After several questions from a concerned group at the downtown YMCA building, an idea was mentioned to hang a banner across entrances to downtown. It would solicit $5 donations, or fees for parking motorcycles, and would call that cry: “Help save the rally.”
Saving the traditional event, it seems, is becoming more than a challenge. It’s becoming more of a long shot.
Two roadblocks remain that could each potentially kill the motorcycle rally, and the prospects worsened this week.
Among the problems, the Hollister Independence Rally Committee (HIRC) must double its revenue, plus some, over last year to break even. And outside agencies that previously provided rally security won’t come here without Hollister picking up workers’ compensation liability.
Hollister won’t sign a new contract with HIRC until the problems are resolved. And the sense of urgency has heightened recently, as the City Council plans to explore the issues – and possibly make some decisions – at its March 15 meeting.
This week the outlook worsened because the county Sheriff’s Department added itself to the list of agencies requesting payment for its overtime costs to help secure the event, according to Management Services Director Clay Lee. In the past, agencies picked up their costs.
Now HIRC must come up with $280,000 over last year’s revenues of about $200,000.
The second dose of bad news came as several more outside agencies that previously sent officers to the rally informed Hollister they wouldn’t take part this year, said Councilman Tony LoBue.
“The news I got Monday – it doesn’t look good,” LoBue said.
No agencies seem willing to come if they’re asked to pay workers’ compensation costs. Many won’t come regardless, because of budget woes and coinciding staffing shortages, according to city officials.
And Hollister leaders have made it clear the city won’t subsidize any costs, or even potential costs, especially in light of looming layoffs on the city’s workforce.
In the past, about 40 outside officers helped secure downtown, besides those from the Hollister Police Department and the Sheriff’s Department.
City officials, according to Lee, have been “regularly calling around” the past few weeks. But no outside agencies have committed, while Lee said there are “five maybes.” That’s five officers – not jurisdictions, he said.
Meanwhile, HIRC Executive Director Bob Beals remains optimistic on both fronts.
“We’re looking at hammering this stuff out,” Beals said.
Regarding the $280,000 gap, rally organizers have been exploring alternative funding sources such as charging the fee, or donation, for parking motorcycles downtown. He called it a “security survival fund.”
Mark Maxwell, a former HIRC board president, objected to that idea Thursday night.
“That’s basically going to kill the rally,” he said.
He went on, “Can you explain that to 80,000 people?” And he pointed out that many bikers would just park outside the downtown boundaries.
Beals responded: “It’s kind of a do or die type thing. We need to raise that money.”
On the workers’ comp issue, Beals is researching the potential of HIRC buying a policy from the State Compensation Insurance Fund, he said. Under that type of arrangement, all outside officers would be classified under HIRC’s payroll, and the committee would pay a set amount according to that total.
But Mayor Tony Bruscia, an insurance broker, is skeptical of that idea. The potential problem, he said, is “whether we can call these officers HIRC’s employees.”
“From what I’ve heard, I don’t think it will fly,” Bruscia said.
Plus, that type of policy would add a significant, yet unknown, cost to the $280,000 challenge that many officials doubt HIRC can reach.
Hollister officials want answers soon, as the two sides have yet to sign a new contract after the city terminated the old one – which stipulated Hollister would pick up its policing costs.
Beals understands the city’s position to not take on the workers’ comp risk, saying, “There’s some logic to that – they don’t want to take a hit.”
But he also wants more time than it seems, at this point, HIRC is going to get.
“It’s not going to hurt the city to give us more time,” he said.
