City council members sanctioned the 2017 Hollister Independence Rally contract at Monday’s meeting.
The revised contract with promoter Roadshows Inc. came to $164,000 for a three-day event. Revisions were made by the promoter after the Nov. 28 meeting, where the council declined to approve a contract at $135,000 for a four-day rally.
City documents showed that officials over the last four years calculated widely ranging figures for each rally’s total cost. There was a fluctuation of $94,000 between the 2013 and 2014 motorcycle rallies.
Roadshows promoter Randy Burke was expected to attend the meeting, but had some situations arise over the weekend that caused him to stay at home, City Manager Bill Avera said.
“He wishes he could be here, but he can’t,” Avera said. “He also sent me an email this afternoon, so we have spoken today and like I said wanted me to make sure you folks know that he knows it’s important for him to be here. He just absolutely couldn’t make it.”
Besides the dollar amount, other changes in the contract include when the promoter would pay the city. The promoter is requesting to pay two installments of $82,000 due June 1 and June 29 of next year.
According to the meeting’s agenda packet, city staff is concerned that the payment schedule doesn’t give the city enough time to cancel the rally for lack of payment or default in the contract.
Avera addressed the payment dates during the meeting.
“Pursuant to our discussions today, I told (Burke) that’s probably not something I could not recommend doing,” Avera said. “He was willing to work on not having an earlier payment. He understands how critical it is for you folks to be able to have a meeting prior to the rally, but after that second payment is due so that you can have the option whether or not you’re going to cancel that contract.”
Avera also noted that the promoter will be charging $231 for rally vendor business licenses. That’s in contrast to the $39 the city charged in the past when rally vendors asked to pay the same price as the farmers market vendors.
Adopting the contract was one of three options on the table for council members. The second option was to cancel the 2017 rally and the third was having the city run the entire event.
“I can give you 50 reasons why that’s probably not the best option, but it’s something that could be considered and we can work through it if you desire,” Avera said.
The Hollister Independence Rally has historical roots in the 1947 invasion of the city by the Boozefighters, re-told in the film “The Wild One” starring Marlon Brando. The first official rally took place in 1997 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the invasion. Roadshows Inc.’s involvement in the 2016 rally marks the third promoter in four years. It was the only promoter to submit a bid for the 2016 rally after the 2015 promoter left over a dispute of $90,000 owed to the City of Hollister.
During the meeting, Councilman Roy Sims said the city needed to figure out the event’s intention.
“What are we trying to achieve with the motorcycle rally?” Sims asked. “Are we trying to gain revenue? It’s been noted we haven’t been able to generate a vast amount of revenue from this. I guess my question is, what have we done to address the revenue? What have we done to create a mechanism that would bring in additional revenue? Because then we could have additional service members on staff so that this event is as safe as possible.”
Sims also brought up the possibility of rebranding the rally. Mayor Ignacio Velazquez said Sims was right on rebranding and understanding what the rally is about.
“What are we trying to accomplish?” Velazquez said. “Are we just trying to have people come out for the weekend? Are we going to promote our community while they’re here?”
Velazquez played a key role in reviving the rally in 2013 after rising costs caused the nonprofit running the event to opt out in years prior. The 2013 rally was the first one to be held since the event was cancelled in 2008. He said the city needed to embrace the rally.
“I think we need to embrace it and support it, support the promoter so he succeeds and he makes as much money as possible because then we succeed,” Velazquez said. “As I’ve said before, if we’re going to stop it again, there’s no point in doing this. That makes no sense. If we’re going to support it we should work to try to get more of a long-term contract, figure out ways to raise more revenues by having a gate or a different system so we have that chance of success.”
