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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWaiver of Park Reservation Fees for May 1, 2013, Keeping Families Together Rally Commission Memorandum REPORT TO: Honorable Mayor and City Commission FROM: Mitch Overton, Director of Parks and Recreation Chris Kukulski, City Manager SUBJECT: Waiver of Park Reservation Fees for May 1, 2013 - “Keeping Families Together” Rally MEETING DATE: April 15, 2013 AGENDA ITEM TYPE: Action RECOMMENDATION: Follow the fee schedule for reservations of public parks for group activities established by commission resolution no. 4085, adopted December 17, 2007. SUGGESTED MOTION: I move to adhere to the fee schedule for reservation of public parks for group activities established within commission resolution no. 4085 adopted December 17, 2007. BACKGROUND: On March 28th the City received a public assembly permit application from the Montana Organizing Project for the “Keeping Families Together Rally.” According to their application they will organize at Lindley Park and then march to the Library to hold their rally. In an email a few days prior to the submittal, the organizer requested that staff waive the park reservation fees based on the content of their rally and their First Amendment Rights. Park Reservation fees were established by Commission Resolution No. 4085. Fees are set as follows: 1 to 24 persons $25.00 25 to 74 persons $50.00 75 to 199 persons $150.00 200 or more persons $1.00 per person For groups of 75 or more, a deposit equal to the fee amount is required. The organizer has not yet filed a park reservation form and has been unclear about the number of participants expected. Neither the resolution or Section 26.02.100 of the Bozeman Municipal Code related to park fees allows staff to waive fees. 52 UNRESOLVED ISSUES: The number of anticipated participants has not been clearly established. FISCAL EFFECTS: Possible reduction in fees collected. ALTERNATIVES: Waive park reservation fees or as suggested by the City Commission. Attachments: April 4, 2013 Appeal Letter Resolution No. 4085 April 3, 2013 Letter to Applicant March 28, 2013 email Public Assembly permit application and attachments Report compiled on: April 4, 2013 53 54 CITY OF BOZEMAN Bozeman, Montana Street address: 20 E. Olive St. Phone: (406)582-2273 Mailing address: P.O. Box 1230 Fax: (406) 582-2263 Bozeman, Montana 59771-1230 TDD: (406) 582-2301 April 3, 2013 Montana Organizing Project Elizabeth Marum PO box 767 Belgrade, MT 59714 Re: Request to waive park reservation fees for May 1st Keeping Families Together Rally Dear Ms. Marum: In your March 26 email you requested that I look into the City staff’s ability to waive fees for your event based on its content and your First Amendment Rights. City Attorney Greg Sullivan and I reviewed Resolution No. 4085 establishing park reservation fees. This resolution, established by the City Commission, does not allow City staff to waive these fees. At this time, if you wish to use Lindley Park for your May 1st event, you will need to fill out a park reservation form and pay the required fee and refundable deposit at the City Shops Complex, 814 North Bozeman. If you choose not to use Lindley Park for your event, please contact me, as soon as possible, with your new plan. Section 26.02.180 of the Bozeman Municipal Code allows you to submit a written appeal to the City Commission, with a copy to the City Manager, within five days of receiving this letter. This appeal must specifically state the grounds of your appeal. The Commission will hear the appeal at the next regularly scheduled meeting provided the appeal is received prior to the deadline for submission of new agenda items. If you have questions, I can be reached at 582-2273. Sincerely, Katherine Maines Public Works Technician Cc: Chris Kukulski, City Manager Greg Sullivan, City Attorney Mitch Overton, Parks and Recreation Director Thom White, Parks and Cemetery Superintendant Michelle Dipzinski, Administrative Assistant 55 CITY OF BOZEMAN Bozeman, Montana Street address: 20 E. Olive St. Phone: (406)582-2273 Mailing address: P.O. Box 1230 Fax: (406) 582-2263 Bozeman, Montana 59771-1230 TDD: (406) 582-2301 56 1 Katherine Maines From:Elizabeth Marum [emarum@montanaorganizingproject.org] Sent:Thursday, March 28, 2013 5:12 PM To:Katherine Maines Cc:Blair Ward; David Fleishman Subject:Re: May 1st event Thanks Katherine. I appreciate your help. I understand the Blair Ward has signed the application. I was out of town for a few days, and appreciate his help on this. I am awaiting a Certificate of Insurance that I can submit to you that will be current and effective May 1st. sorry about that. I will address the concerns of the Fire Department and Parks Dept, and will write up our plan in a more formal way if you like. Basically, it's this: Re: Crowd control. We will have a team of volunteers acting as hosts / ushers / traffic control and plan to have them outfitted in the safety, blaze-orange jackets. About half of the ushers/hosts/traffic monitors will have radios. We will designate and train at least 50 people for this duty, so expect 25 monitors to be outfitted with radio communication. We will have Captains, as well, among the monitors. They will be coordinating the movement of groups of people, helping people de-board and board the buses, pointing out the facilities, etc., showing them the route, and keeping people together. Re: Safety. I do not plan on allowing parking within Lindley Park at all. I didn't know you could park there. I never have. I wanted to keep that road, Buttonwood Ave, within the Park clear and open so folks could line up. Given that, if there is a funeral, or the need for AMR or other emergency services, we would have a clear path for them to take. There is also Cypress St. to the East, as well. Re: Parking. with probably half of the people coming by bus, we plan to keep the route along Cypress St. open for buses. There will be limited parking there. No doubt some will park at the library. In addition, there is a lot of on-street parking in the neighborhoods in and around the Library-- Mendenhall, N. Broadway, Main St., and then in the neighborhoods West of the Library on Babcock, Wallace, Olive, Curtis, etc. If it looks like we will have 2,000 people or more, then we will probably do some sort of shuttling and use the downtown parking garage. In addition, the bus goes right by the Library, so people can easily ride the bus and not even have to drive and park. Please let me know if you would like this more clearly defined, or if this will suite the needs of the Fire Chief and the Parks Dept. Many thanks, Elizabeth On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 12:10 PM, Katherine Maines <KMaines@bozeman.net> wrote: Good afternoon Elizabeth! I submitted your application to the departments (Parks, Police, Fire, Streets, Legal) for review. I haven’t had a chance to talk to our Attorney (he’s out this week) and I haven’t yet heard back from Streets. 57 2 • Our Fire Department is concerned about emergency access. Our Fire Chief would like to know how you plan to control the crowd in the event that emergency services either needs to access the park or the library. • Our Parks Department is concerned about a similar thing with the Park. We need a plan as to what people will be doing at the park, where in the park they will be, and a timeframe as to how long they will be there. I also think we need a better understanding about how people will get to the event. I know you said that buses will transport people but I assume that some people will drive on their own. There are very few parking spaces at Lindley and we need to be sure that spaces are left in the event of a funeral or people wanting to access the Cemetery. • Other items I noticed: o The application was not signed. Before the application is approved, we will need someone to read and sign. o I saw a 2nd check for the deposit. I will hang on to that check until I have a chance to talk to our Attorney about the park fee. Then we can go from there. Thanks Elizabeth. Let me know if you have any questions. Katherine Maines Public Works Technician City of Bozeman 406-582-2273 kmaines@bozeman.net All City of Bozeman emails are subject to the Right to Know provisions of Montana’s Constitution (Art. II, Sect. 9) and may be considered a “public record” per Sect. 2-6-202 and Sect. 2-6-401, Montana Code Annotated. As such, this email, its sender and receiver, and the contents may be available for public disclosure and will be retained pursuant to the City’s record retention policies. Emails that contain confidential information related to individual privacy may be protected from disclosure under law. -- Elizabeth Marum 58 3 Montana Organizing Project P.O. Box 767 Belgrade, MT 59714 406-570-1033 (cell) 406-388-0224 (office) 59 60 61 62 63 64 65