In an attempt to raise monies for the annual Fourth of July Spectacular, Los Alamitos officials will again be going to the Joint Forces Training Base to try and work on getting a sustainable plan ironed out.
Recreation and Community Services Director Angie Avery spoke at the Monday, Aug. 16 City Council meeting.
She said while expenditures for the Spectacular have been cut and revenues increased over the last two years, the event’s sustainability depends on a steady revenue source of about $10,000 annually.
She presented four options to the council including seeking the approval of the JFTB by Dec. 17 to charge a nominal fee for vehicles and pedestrians to enter the base.
Military personnel would be exempt from this, according to a staff report.
The Friday, Dec. 17 deadline would allow enough time to plan the event.
This option has the greatest potential to sustain the event and may result in excess revenue, which could be donated back to the base, Avery said.
The city has asked the base to charge admission previously for the Spectacular while on JFTB property and was denied, saying it was illegal to do so at a military installation.
The second option is to seek donations as people come onto the base from city property.
This is harder to administer as staff must stand in the street to ask for donations from incoming cars and pedestrians, but the potential is great to raise the monies.
Donations were asked for on the main stage at last month’s event with just under $500 being raised.
Last year’s crowd was estimated at between 25-30,000 people.
Avery’s third proposal was to look for a long-term sponsorship package with a community oriented business, possibly a five-year plan for $10,000 per year.
Seeking year-to-year sponsors was the fourth idea.
In 2010, the event, which will be in its 24th year in 2011, was in danger of being cancelled if $15,000 was not raised to offset costs.
Thanks to retired businessman Kenny Brandyberry, the News-Enterprise and others, the monies were raised and planning for the event began.
Avery said relying on a big donation every year simply will not work.
“We need some sort of sustainable plan to keep it alive,” Avery said. “We can’t count on Kenny every year.”
Avery said the event has operated in the red for many years, the cities of Los Alamitos and Cypress each losing about $24,000 two years ago. In 2009, thanks to a more than $20,000 cut in expenditures, each city was about $9,500 in the hole.
Avery said the 2010 event made a profit of $7,960, which will be used as seed money for 2011.
Councilman Dean Zarkos said he wanted to look into the option of a multi-year sponsor and suggested having an ad hoc council committee look into how to get the additional revenue.
“We need to do something concrete,” Zarkos said.
Councilman Troy Edgar said whatever is decided, it needs to have some teeth in it to show the city is serious.
He supported either of the first two ideas, but with a twist.
“If we can’t do either of those, we simply need to cancel the event,” Edgar said. “This will send a clear message.”
Edgar admitted of the $463 raised by donations at the event in 2010, he had written a $100 check.
Mayor Marilynn Poe said the easiest thing to do would be to meet with the base about the first two options.
The motion passed 5-0.
