09 - FAIRGROUNDS EXHIBIT BUILDING FEES

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Item No. 9 memorandum TO: Mayor & City Council FROM: John Godwin, City Manager SUBJECT: FAIRGROUNDS EXHIBIT BUILDING FEES DATE: May 9, 2016 BACKGROUND: As we discussed at the last city council meeting, use at the event center we took over last fall from the fair association has been pretty light. These first few months have been the "off- season" to some extent, so we expect to get more rentals during the summer, but we still need to try to get more uses in there for more activities and more hours. STATUS OF ISSUE: The council adopted the use policy already in place under the fair association, including the existing fee schedule, which generally addressed larger events and activities. One way we may be able to get more users is to work with smaller, but recurring users, so we are suggesting the additional of the following language to the policy now in place: "The city may negotiate a specific agreement with a regular, recurring facility user that both provides a service to the public and is a non - profit agency or organization." Our purpose is not to make a profit, so if we can work deals that fully recover our costs while providing more activities to the community, we will be well - served. This could also help us recover our fixed costs that must still be incurred when the building is empty. BUDGET: Should increase revenues. RECOMMENDATION: Approve revising existing use policy.