TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL
FROM: Brian Ambrose, Community Services Director
PREPARED BY: Crystal Arora, Management Analyst - Parks & Recreation
SUBJECT: title
Accept Donations for and Review the 2023 Santa Stops Program and Discuss Plans for 2024
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RECOMMENDATION
recommendation
Accept donations from three entities, totaling $13,500, for the 2023 Santa Stops Program;
Review the activities of the 2023 Santa Stops Program; and
Provide direction to staff for programming the 2024 holiday activities.
recommendationbody
PRIOR ACTION/VOTE
During the March 7, 2023, City Council meeting, Council Member Holliday requested and received consensus from the City Council to bring an item to a future City Council meeting to provide an update on his meetings with the community regarding the “Santa in the City” events.
At the August 1, 2023, City Council meeting, the City Council directed staff to proceed with planning the 2023 Santa Stops program (Vote: 3-2).
CITY COUNCIL GOAL
Coordinate and deliver responsive, effective community services.
BACKGROUND
Donations
For the 2023 Santa Stops Program, the City of Murrieta (City) received financial donations from three entities to help support the cost of the event, totaling $13,500. Per City policy, these donations need to be formally accepted by the City Council and incorporated into the City’s budget. The three donations to be accepted are shown below.
Discussion
Since 1994, the Community Services Department (CSD) has coordinated a wide variety of month-long holiday activities known as “Murrieta Holiday Magic”. One event has been conducted under various names, such as Santa Stars, Santa Visits, and Santa Stops. Holiday Magic includes a tree lighting event at Town Square Park, Festival of Trees, Donuts with Santa, a toy and food drive, a home decorating contest, and a “Letters to Santa” program. As the City population has continued to increase, the Holiday Magic festivities required more staffing and resources. After a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, it was determined that the City had reached a size where the Santa Stars program was no longer feasible with the resources available.
To replace the program in 2022, CSD staff implemented an alternative production, called “Santa in the City,” which consolidated the number of stops from 112 down to five locations, with one event per night in neighborhoods spread throughout the city. The format incorporated some of the well-loved traditions of Santa Stops, while reducing the impact to available resources and facilities. While community feedback was generally positive, a few residents urged the City to bring back the historic programming under the condition that they would assist in finding volunteers and other responsibilities.
At the City Council's request, staff worked to revisit options to relaunch the program, which required the use of volunteers and the collection of donations. Staff estimated the direct cost for the production as approximately $81,000, which generally did not include staff time.
Upon receipt of the City Council’s formal direction on August 1, 2023, to move forward with the re-implementation of the Santa Stops Program, City staff and volunteers began coordinating the event. The volunteer group mobilized the volunteers, coordinated their LiveScan background check appointments at the Police Department, provided training, and generally provided overall assistance.
Thanks to the collaborative efforts of many City departments, in addition to the Community Services Department (CSD) as well as employee volunteers, staffing needs were met. For example:
The Police Department (PD) completed Livescan background check fingerprinting for all volunteers, as well as coordinated and provided multiple PD volunteers for each night of the Program to travel along all three routes.
Public Works Department staff posted all of the necessary traffic control measures and signage, including the “no parking” signs, at all 127 stops, both several days before the route and removed them the morning after. This required about a half-day worth of work each day for Public Works team members during the two weeks of the Santa Stops Program;
Administrative Services’ staff addressed numerous topics related to Risk Management and the Livescan background checks, and staff from the Information Technology Division (IT) worked with CSD to create and deploy the “Santa Tracker App,” used to publicize Santa’s location each evening and estimated arrival time via the City’s website.
Finance staff assisted with the collection and processing of donations; and
CSD made all necessary purchases for the program; rented and reserved the necessary vehicles and trolleys for each night; processed the necessary contracts and purchase orders for the applicable vendors; handled all marketing and communications; overall coordination with other City departments; received donated toys and food drive goods and delivered them to nonprofit partners; coordinated an inclusive stop for children on the autism spectrum; provided the necessary staffing of a “base coordinator” and three lead vehicle drivers and navigators every night for each route to announce the impending arrival of Santa; and prepared all of the necessary supplies and equipment and reorganized everything for the next day of routes. CSD is also responsible for coordinating with the volunteer group and ensuring the Livescan background checks were completed for all volunteers.
Not including the time spent by the City’s two Special Event staff positions organizing the Santa Stops Program or management time by the Community Services Director and City Manager’s Office employees, it is estimated that about 1,000 hours of staff time were spent preparing for and executing the Santa Stops Program in 2023.
Overall, the 2023 Santa Stops Program was received very well by the community. In total, Santa stopped at 127 neighborhood locations over the course of eight nights, plus the inclusive stop at the Murrieta Youth Center.
Since the conclusion of the event, staff and the volunteer community group have debriefed on what went well and improvements that could be made if the City Council opts to continue the Santa Stops Program in the future. To lessen the impact on overall City staff time, there are additional aspects of the planning and logistics that could be handled by the volunteer group, such as:
Volunteer “Base Coordinators” that would be well trained for this role in advance and tasked with daily/nightly before and after preparation to make sure each route team has all of their necessary supplies and is well organized;
Additional communication and training with the various volunteer roles to ensure a smoother flow during the routes and greater clarity of each volunteer’s role;
Process improvement for the volunteer on-boarding process.
It was also discussed that perhaps it is not critically necessary to have choirs participate on each route, since that was the most difficult volunteer group to recruit.
As with any production of this size, success depends on getting an early lead on planning. Therefore, staff recommends the City Council discuss a potential 2024 program and if there is interest to proceed, provide direction on the overall vision for a 2024 program and authorize staff to continue planning with the volunteer community group. Examples of questions for consideration include: 1) Does the City Council wish to continue with the Santa Stops Program as a City event for 2024? 2) Does the City Council want to continue to fund the Program at the same level? 3) If not, should the funding amount be more or less? 4) If this remains a City event, should there again be 127 stops spread over eight nights?
FISCAL IMPACT
The donations received for the 2023 Santa Stops Program will increase the Fiscal Year 2023/24 revenue account 1105000 - 47705 by $13,500.
Should the City Council direct staff to move forward with a similar 2024 program, a slight decrease in costs compared to the budget for the 2023 program ($81,000) is anticipated due to the absence of certain start-up costs. Staff estimates that a production of the same scale for Fiscal Year 2024/25 would cost approximately $60,000 to 75,000, with any donations collected by the volunteer community group reducing the overall costs to the City. The current amount of funding included in the FY 2024/25 budget for this event is $42,000, which was originally set in Spring 2023 in anticipation of the “Santa in the City” program. If the City Council directs staff to move forward with the same event, it is anticipated that there will need to be an increase in expenditure account 1105000-63360 totaling $33,000 for the Fiscal Year 2024/25 budget. This amount may be offset by donations raised by community volunteers. The actual budget adjustment can occur at a future date when more information is available.
If the City Council directs staff to provide a different style of programming, there will be no fiscal impact, and staff will operate using the current expenditure budget for Fiscal Year 2024/25.
ATTACHMENTS
None.