TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL
FROM: Brian Ambrose, Community Services Director
PREPARED BY: Crystal Arora, Management Analyst - Parks & Recreation
SUBJECT:
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Discussion of Direction for Support for Tour de Murrieta
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RECOMMENDATION
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Review the anticipated cost for providing staff support for the 2025 Tour de Murrieta Signature Event; and
Provide direction to staff on next steps.
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PRIOR ACTION/VOTE
On July 6, 2021, the City Council adopted Resolution No. 21-4440, establishing fee waiver tiers for approved Murrieta Signature Events, and declaring the Tour de Murrieta a signature event, which is eligible for in kind services from the City not to exceed $10,000 (Vote 5-0).
On September 21, 2021, the City Council adopted Resolution No. 21-4473, retroactively applying new signature event tier 4 fee waiver to the 2021 Tour de Murrieta bicycle race (Vote 5-0).
On November 16, 2021, the City Council adopted Resolution No. 21-4490, approving the Tour de Murrieta’s request to waive the pending fee balance for the 2020 Tour de Murrieta in the amount of $7,797.92 (Vote 5-0).
At the June 6, 2023, City Council meeting, Tour de Murrieta founder Ernie Sanchez spoke on the need for continued support from the City. Mayor DeForest asked and gained consensus from the City Council to add this to a future City Council meeting for consideration (Non-Action item).
On August 15, 2023, the City Council voted to maintain the event’s in-kind support level at $10,000, and for continued City support by providing needed road closures (Vote 4-1).
CITY COUNCIL GOAL
Foster and promote an engaged, connected and caring community.
BACKGROUND
Tour de Murrieta is an official annual USA Cycling-sanctioned race, attracting the most competitive race teams in California. This year’s events, set for April 5-6, will be the 20th race series in Murrieta. The event includes multiple races, including a one-mile lightning course, a four-mile circuit race, and a popular children’s race. Tour de Murrieta is organized by a nonprofit organization and brings in sponsorships to help offset the costs. Recognizing the economic benefit Tour de Murrieta brings to downtown Murrieta and local hotels, it was designated by the City Council as a Murrieta “Signature Event” in July 2021.
“Signature Events” are deemed to benefit the public culturally and economically. They recur annually and are large-scale. Only the City Council has the authority to approve new Signature Events, which provides event organizers with in-kind contributions (not funding) from the City of Murrieta (City), such as waiver of City permit fees and staff assistance with public safety, setting up signage, marketing, cleaning, and trash pick-up.
In 2021, the City Council adopted a resolution establishing formal tiers for approved City Signature Events, authorizing the provision of in-kind services between $5,000 and $10,000, per event per year, depending on the number of years the event has been held. Tier 4 is the highest support level for events that have occurred for ten or more years. Tour de Murrieta was designated for Tier 4 status in 2021.
In 2023, Tour de Murrieta brought to the City’s attention that the increasing cost of City services was causing a financial burden on the event:
• To mitigate these costs, Tour de Murrieta requested that the waiver for the value of services be increased by $5,000;
• Tour de Murrieta also requested continued support of the Public Works Department for traffic route set-up and tear-down as part of the in-kind contribution.
o Currently, the Tour de Murrieta is the only Signature City Event that receives Public Works Department assistance installing traffic control devices.
o For other events that require traffic control set-up, the event organizer contracts for this service at their expense.
• The City Council denied the request but voted to provide continued Public Works support for traffic control efforts, estimated at the time to cost about $6,600 per year.
• For prior recent years, amounts paid by Tour de Murrieta were $2,859 for 2022 and $1,019 for 2023.
• For 2024, Tour de Murrieta paid $5,980, and the City absorbed $14,809 in the value of services provided.
In preparing for this year’s Tour de Murrieta with the event organizer and identifying the necessary staff resources, the anticipated value of the services will exceed the $10,000 Signature Event level. Therefore, staff wanted to bring this to the City Council’s attention for direction.
The table below lists the anticipated value of staff services associated with Tour de Murrieta 2025:
• This reflects the value of direct staff support provided on the actual event days or directly before and after for set-up and teardown.
• It does not reflect staff time spent assisting with event preparation and organization of logistics, such as that spent by the Community Services Department.
o “Direct” costs listed below mean overtime rates are paid for the applicable personnel for services provided outside of regular working hours.
o “Indirect” costs mean that while no overtime rates are paid, normal operations are impacted as individuals are assigned to focus instead on Tour de Murrieta.
§ While traffic control setup takes place during staffs regularly scheduled work hours, utilizing internal staff impacts their regular assignments and commits staffing that may not be available.
As described above, in addition to Tour de Murrieta’s Signature Event status and the $10,000, “credit” toward City services Tour de Murrieta receives with that designation, going back to 2023, there has been a City Council-endorsed practice to invoice Tour de Murrieta about $6,600, for the value of the traffic control services provided by Public Works staff.
Using that same formula, for 2025, the net total amount due from Tour de Murrieta toward their event costs would be $6,383.21, as calculated in the table below:
Since this approach is not formally memorialized, staff seeks City Council direction on how to proceed for Tour de Murrieta 2025.
As a further next step, since there are an increasing number of similar requests from other local nonprofit groups for waivers for fees and the value of services, staff plans to present to City Council both an alternative user fee structure for the Town Square Park and Amphitheater and a review of the Signature Event policy to consider adding an additional tier or other potential modifications. This type of structure will be helpful both to provide clarity to event hosts and for staff administering the policies.
While there are many benefits of community events in terms of fostering quality of life and attracting visitors to Murrieta to stay in hotels, shop, and dine at local restaurants, it is important to acknowledge there is a financial impact to the City that requires the City forgo other investments in services, including possible investments in other and or new community events.
FISCAL IMPACT
If the City Council decides to lower the fees charged for staff time reimbursement, it will lead to a decrease in City revenues. This reduction will affect the overtime budgets of the departments providing assistance and/or impact the department's work plan.
ATTACHMENTS
None.