STANTON : City to Reconsider Special-Events Fee

In an effort to help local businesses, Mayor Sal Sapien has suggested reducing the $100 special-event permit that is required for sidewalk sales, parking lot sales and other promotions.

Diana Musgrave, a representative for Pet City and Shoe City on Katella Avenue, told the City Council last week that neighboring cities have lower fees. She suggested Stanton is damaging its prospects for attracting businesses. “We tend to go where we can make money,” Musgrave told the council.

Musgrave, who also represents stores in Garden Grove and Los Alamitos, pointed out that a special-event permit in Garden Grove costs only $35. A permit for sidewalk sales in Los Alamitos is free, she said.

But Stanton has paid $40,000 for an independent analysis of the cost of its services, and preliminary figures show it costs the city $235 to process each special-event permit, according to City Manager Terry Matz.

And Garden Grove and Los Alamitos are considering raising their fees to reflect the cost of the permit process, according to officials in the two cities.

Sapien questioned the validity of the study, which Matz said will be completed in a week.

“If it’s costing us $235, I think we’re doing something wrong,” Sapien said. “I have a feeling that a lot of it is staff time. We pay for staff time regardless of whether we have one or 100 permits.”

Matz said the majority of the cost is not for staff time but for materials and other incidentals.

Bruce Barrett, community development analyst for Los Alamitos, said that although his city does not charge for a special-event permit, Stanton’s study is not off the mark. “I don’t think that ($235) is an unreasonable number at all,” he said.

Barrett said he has to contact the Police Department, Fire Department, Department of Public Works and the community development office before he can approve a special-events permit. He said he also has to inspect the site himself and ensure that the business has a fire permit and an alcohol license if alcohol is to be served.

But he disagreed with Matz’s breakdown of the costs. “The overwhelming majority is staff time,” Barrett said, saying less than 5% of the cost of issuing a permit is because of materials.

Whatever the breakdown of the costs, Stanton Councilman Don Martinez balked at the idea of lowering the fee, saying that would be a business subsidy.

“People have asked us to run the city as a business,” he said, adding that the city should recover its costs as much as possible.

And Councilman Joe Harris pointed out that the city is already subsidizing businesses, since it is not recovering the costs of issuing permits.

Councilman David John Shawver suggested that if a business will put on the same event a few times during the year, the same permit could be reused. But Matz said every event must be considered separately.

Council members will reconsider the special-events fee at an Oct. 6 meeting, once they receive the final results of the study.

“We’ve got to do something to get money flowing into this community,” said Councilman Harry Dotson.