Despite a proposal that projects profits for the city, council
members don’t seem inclined to reinstate the 2006 rally
Hollister – Florida-based Biker Design is making a final attempt to breath life into the Hollister Independence Rally a week after the City Council killed the annual motorcycle gathering.
“We’re trying to resurrect the rally,” said Gary Nowicki, vice president/special events coordinator for Biker Design, a Daytona Beach, Fla. company that manufactures and sells motorcycle clothing and promotes small biker events.
This week, Biker Design – a private company owners say makes about $10 million per year – will submit a detailed proposal to the City Council, guaranteeing $300,000 to the city. It also will advertise the plan in local newspapers in hopes the council will reconsider the Feb. 6 vote that canceled the 2006 event.
“I’m not looking to make money this year,” Biker Design President Tom Recel said. “I don’t look for things to hit a jackpot and leave. I’m here to promote this rally, to use my money and experience and grow it into a profitable event.”
Despite a proposal that projects profits without financial obligation for the city, Recel and Nowicki will be hard-pressed to convince one of the council majority to reconsider their vote. To have the rally issue reconsidered, one of the council members who voted in the majority would have to request that it be revisited, according to City Manager Clint Quilter.
Both Council members Doug Emerson and Pauline Valdivia said Monday that, at this late date, there is no offer that Biker Design can make that will move them to reconsider their votes against the rally.
“To me we’re past the drop-dead date, and that was at the council meeting last week,” Emerson said. “I’m not going to change my mind.”
Councilwoman Monica Johnson said that she is willing to look at new information, and if there is enough of a public outcry she may request that the rally issue be revisited by the council.
“That doesn’t mean I’ll change my vote,” she said. “I’m very clear about that.”
Along with the cost of the rally to the city, Johnson said she is concerned about safety at the rally and thinks downtown isn’t a good venue for the event. Also, she said, many Hollister residents she speaks to say the rally is a nuisance.
Just before the Feb. 6 City Council meeting, Biker Design gave council members an outline of a proposal to pay the city $300,000 and organize a downtown rally for 2006. The proposal seemed to address the council’s chief concern – the rally was an expense that Hollister’s general fund couldn’t afford.
But, saying that the Biker Design proposal was too little too late, the council majority wasn’t swayed by the last-minute effort and voted not to hold a rally on city property in 2006. The decision was the culmination of more than three months of discussion about the event. Mayor Robert Scattini and Councilman Brad Pike cast the dissenting votes.
Today, a more comprehensive Biker Design proposal, which includes financial information about Biker Design, will be hand delivered to each council member, according to Recel. Recel and Nowicki then hope to have individual, face-to-face meetings with council members on Thursday and Friday to try to convince them that Biker Design has the time and the resources to organize a successful rally for 2006 and beyond.
Biker Design proposes a contract with Hollister in which it will pay the city $300,000, organize a rally downtown and retain vending rights for the event. Under the proposal, the $300,000 will be paid in six monthly $50,000 increments – the first to be paid upon acceptance of the offer and the last to be paid on July 4. Biker design will also pay for garbage and clean-up and will be insured for $2 million. Under the proposal the contract would be for three years.
With the $300,000 from Biker Design and money from business licenses, tent permits, sanitation fees and tax revenue, Recel said the city will bring in $420,000 if it accepts the deal. Public safety – which cost the city $350,000 last year – will be paid for out of that revenue, Recel said, leaving about $70,000 in profit for Hollister. Biker Design will also donate,
“Quite a bit more than done in the past,” to local charities, he said.
Following the Feb. 6 vote canceling the event for 2006, the Hollister Police Department began to focus on preparing for the bikers who many say will come into the city in early July regardless of whether there is a planned event, Police Chief Jeff Miller said. Without a rally, public safety costs will be significantly less, he said.
