Study will determine economic benefits of the Independence Day
Rally
Hollister – The Hollister Independence Rally Committee reported that vendor sales from this year’s biker rally totaled $900,000, with 80 percent of 210 vendors submitting numbers.
HIRC Executive Director Helen Nelson said the total should increase significantly when she chases down the remaining vendors.
The city of Hollister receives 1 percent of the total vendor sales.
Because the system to calculate vendor sales in the past was ineffective, Nelson said she has nothing to compare total sales with for rallies past. And she said there is no way to determine whether the committee will make money this year because none of the bills have been turned in yet.
HIRC didn’t receive all the bills for the 2004 rally from the city until the end of May – only weeks before this year’s rally, Nelson said.
However, in an attempt to assess the event’s economic value, Nelson said she plans to commission an economic impact study to encompass San Benito, Santa Clara, Monterey and Merced and possibly Santa Cruz counties. HIRC ended up in the red to the tune of about $25,000 last year, according to Nelson.
“We need to know, one way or the other, what is this thing doing? Is it justifying being here or not?” Nelson said. “The vendors don’t make enough money to justify it being here – it’s all the peripheral stuff. (The rally) impacts all of those counties. We need to see how much lodging goes up, gas stations, food, everything.”
Nelson said she hopes to have a study complete by August, so rally officials know where they stand financially before then end of September when the rally committee’s fiscal year ends.
Nelson didn’t know how much HIRC will have to spend to commission a study.
“In the big picture, I think it will save us money,” Nelson said. “If we can justify what this is bringing in revenue, we can go to the state and justify them helping us.”
HIRC solicited the help of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to pay for officers from the California Highway Patrol, State Parole and Department of Justice three months before the rally. However, Nelson said the state was unable to aid the committee this year because the city had already signed contracts with outside law enforcement agencies.
After the economic impact study is finished, she hopes to contact the state before the end of September and again ask for help in funding the law enforcement portion of the rally – which is the committee’s largest expense.
This year, about 150 police officers patrolled the event daily during peak hours, including about 60 CHP officers who were not present last year, according to Hollister Police Chief Jeff Miller.
Because of a heightened sense of concern this year due to rival outlaw motorcycle clubs the Hells Angels and the Mongols attending the event, the CHP deployed 60 additional officers to patrol the event arena free of charge, according to Miller.
Hollister City Manager Clint Quilter said he expects law enforcement’s bill to be about $300,000 – roughly the same as last year.
While Quilter didn’t have any idea when the different departments will issue bills for services, he said city personnel are making a focused effort to get the final bill calculated and given to HIRC much quicker than last year. Several of the outside law enforcement agencies took months to send bills to the city, which caused the city’s delay in getting HIRC the bills.
Quilter hadn’t been apprised of Nelson’s plan to commission an economic impact study, but was glad to hear the committee was planning ahead so city officials could finally have actual numbers to look at when weighing the pros and the cons of Hollister’s signature event.
