The Safety And Licensing Committee met 05/24/2023. The item that took up most of the meeting was the appeal of a special event application denial. William, the organizer, wanted to hold a music festival named Smoshfest at Jones Park June 15-18. When he applied for a special event license, city staff denied him, citing a number of unresolved issues involving the organizer’s business and necessary action steps including:
- Having a delinquent LLC
- Not being able to validate the legitimacy of the non-profit organization holding the event
- Not providing city staff with necessary information such as what sort of parking restrictions are necessary and what the performer line-up and expected attended numbers are
- Failing to provide information to staff on the location of vendors, portable toilets, stages, electricity/generator requirements, rental of garbage dumpsters
- Failing to provide a certificate of insurance
- Failing to pay the park reservation fees
- Failing to seek approval to hold a private ticketed event in a park
- Failing to get a temporary alcohol license for the event
- Failing to get a license for pyrotechnics
William did appear at the meeting and plead his case. The committee ended up voting 4-0 to deny the appeal due to the number of issues that still needed to be resolved and the fact that the roughly three weeks from the meeting until the intended start of the festival did not provide adequate time for those issues to be resolved and for various items related to the festival to go through the city committee process.
I’ve prepared a complete transcript of the discussion for download.
Alderperson Chris Croatt (District 14) who is the chair of the Safety and Licensing Committee was not in attendance, so the meeting was chaired by the vice-chair, Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9). He started things off by asking “that committee and staff and the individual here to speak keep the comments germane to the denial and the numerous requirement missings here of the things that have not been met to make this event happen and not spend much time or move into discussions about the nature of the music festival or the individual here.”
William did, however, touch on some of the difficulties he had experienced in trying to organize the festival. “I started this project about four years ago, and I’ve been working at it continuously. I’ve had a lot of roadblocks due to some police enforcement issues where I was falsely arrested three times, which has blocked me from getting any financial help from any jobs. I’ve been blockaded from sponsors and donators because there was a mishap with my IRS EIN number, and I had to fix that with a classification that’s been set and takes about four to six weeks to reclassify. It wasn’t a sole proprietor. It’s really a 5013C. […] I’ve had a lot of roadblocks, but I’m still working at it like I wasn’t even arrested. And I’m working at it every day asking for help. I have a bunch of sponsors that are still waiting.”
He said that while there were no classes on how to organize a festival, he had experiencing volunteering at Lifest and EAA for the last 15 years. “I’ve done pretty much every job at life fest. And I’ve I’m a good friend with Bob Lenz and his group. You know, I’ve done everything from trash pickup, to security, to ticket sales, to help setting up, setting down. My roommate goes to festivals all around the world. I have a bunch of—I don’t have a committee, but I have a bunch of people who work in special events all around the world who have come to help with this nonprofit event. I don’t have all the keys to the puzzle. But, you know, I’m willing to learn, and that’s what I’m really here. This is experimental. And I’m really trying to help the community grow, and I feel like Appleton can grow even stronger.”
The committee did review the outstanding requirements necessary for the festival to be able to take place.
A PYROTECHNICS LICENSE – William had purchased what seemed to have been a burning permit, but he did not have a signed pyro permit. In order to get that he needed to provide a certificate of insurance to the city along with a documentation of the fuel type used in the fire performance, the methodology for extinguishing unattended fires, a diagram to scale of the outdoor area including guest setbacks, the names of all performers (all of whom needed to be over 18), and a list of the people who would be performing fire watch duties.
William said that he could get that all done by Thursday or Friday of that week. (The committee meeting was on Wednesday.)
POLICE DEPARTMENT NEEDS – In order to assess the police department staffing needs for this event, they needed to have performer lineups as well as expected attendance numbers for each performance and also estimated alcohol sales.
Police Chief Polly Olson noted that the three weeks until the proposed start of the event, was not enough time to ensure there was proper staffing for the event and the rest of the city. It usually took at least 30 days because she needed to post for potential overtime that might be required to ensure proper staffing as well as make adjustments to schedules.
In addition to those basic safety considerations, she also told the committee that the non-profit organization associated with the festival could not be verify and the LLC putting on the event showed a delinquent LLC status.
William said that he was planning on having no alcohol at the event both as a way to be supportive of people with addictions and also “I can’t even get a Class B license right now. So might as well just be a sober event the whole weekend.”
He said he had switched out the EIN classification for the non-profit and he was also working with an insurance agency on the event.
THE PARK FEE – He needed to reserve the park in order for the event to take place but that cost around $4,000 which he was unable to get due to a lack of sponsors. “I wasn’t able to get $4,000 for all the licensing from the Appleton Parks because I thought I would have had all the sponsors who were promising me money to help with the event and my nonprofit being screwed up with the classification, it kind of backfired.”
William had been able to pay $607 for a special event application fee. This non-refundable fee was based on the number of days out the event was as well as its size. The payment of the fee was necessary for city staff to be able review the application. Although City Clerk Kami Lynch was not in attendance at the meeting, she had mentioned ahead of time to the representative of the Clerk’s Office who was in attendance that the city did not have many special event denials because staff was so good at working with applicants on resolving issues. William had been working on putting on this event for a couple of years and city staff had been working with him during that time. The city departments had been very good about reaching out to him about these issues, but they had not been resolved up to this point.
The committee went on to vote 4-0 to deny the appeal of the event application denial. I would say they were sympathetic and tried to be as gentle as possible as they explained why they were unwilling to vote to overturn the denial.
Alderperson Schultz told him, “If we were three months out, I’d say you have some time to work through some of this stuff, but we’re really crunched here, particularly with the way things work with the city to work through. If we were working on one item, I think we could help you get there. But we still have a number of things, particularly the reservation of the park and the liability insurance and concerns from the police department. There’s just a lot hanging out there that I don’t feel we’re going to be capable of resolving for your event.”
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland said, “I’ll just say, I appreciate what you’re trying to do. And I feel very badly for you that we weren’t able to get these things lined up in time. But the fact of the matter is that the city needs to provide things for this event, and they’re unable to do that at this time. They don’t have the time to find staffing or to make sure they have the materials available. So, I—unfortunately, I would vote for the denial.”
William asked if he could be refunded the $600 special event application fee, but, unfortunately, it was written into city policy that that fee was non-refundable.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1099730&GUID=9DE7B0A5-2957-4101-B8B4-BC9F56EB184F
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