HomeMy WebLinkAbout35. Pub CrawlCITY HALL
215 Church Avenue
P.O. Box 1130
Oshkosh, Wisconsin
54903 -1130 City Of Oshkosh
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TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the Council �; 11-% 7
FROM: Mark A Rohloff, City Manager
DATE: March 21, 2014
RE: Oshkosh Spring Pub Crawl
In 2010, the Common Council adopted a Special Events, Marches and Public Assemblies
Ordinance which allows the City to recover certain costs related to extraordinary services
provided to special events.
For the past several years, applications have been submitted for the spring and fall Oshkosh
Pub Crawls. The event is typically attended by several thousand individuals and includes
participation of most of the taverns along and near North Main Street in downtown Oshkosh. In
the past, the event has required various extraordinary public services including police services,
fire services, barricades, garbage and recycling services, and street clean up. Although the city
of Oshkosh does not endorse or condone this event in any way, we have recognized this event
so that general city taxpayers are not held financially responsible for the extraordinary city
services needed for this event.
For these previous events, costs for City services have been paid by the event organizer. In
2012, staff brought forward a resolution to establish a special charge for services to participating
properties when the event promoter failed to pay invoices for extraordinary costs related to the
event. That resolution was withdrawn when the costs were paid by the promoter.
Staff has once again made numerous attempts to contact the organizer of the Pub Crawl event
to determine his intentions for this spring. The organizer has not filed a special event
application, contacted city staff or responded to contacts from city staff. Although there has
been no application, staff is aware of advertising and other information indicating a planned
event for April 12, 2014.
The City's primary concerns are for public safety and the protection of persons and property and
for payment of the amount taxpayers expend for extraordinary services in support of this event
and these properties. If the costs related to this event are not paid by the event organizers or
the properties that received the extraordinary services, then they will be absorbed by the city
and its taxpayers generally.
If no application is filed and an event is held, the City has several options available to it. The
City could identify and cite individuals for failing to obtain a special event permit and /or bring suit
against those individuals for costs associated with the event. The City could also proceed as
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op done in 2012 to invoice and bring forward a resolution to establish a special charge against
participating properties. In the opinion of the City Attorney, the special charge approach appears
to be our most effective option, and I agree with this assessment.
Section 66.0627 of the Wisconsin Statutes allows the governing body to impose a special
charge against real property for current services rendered by allocating all or a part of the cost
of the service to the property served. A special charge that is not paid within the time
determined by the governing body is delinquent and becomes a lien upon the property.
Delinquent special charges are included in the current or next tax roll for collection and
settlement. Use of the special charge provisions allows the City to impose the charge and
collect the amount due with the next tax bill if the charge is not timely paid. Should the property
owner not pay the amounts due with the property tax, licenses related to the property, such as
liquor licenses, may be withheld until proper payment is received under the applicable
provisions of the municipal code. Imposition of a charge under this section of the statutes does
not foreclose the City from pursuing another method to seek reimbursement of the amounts due
should the City so choose. When services rendered can be linked to particular parcels, the
special charge mechanism is an efficient and cost effective method of allowing the City to
allocate the costs for providing services to the properties served.
Staff continues to try to contact the event organizer. The Police Department has also reached
out to property owners that have been associated with this event in the past. Because the
organizers have no formal address that can be identified as a benefitting property, we need to
identify a property that is the cause of the extraordinary services, and who may be assessed the
special charges. The benefitting properties are the taverns, and staff recommends assessing
special charges against the taverns in the event that the organizers /promoters do not take
responsibility for the event's charges. The organizers /promoters may be ticketed and /or fined for
failing to obtain a special event permit, but that recourse may not be sufficient to recover our
extraordinary resources.