City Manager Suja Lowenthal will enter into negotiations with the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce and Visitors’ Bureau over Fiesta Hermosa as the body’s one-year contract to run the semiannual event draws to a close.
The City Council unanimously voted to allow Lowenthal to begin negotiations with the Chamber at its Tuesday night meeting. The contract to operate the two Fiestas, which provide most of the Chamber’s annual operating budget, expires at the end of December. Lowenthal is expected to return to the council within a month with proposed terms or an update on the status of the negotiations.
Tuesday night’s decision followed a report from a council subcommittee established in summer of 2017 to find ways to improve the Fiesta, and some of their recommendations were incorporated in this year’s Memorial Day and Labor Day events. But the vote to enter into negotiations came amid logistical questions about the running of the event, as well as more general concern about the continuing merit of the Fiesta’s large footprint.
The biggest logistical challenge to emerge came from the need to ferry Fiesta attendees to and from off-site parking lots. Residents living along 27th Street, who have recently raised complaints with the council about the wisdom and legality of routing heavy-duty trucks there, have also complained about the danger associated with running large school buses down the narrow street. The buses, which carry 64 passengers, run approximately every 10 minutes on Fiesta weekends.
According to acting Police Chief Milton McKinnon, running the buses down Pier Avenue, as has been done, is dangerous, because it requires the oversize vehicles to execute a three-point turn near an entrance to the Fiesta. But several residents and council members said that running the buses down 27th Street presented unacceptable safety risks. Another alternative, down Herondo Avenue, presents risks of its own, said Nico De Anda-Scaia, assistant to the city manager.
Councilmember Justin Massey suggested that the impact on residents could be moderated by using smaller buses running on alternative fuels. But De Anda-Scaia and McKinnon said that would require both a new provision in the contract, as well as more frequent bus trips. The impasse caused some residents and councilmembers to suggest that the logistical issues were part of deeper problems about the size of the event itself.
“What’s the ideal? How many people do we want coming to our town on those weekends? They have to get here somehow and they can’t all drive,” said Councilmember Mary Campbell.
No Chamber representative attended Tuesday’s meeting. But in the past, it has touted the large Fiesta as a boon to the city’s downtown businesses, a conclusion echoed by most restaurants and some, though not all, retailers. And the Chamber has warned that bigger changes could threaten its ability to advocate for businesses.
In the years following the 2008 financial crisis, when budget shortfalls threatened civic events like the holiday tree lighting and New Year’s Eve celebration, the Chamber agreed to put on those events in return for being able to host the two Fiestas. But following the conclusion of the Memorial Day Fiesta in 2017, which some residents complained was marred by excess commercialism, the council agreed to look at potential changes.
The Chamber has proved willing to make tweaks to the Fiesta, some of which cut into the event’s profitability. For example, at the Labor Day Fiesta last month, the Chamber reduced the number of booths on the east side of Hermosa Avenue, in order to open up sight lines for brick-and-mortar retailers there. They made up some of the difference by expanding further east on Pier Avenue, but Chamber CEO Maureen Hunt said that the added booths there did not fully compensate for the lost revenue.
Broader changes, like limiting the Fiesta to one weekend per year or moving one of the Fiestas off of a three-day weekend, did come up in negotiations, but were dismissed as financially infeasible for the Chamber, said Mayor pro tem Stacey Armato, who along with Mayor Jeff Duclos was part of the Fiesta subcommittee.
Bottom-line concerns have been on the Chamber’s mind before the subcommittee began its work. In a May 2017 presentation to the council, former Chamber CEO Kimberlee MacMullan said that rising costs for putting on the Fiesta and events like the tree lighting were pushing the body into the red. The city subsequently agreed to take on some of these costs, including purchasing a new Christmas tree to be installed at the foot of the pier, but Hunt said earlier this year that escalating costs remain a concern.
Campbell said that this may indicate that, as part of its Fiesta negotiations, the city may want to take on some of the events that it has previously delegated to the chamber.
“If that status quo is driving a status quo in the Fiesta when people want changes, I don’t think we’re going to get very far,” Campbell said.
