Hollister - A last-minute proposal from a Florida-based company to fund and organize the Hollister Independence Rally wasn't enough to save the annual biker event, which the City Council voted to cancel Monday.
After about an hour of discussion, the council voted 3-2 to adopt a resolution stating that a motorcycle rally will not take place on public property in 2006. Councilmen Robert Scattini and Brad Pike cast the dissenting votes.
"The big issue for me is ... the city is really strapped for money," Councilwoman Pauline Valdivia said shortly before the vote. "For this year I think it behooves us not to do this."
In November, the City Council voted 3-1 to terminate the Hollister Independence Rally Committee's contract with the city to organize the rally. The majority of council members cited financial reasons - the 2005 rally stuck the city with a $360,000 public safety bill to pay - when they voted to terminate HIRC's contract, after that group had organized the rally for nearly a decade.
Since that time, the council has been hoping that a group would come forward with enough money and experience to organize a 2006 event that won't be a financial strain on the city, which is struggling with an annual $3 million budget deficit.
Earlier in the evening, council members received a sketch of a rally proposal from Florida-based Biker Design, an apparel merchandiser. Despite Biker Design's offer to pay the city $300,000 to hold the rally, the majority on the council didn't see the proposal as the solution to the rally problem, which council members have been grappling with for about three months.
"There is no way I can support this," Councilman Doug Emerson said. "It's too skimpy and too late in the year to consider it."
Some of Emerson's colleagues on the council seemed to agree that it was just too late in the year to get a 2006 event organized.
"I'd like to see a lot more detail before I say, 'yeah we're going to put this on this year," Councilwoman Monica Johnson said.
A staunch rally supporter, Scattini suggested that the city give Biker Design a bit more time to submit a more thorough rally proposal. The majority of the council, however, seemed ready to push forward with making a decision.
"You got a guy sitting in front of us whose going to give us the money," Scattini said. "My take is I'd like to give this guy a chance."
Several rally supporters - including three members of the Mongols motorcycle club - were in attendance Monday cheering those who spoke up for the event they love. Hollister resident Christine Howe said that biker events, such as the rally, benefit charity and local charities would lose out if the rally were canceled.
"Shame on us for thumbing our noses at the thousands of bikers who come to town and spend their money," she said.
Local Mark Maxwell said that, regardless of their decision, council members could not stop a 2006 rally.
"This rally is not going to go away," he said. "They're still going to come."
Just weeks after the council terminated HIRC's contract in November, former HIRC members Dave Ventura, Helen Nelson and Bruce Beetz formed Ghostrider Promotions and submitted a plan to organize a rally for this summer. Ghostrider proposed moving the rally out of downtown, charging a $10 gate fee and making it an age restricted event, with air shows, motorcycle races and wet T-shirt contests.
Though it projected more than a half-million dollars in profits for Hollister if the event was a success, council members were not thrilled by the Ghostrider proposal, which still placed the burden of financing the rally on the city.
Council members never had to make a decision on the proposal, however. Earlier this month, Ghostrider announced that it would not seek a contract for a 2006 rally. Ventura said that the group would not have enough time to put the event together, but he said that Ghostrider is interested in organizing a 2007 rally.
In December, a second group called the Hollister Rally Commission declared its interest in taking over the event for 2006. Hollister resident Marlon Moss, the group's representative, presented the city with a HIRC-like proposal to keep the rally downtown. Quilter said the Hollister Rally Commission proposal was not taken too seriously because it was so similar to the HIRC model that the council had voted to terminate.
Hollister Police Chief Jeff Miller has said that his department has been concurrently planning on how it will deal with a rally, should one occur, and how to deal with people who show up if an event is not organized. Now that there will be no event in 2006, the Hollister Police Department will focus on preparing for the bikers who many say will come into the city in early July anyway.
With no rally, the city will still have to pay overtime for Hollister police officers who will be on duty over the Fourth of July holiday and possibly for room and board for officers from other jurisdictions if they are called in, Miller said. However, he added those costs would be far less than the $360,000 the city has to pay for public safety at the 2005 rally.
"There's no question ... they're going to come. It's going to be a fiasco here," Scattini said following the vote. "That's the nature of the beast. It's the birthplace of the American biker."
Some council members said they were interested in seeing what could be done to organize a 2007 rally. However, Biker Design President Tom Recel said that stopping the rally this year will have a negative affect on future rallies, should they occur.
"It will get worse for 2007," he warned.
Luke Roney covers local government and the environment for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or at lroney@freelancenews.com
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