DATE: April 11, 2023
SUBJECT:
Title
DISTRICT SPONSORSHIP PROGRAMS
A. RECEIVE UPDATES ON DISTRICT EVENT SPONSORSHIP PROGRAMS MANAGED BY PARKS & RECREATION AND PROVIDE DIRECTION TO STAFF REGARDING PROPOSED CHANGES TO SPECIAL EVENT SPONSORSHIP PROGRAMS AND BALANCED ACCESS TO PORT PARKS
B. ADOPT RESOLUTION AMENDING BPC POLICY NO. 771: TIDELANDS ACTIVATION PROGRAM, TO INCORPORATE POLICY UPDATES, RE-DEFINE SPECIAL EVENT SPONSORSHIP CATEGORIES, AND CLARIFY ADMINISTRATIVE PRACTICES
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The San Diego Unified Port District Act (1962 Port Act) identifies the promotion of recreation as one of the primary reasons the Port of San Diego was established, in addition to commerce, environmental stewardship, and navigation. One of the ways the District seeks to effectuate this goal is by sponsoring special events on District tidelands. The District’s long history of sponsoring special events dates to the late 1990s. In 2014, the District formalized its sponsorship of special events in BPC Policy No. 771, Tidelands Activation Program (or TAP), and since then, TAP has supported a broad range of special events, all of which have helped promote the mission of the District and activate the tidelands.
While TAP has helped promote the District’s mission and brought more people to the tidelands, it has also presented certain challenges. As the program grew and matured over the years, competition for the District’s sponsorship funding grew and it became difficult to control the program’s budgetary expenditures. Additionally, a review of several years of program data revealed that activation events were concentrated in very few District parks and brought to light the geographic limitations and infrastructure-related barriers impeding certain parks from hosting special events of size. District staff began work to address these challenges in 2019 by introducing some new, targeted sponsorship programs to address some of the imbalances associated with TAP. These sponsorship program modifications were iterative and were established as part of the District’s annual budgetary cycle.
This report discusses the targeted pilot programs that have been introduced over the last three years, how they address challenges with the singular Tidelands Activation Program, and seeks to redefine and formalize the types of sponsorship outlined in BPC Policy No. 771.
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Receive a presentation on District special event sponsorship programs managed by Parks & Recreation Department and adopt a Resolution amending BPC Policy No. 771: Tidelands Activation Program, to incorporate policy updates, redefine special event sponsorship categories, and clarify administrative practices.
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FISCAL IMPACT:
This item has no fiscal impact.
Compass Strategic Goals:
Special event sponsorships bring communities closer together, create memorable moments, and foster lasting social ties and engagement. Special event programming supports recreation and helps bring more visitors and residents to San Diego Bay to enjoy a thriving waterfront with diverse activities and events.
This agenda item supports the following Strategic Goal(s).
• A Port that is a safe place to visit, work and play.
• A Port that the public understands and trusts.
• A vibrant waterfront destination where residents and visitors converge.
• A Port that is a safe place to visit, work and play.
• A financially sustainable Port that drives job creation and regional economic vitality.
DISCUSSION:
The San Diego Unified Port District Act (1962 Port Act) identifies the promotion of recreation as one of the primary reasons the Port of San Diego was established. No use is favored over another use and recreation is on equal footing with other purposes identified in the 1962 Port Act, including the promotion of commerce, environmental stewardship, and navigation. The District’s Parks & Recreation department is tasked with creating a vibrant, world-class destination that supports thriving businesses and offers unique recreational opportunities in an extraordinary setting. One of the ways the District seeks to accomplish this is by sponsoring special events on District tidelands.
Background
The District has a long history of sponsoring special events, dating back to the late 1990s11. In 2014, the District formalized its sponsorship program in BPC Policy No. 771, Tidelands Activation Program (or TAP). The policy established consistent and transparent criteria for evaluating and sponsoring events and activities. It also established the 15-member Board committee referred to as the Tidelands Activation Program Advisory Committee (TAPAC)22 to review sponsorship applications and recommend funding to the Board. BPC Policy No. 771 identified funding and/or services for the two different types of sponsorship events listed below:
Community Event Sponsorships: Events that promote one or more of the District’s mission areas, with an emphasis on attracting the public to District tidelands to recreate; and on educating the public regarding the District and its mission.
Signature Event Sponsorships: Major public events that give title sponsorship, attract large numbers of people to the tidelands, and generate significant, documented levels of financial impact, awareness, and/or promotional return to the District.
Although the policy differentiated between these two event types, all applicants ultimately competed for the same budget dollars. Applications were evaluated based on multiple criteria, including but not limited to organization type, event type, anticipated number of attendees, location, season, years of prior funding, budget size, ticket cost, and any prior stormwater violations. Based on these criteria, District staff would evaluate TAP applications between January and April and would recommend sponsorship amounts (in the form of fee waivers/ services and direct funding) to the TAPAC. In Spring, TAPAC would hold a public meeting, receive staff’s recommendations, and provide applicants an opportunity to speak. The TAPAC would ultimately make its own sponsorship recommendations, which would be delivered to the Board by staff for final approval and funded as part of the District’s annual budget.
Since 2014, TAP has sponsored a broad range of special events, which have helped promote the mission of the District and activate the tidelands. Over the years, TAP has helped support both free and paid Community Events. TAP has also supported several, larger-scale Signature Events that have attracted many thousands of people to the tidelands. Table 1 provides some examples of TAP events that were sponsored in FY19.
Programmatic Analysis
Although TAP has helped promote the District’s mission and brought more people to the tidelands, it has presented some challenges as the program grew and matured over the years. District staff started to address these challenges in 2019. However, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, TAP was suspended as the mandatory stay-at-home orders went into effect. Since then, TAP has only been used to grant fee waivers for qualifying non-profits that were producing free events that are open to everyone. As the District began to slowly recover from the pandemic, Parks & Recreation staff introduced some new, experimental sponsorship programs to address some of the deficiencies associated with TAP. These sponsorship programs were iterative and were established as part of the District’s annual budgetary cycle. See Attachment A - Direct Sponsorship Funding by Program Type (2014 - 2023) for more information.
The following section identifies some of the challenges associated with TAP, as well as new programs introduced in the past three years in an effort to produce a more comprehensive, holistic, and balanced group of sponsorship programs. Some of the key programmatic challenges with TAP, as well as staff’s recommendation to address them, are summarized below:
(1) Competition for Direct Sponsorship Funding
Under the existing TAP, smaller community events competed against much larger events for limited funding. In FY19, two large signature events (Big Bay Boom and the Port of San Diego Holiday Bowl Parade and 5K Run/Walk) were awarded a total of $335,000 which accounted for 43% of the $776,000 TAP budget.
In FY20, the District initiated Business Negotiated Events (or BNE), to help manage sponsorship funds and this eased the competition between very large regional events and mid to small-sized community events. BNEs are classified as prominent events with national recognition and/or those that yield a positive direct and/or indirect economic benefit to the District, its tenant businesses, and/or the San Diego region. In BPC Policy No. 771, staff recommends replacing the Signature Events with the BNE program.
(2) For-Profit Events and Budgetary Controls
Prior to COVID-19, “for-profit” professional event producers would apply to TAP and be eligible for park fee waiver consideration and/or funding to underwrite event production costs. These events were primarily festivals or moving events with attendee ticket or registration fee requirements. As noted above, while the District slowly recovered from the pandemic, it started to grant fee waivers, but only to free events that were produced by an eligible non-profit TAP applicant. Direct sponsorship funding has not been budgeted for TAP since FY20 and as a result, the TAPAC has not been appointed. Suspending direct sponsorship funding helped the District better control budgetary expenditures as it worked to recover financially from the pandemic. Further, limiting sponsorship to non-profits that produce “free” events served to better align with the District’s goal to increase public access to its parks.
Special event requests have returned post-COVID-19 despite the TAP eligibility criteria changing to free events produced by non-profit applicants. Staff is finding that professional “for profit” event producers are returning to the District’s parks and venues in San Diego to produce ticketed events while paying the commensurate permit and parking fees. In BPC Policy No. 771, Community Event Sponsorships are intended to promote one or more of the District’s mission areas, with an emphasis on attracting the public to District tidelands to recreate and/or educate the public on the District and its mission. Staff recommends revising Community Event Sponsorships in BPC Policy No. 771 by limiting sponsorship support to fee waivers for eligible non-profits that produce free events only.
(3) Special Events Concentrated in the City of San Diego
Under the existing TAP, most TAP events were held in the City of San Diego. In FY20, for example, 60% of TAP applicants submitted their request for parks in the City of San Diego and most of these events were concentrated in three or four parks. Previous years yielded similar results.
In FY22, the District introduced the Civic Event Program that allocated equal amounts of direct funding and event-related fee waivers to each member city to support special events of their choosing, provided the event was free and open to everyone. Civic events are intended to serve many community members - often more than 1,000 people - and may occur in conjunction with major holidays (Independence Day, Christmas, etc.) or to celebrate the city’s cultural identity. Last year, the Board allocated $225,000 (or $45,000 per member city) to the Civic Program. Staff recommends incorporating the Civic Event Program into BPC Policy No. 771.
(4) Geographical Limitations and Barriers to Activation
As part of a comprehensive evaluation of the District’s sponsorship programs last fall, staff determined that there were additional limitations at certain parks that make it challenging to host large special events. The parks’ geographical location, as well as its proximity to hotels, visitor-serving amenities, and other supporting infrastructure (such as proximity to transit), has limited opportunities to activate the area.
For FY24, staff recommends initiating a new sponsorship category to be incorporated into BPC Policy No. 771 called Expanded Access Events. This event category would provide direct funding and fee waivers to reconnect people with some of the Port’s under-activated parks, enhances recreation, and leads to increased public access. In contrast to the other three sponsorship categories, Expanded Access Events would involve District staff proactively reaching out to community stakeholders to identify the type of event they would like to have produced in their community. Event types may include festivals, moving events like a family fun run, car shows, and others. Based on the type of event, District staff would collaborate directly with community stakeholders to develop the criteria for evaluating and ranking event proposals. The Board would approve the amount of direct funding for the Expanded Access Program as part of the District’s annual budget and District staff would issue a call for proposals to solicit proposals from industry experts.
Staff recommends updating BPC Policy No. 771 - Tidelands Activation Program to incorporate Community Events, Business Negotiated Events (BNE), Civic Events, and Expanded Access Events and sunset the advisory committee (or TAPAC). (See Attachment B - Revised BPC Policy No. 771 Strikeout Underline Version). Collectively, these four programs involve close collaboration with event producers and organizers, member cities, and community stakeholders which will help ensure direct funding for sponsorship events are appropriate for District sponsorship and that each program’s budget is established in conjunction with the Board’s annual budgetary process. Furthermore, these four programs provide a more comprehensive and holistic sponsorship strategy to activate the District’s tidelands by further focusing District resources to sponsor events in a manner that more closely aligns with the District’s mission, vision, and values.
Next Steps
If the Board supports staff’s recommendation to update BPC Policy No. 771 as noted above, staff would develop Administrative Procedures to further refine sponsorship program criteria for each of the four sponsorship programs and to develop processes that would help guide program implementation. Concurrently, staff would recommend direct funding amounts for each of the four programs that the Board would consider as part of the District’s annual budget process for FY24. Assuming direct funding is allocated to BNE’s, Civic, and Expanded Access programs next fiscal year, District staff would begin working with stakeholders and event organizers to schedule and produce events in accordance with the updated policy.
General Counsel’s Comments:
The Office of the General Counsel has reviewed this agenda as presented to it and approves the same as to form and legality.
Environmental Review:
The proposed Board actions, including without limitation, To receive updates on District event sponsorship programs managed by Parks & Recreation and provide direction to staff, and to adopt a resolution amending BPC Policy No. 771: Tidelands Activation Program, do not constitute a project under the definition set forth in California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15378 because there is not a potential to result in a direct or indirect physical change in the environment. Therefore, the proposed Board actions are not subject to CEQA and no further action under CEQA is required.
The proposed Board actions comply with Sections 21 and 35 of the Port Act, which allow the Board to pass resolutions; and to do all acts necessary and convenient for the exercise of its powers. The Port Act was enacted by the California Legislature and is consistent with the Public Trust Doctrine. Consequently, the proposed Board actions are consistent with the Public Trust Doctrine.
The proposed Board actions do not allow for development, as defined in Section 30106 of the California Coastal Act, or new development, pursuant to Section 1.a. of the District’s Coastal Development Permit Regulations. Therefore, issuance of a Coastal Development Permit or an exclusion finding is not required.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Program:
This agenda sheet has no direct DEI impact on District workforce or contract reporting at this time.
PREPARED BY:
Terrie Eichholz
Senior Project Manager, Parks & Recreation
Erica Nogueira
Program Manager, Parks & Recreation
Larry Hofreiter
Director, Parks & Recreation
Attachment(s):
Attachment A: Direct Sponsorship Funding by Program Type (2014 - 2023)
Attachment B: Revised BPC Policy No. 771 Strikeout Underline Version
Endnotes
1 In 1998, the District established a Marketing and Fee for Service Program and Financial Assistance Program. The Marketing and Fee for Service Program supported certain activities that provided a direct economic benefit to the District, its tenants, and the region. Examples of events include the Big Bay Boom, the Red Bull Air Races, and the San Diego Sea and Air Parade. The Financial Assistance Program for community events included the San Diego Bay Parade of Lights.
2 The 15-member Tidelands Activation Program Advisory Committee (or TAPAC) was appointed annually by the BPC Chair, and consisted of a non-voting Chair, a non-voting Alternate Chair, seven at-large voting members, and six non-voting advisory members representing each of the five District member cities and a representative from the San Diego Port Tenant’s Association. The TAPAC has not been seated since FY20 when all direct sponsorship funding for TAP was suspended and the mandatory stay-at-home orders went into effect due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.