City takes a step back on festival permits

City officials have decided to seek further input before moving forward with a new festival permit ordinance. The matter had been discussed by the council on more than one occasion without much fanfare. When the matter came before the council for a first reading on June 26, there was some opposition.
Autumn Leaf Festival President Bill Forhan and Leavenworth Chamber Executive Director Nancy Smith felt the new ordinance was too onerous for festivals.
“They had some issues with compliance with some of the requests that might or might not be made,” said City Administrator Joel Walinski. “Council listened to that and decided to get some input from some of the festival organizers on what kind of modifications could be made. One or two council members said we need to go a lot slower, and other two that said, we’ve talked about this before, now we need something in place, based on what they heard from the residents.”
Currently, the city uses a special use permit for festivals and parades. It is basically used to rent a piece property from the city for private use. These permits are not based on festivals or parades, Walinski said.
“When I started doing some research on how other cities manage their festivals, and talked to our insurance people, they submitted some draft language for an ordinance and application program. They have a number of cities in the WCIA (Washington Cities Insurance Authority) that generally use this kind of festival approval process,” Walinski said.
Primarily, Walinski said what the city wants out of this is to have the events coordinator provide the city with information so the city can make a decision on if there is enough traffic control, public safety, trash control, people control, etc.  
“Are enough resources being put forth to that so everybody, sheriff, city staff, public works, are comfortable with the resources in place to make the event happen or assist the event in happening? Do we have the resources in place, if something should go amiss? Can public safety respond? That’s what the ordinance does and what the applications does,” he said.
Walinski said he understands the city is going from not really having a permit process to having a permit application that actually has something in place that is a tool to can help both event organizers and the city and public safety to make sure they are comfortable with the event. The issue is how fast these changes should take place, Walinski said, and what steps should be taken.
One of the issues expressed was that if the organizers did not have a proper safety and traffic control plan, the city would have the authority to cancel the event. Walinski said this would be on the event organizer to put something in place.
“The other issue I heard was the indemnification on insurance. Mr. Forhan brought up, if something happens in the city during an event, is Autumn Leaf responsible for that, even though it might not be related to Autumn Leaf,” Walinski said. “The other piece is, the general language..there is a want to have the rules in black and white, but on other hand, they want some leeway in there so they can transition. I’m not certain how we would accomplish that.”
Since the matter was just a first reading, the council was not going to take any action. The first reading gives the council a chance to hear from the public. If there are small issues, the council could wordsmith on their own, he said.
“In this case, there are some hurdles or discussions that need to occur and couldn’t be wordsmithed at the meeting,” Walinski said. “Our plan now is to meet with the festival organizers and hear their concerns. Maybe we can wordsmith the ordinance a little and bring it back to council for another review.”
Smith said there is some language in the new ordinance that was not clear.
“We’re hoping to get some clarity and feedback. We are asking the festival heads to come in and talk to some of the concerns and definitions and get some clarity,” Smith said. “There were several things, but we haven’t gotten to chat to get to some clarity. The piece behind it of what were not certain. What is the goal here? We just have a lot of questions.”
Whether festivals should be better regulated, Smith cannot say.
“We have to sit down and chat. That’s what we’re looking for. Bringing in the folks that actually run the festivals. What works? What doesn’t work? What is too much? What is too little? Certainly festivals have an impact on the economics in town and an impact on the residents,” Smith said. “We’ve always thought we worked conscientiously and balanced. If we need to straighten that up, sure. If there needs to be a more formal process, that’s fine. We just need to be sure the elements in it.
“Festivals are put on by a bunch of volunteers, so it can’t be too much, but it does have to be responsible, so it can’t be too little also.”
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