Staff Report.Special Events Discussion (2)
PREPARED BY: Monica Renn
Economic Vitality Manager
Reviewed by: Town Manager, Assistant Town Manager, Town Attorney, and Finance Director
110 E. Main Street Los Gatos, CA 95030 ● (408) 354-6832
www.losgatosca.gov
TOWN OF LOS GATOS
COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
MEETING DATE: 02/07/2023 ITEM NO: 18
DATE: January 30, 2023
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: Laurel Prevetti, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Receive a Report on the Town Resources Utilized to Support 2022 Special
Events, Provide Direction for the Allocation of Resources to Support
Anticipated 2023 Special Events, and Approve the Attached Modifications to
the Town’s Facilities Use Policy
RECOMMENDATION:
Receive a report on the Town resources utilized to support 2022 special events, provide
direction for the allocation of resources to support anticipated 2023 special events, and
approve the attached modifications to the Town’s Facilities Use Policy.
BACKGROUND:
The Town of Los Gatos embraces special events as opportunities to gather, celebrate,
memorialize, support, vitalize, and honor various facets of the community. Los Gatos special
events garner strong community interest from both organizers and attendees. Many of the
current annually recurring events have been taking place in Town for decades; and, with a
renewed interest of community vitality and connection following the COVID-19 Pandemic, the
Town has seen a significant increase in the proposals for new annually reoccurring events, and
additional interest in one-time events and celebrations.
The majority of special events tend to be centrally located in downtown, most often occurring
in Town Plaza Park, including the adjacent streets of Montebello Way and Broadway Avenue,
the Civic Center, and N. Santa Cruz Avenue, both within the confines of the stores and
sidewalks, as well as through a road closure.
PAGE 2 OF 11 SUBJECT: Special Events Discussion DATE: January 31, 2023
BACKGROUND (continued):
Along with the higher volume, there has also been an increase in the resources needed to
evaluate the logistics and layout of each special event, as concerns have risen surrounding the
safety and security of special events. Town staff recognizes that the environment in which
events are being implemented has changed significantly in recent times due to the unfortunate
rise of threats and attacks on community events nationwide, and this must be carefully
considered by the event organizers and Town staff throughout each step of the event planning
and implementation process.
With this report, staff intends to share the trends of special events in Los Gatos, Town
resources required to support the most recent events of 2022, and gain guidance from the
Town Council on resource allocation to support future events.
In 2017, staff worked to rebuild the special event permit program to provide a more
streamlined process that invited stakeholder groups to create community vitality through
special events and become more responsible for the resources required to support the event.
The notion of the special event process moving in the direction of being full-cost recovery was
not supported by many community stakeholders at the time, as they had come to rely on the
Town to provide certain services and resources at no cost, thus their established budgets
factored this in. The Town Council agreed that events provided a community benefit and
adopted the fee schedule in fall of 2018 in which some of the fees for non-profit organizations
coordinating events were reduced to continue to support the non-profit events and
fundraisers, while setting expectations up front for the organizer’s that there are costs related
to events that the organizers are responsible for covering.
Over the last five years, staff has partnered with community event organizers to move in the
direction of events becoming more self-sustaining and limiting the need for staff resources
outside of those required by the permit. The community stakeholders have generally been on
board with this transition and new events are met with the expectations from the start.
Also, as a part of the work in 2017, the Town Council adopted modifications to the Town Code
Chapter 14, Article X, “Special Events” that provided greater clarity on the event provisions and
shortened the minimum timeframe necessary to apply for events. Then, in early 2018 (January
16, 2018, and continued to February 20, 2018), staff brought forward a list of specific items
related to events for the Town Council to consider. From these discussions and the direction
provided by the Council, the staff has been working with the community stakeholders to
support the special events program.
One of the issues discussed in 2018, that remains a topic of conversation today is the amount of
required staff resources and the community impact caused by road closures on N. Santa Cruz
Avenue. Road closures in general take a large amount of staff resources and is amplified when
PAGE 3 OF 11 SUBJECT: Special Events Discussion DATE: January 31, 2023
BACKGROUND (continued):
located on the main throughfare in downtown. To properly support a closure of N. Santa Cruz
Avenue, the Police Department (PD) will generally need to deploy one patrol team to assist
during the closure and remain in the vicinity through the duration of the event due to the
elevated concerns of creating a secure environment around the event closure. With this in
place, the patrol team is less available as a resource in other parts of Town during this time.
Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and the health and safety shutdowns and mandates that
occurred, the ability for special events to take place in public became very limited in 2020 and
2021. Recognizing this, and the community’s desire to reconnect in the summer of 2021, the
Town Council provided American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) funding to the Chamber of
Commerce and approval for N. Santa Cruz Avenue to be closed several times throughout the
summer to support a pilot special event series that allowed for an outdoor gathering with space
to socially distance for those that preferred it. The 2021 Promenade series successfully
reengaged the community and created one of the first Bay Area event series after the original
COVID shutdown in 2020. The Chamber of Commerce, and many members of the business
community and community at large specifically requested that this event return in 2022, and
thus the Town Council provided additional ARPA funding to support a second Promenade event
series in the summer of 2022.
Building off of the momentum of the Promenades, the Town began to see the interest and
volume of special event permit application rise, with 2022 becoming the busiest special event
year within recent times, in terms of number and scope of events.
For the purposes of this report, the difference between Town events and special events are as
follows:
• Town Events are those coordinated and implemented by Town staff, using resources
allocated by the Council through the annual Town Budget process. These events
currently include:
o Spring Into Green, typically celebrated the Sunday after Earth Day, in conjunction
with Farmer’s Market at Plaza Park and on adjoining streets
o 4th of July, celebrated on the 4th of July in Oak Meadow Park
o Screen on the Green, typically the 3rd or 4th Friday in September in Oak Meadow
Park
o Holiday Tree Lighting, the first Friday in December at Plaza Park
• Special Events in general are those organized by community stakeholders, both non-
profit and for-profit, that complete the special event permit process to achieve approval
for the event. These include events such as:
o Races, runs, etc. (Girls on the Run)
o Concert series events (Jazz on the Plazz and Music in the Park)
PAGE 4 OF 11 SUBJECT: Special Events Discussion DATE: January 31, 2023
BACKGROUND (continued):
o Festivals (Fiesta de Artes and Oktoberfest)
o Shopping and Downtown Vitality (Wine Walk, Girls Night Out, Running of the
Roses)
o Community Events and Cultural Celebrations (9/11 Veteran’s Memorial, Drum in
the Park, Hanukkah on the Town)
o Large Road Closure events (Promenades, Children’s Holiday Parade)
• “Organic” events are those that do not obtain or require an event permit yet must be
managed with Town resources. Currently, this would include the evening of Halloween
in two specific Los Gatos neighborhoods.
The table below provides an overview of the number of approved special event permits issued
since 2017:
Year Special Event Permits
2022 25
2021 10
2020 2
2019 19
2018 20
2017 15
Some of these special events require a tremendous amount of support from Town resources,
while others are mostly self-sufficient after the issuance of the special event permit. The
special event management needs have significantly increased in recent years related to
oversight from Town staff to assure a safe and successful event. The Town resources required
to support events are not always fully captured or recovered through fees; and, even when
they are, the wear and tear on the Town staff teams can become overwhelming.
In terms of staff resources to support special events, the core services of the special event
permit process include a multi-Departmental team that meets to coordinate logistics, identify
event resource needs, and draft conditional letter of approval.
The following list provides a high-level snapshot of additional tasks that may be required of
Town resources to support special events:
• Police Officers to patrol the event specifically, outside of the normal patrol teams, often
requiring overtime.
• Parking and Community Service Officers to assist with road closures and ensuring
compliance of cars left parked in the closure areas.
PAGE 5 OF 11 SUBJECT: Special Events Discussion DATE: January 31, 2023
BACKGROUND (continued):
• PD and Parks and Public Works (PPW) staff to assist with road closures either due to the
absence of a traffic vendor, or traffic vendors who are unfamiliar with the Town and
require assistance.
• PPW staff to deploy anti-vehicle barriers. These must also be staffed for the full
duration of the event.
• PD to clear the crowds and roadways to allow for a safe re-opening of the streets.
• PD and PPW staff and volunteers to assist with the reroute of traffic.
• PPW staff to manage changes in irrigation and fountain operation times to
accommodate event.
DISCUSSION:
2022 Special Events
As community special events had a strong presence in Los Gatos in 2022, staff was faced with
the realization of its capacity to support the events with onsite, while balancing core services.
As noted in the table above, 25 special event permits were issued in 2022; however, the total
number of days in which a special event took place in Los Gatos is much higher. Multi-day or
series events put on by the same organizer in a consecutive daily or weekly pattern are only
required to obtain one special event permit and such are counted as one event on the chart in
the Background section of this report.
In 2022, of the 25 approved special event permits, six were for multi-day events including the
Promenades, Music in the Park, Jazz on the Plazz, Fiesta de Artes, St. Mary’s Country Fair, and
the Holiday Carriage Rides. Considering the number of days within each multi-day event, plus
the single day events, the total number of days in 2022 in which there was an approved special
event was 58. This total increases to 62 days with the inclusion of the annual Town events.
Additionally, the Town has a contract with the Farmer’s Market to operate a weekly street
closure and Farmer’s Market event on Sundays, around Town Plaza Park, closing on Montebello
Way and Broadway Avenue between E. Main Street and S. Santa Cruz Avenue. For this street
closure, an approved traffic plan has been prepared, and the Farmer’s Market implements their
own road closure and road reopening weekly.
Town Resources for Special Events
The majority of special events require little staff support outside of what is standard practice to
process and approve the special event permit. The addition of two event elements, alcohol and
road closures, are often what tip the scale to requiring a significantly greater resource
commitment from Town staff. Even when events are being implemented with an approved
special event permit and by a community stakeholder group, once alcohol or street closures are
PAGE 6 OF 11 SUBJECT: Special Events Discussion DATE: January 31, 2023
DISCUSSION (continued):
added, Town staff are needed to ensure that the event is set up for success. The location and
scope of the event also play a role in the resources required.
When events involve the sales and service of alcohol, the applicant must gain approval from the
State Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) and the Chief of Police for the sale and service, as well as
act as the responsible party throughout the event. The Town typically requires Police Officers
to be onsite for events with the sales and service of alcohol, primarily towards the latter half, to
monitor and mitigate life safety issues and encourage responsible behavior. This requirement
includes two Officers with the cost being incurred by the event organizers at the fee listed in
the Town adopted fee schedule. At times it can be difficult to secure Officers to work at events
due to staffing constraints. The shifts at events are in addition to regular staff shifts, often
requiring the Officers to work overtime and the hours to be absorbed by the Department’s
budget.
To date, staff has been hesitant to rely on the event organizers to hire security guards in lieu of
the Officers as there are several unknowns with unvetted security firms, and there have been
some unsafe situations in the past when security was hired in lieu of Officers at past events in
Los Gatos.
During 2022, Town staff connected with the ABC to gain clarity on the current regulations and
expectations associated with a temporary alcohol license granted for special events and has
incorporated these specifics into the conditional letter of approval for events. Staff makes it a
priority to talk through the specifics with the event organizers prior to the event to ensure that
correct parameters are in place for responsible sales and service of alcohol. Event organizers
have been receptive to this guidance and for the most part have risen to the occasion of
implementing the necessary components to align with the ABC and Town provisions. In
addition, beginning July 1, 2022, special events with an ABC license must have always at least
one person onsite that holds a certification with the ABC for the Responsible Beverage Service
(RBS) training.
Road closures, especially those on N. Santa Cruz Avenue, require a large resource investment
from the Police and Parks and Public Works Departments, much of which takes place
immediately before, during, and after the events. Again, this entails requiring staff to work
outside of normal staff hours. Some of these hours are captured and the financial cost is
shared with event organizers. It has been the experience of staff that even when a third-party
traffic vendor is hired, there is lack of communication between the permitee and the vendor,
ultimately falling back on Town staff to work with the traffic vendor to secure a proper closure.
To mitigate this, staff must spend the resources to work directly with the traffic vendor before
the event and/or onsite, day of the event.
PAGE 7 OF 11 SUBJECT: Special Events Discussion DATE: January 31, 2023
DISCUSSION (continued):
The table below provides an overview of the number of staff hours that were provided to
support the 2022 Town events, and those 2022 special events that required significant staff
resources.
2022 Event Event Type
PD
Officer
Hours
PD Non-
Officer
Hours
PPW
Hours
Total
staff
hours
Spring into Green Town Event 0 64 20 84
Music in the Park (MIP) Special Event 80 0 20 100
Promenade Special Event 100 20 135 255
4th of July Town Event 0 18 18 36
Screen on the Green Town Event 0 0 5 5
Halloween Organic, Unpermitted 30 30 0 60
Holiday Light Display Town Event/Unbudgeted 0 0 135* 135+
Holiday Tree Lighting Town Event 58 32 23 113
Children’s Holiday Parade Special Event 290 220 400 910
* This work item is not yet complete. The 135 hours accounts for the repair, delivery,
and installation the holiday light fixtures. Deinstallation has not taken place yet due to
the workload of the January storms. Town staff delivers and picks up the light fixtures
placed on private property, and the Chamber of Commerce pays their vendor to install
in these locations.
Town Events are included in the Town’s adopted annual budget each year. The budgeted line
item pays for the materials of the event, and the staff time is absorbed within each Department
as a part of the Department’s core services.
For special events, limited hours have been charged back to the special event organizer and
thus have been absorbed by the Town. The Promenade received a grant from the Town for the
event series and the cost of the Officers and PPW staff onsite during the event was captured
and included in the grant; however, there were many additional hours that went into managing
the road closure and logistics of the alcohol sales and service that were not. The Chamber of
Commerce was a great partner in working with Town staff to achieve a streamlined process for
the weekly needs and communication of the event.
Likewise, for the 2022 Children’s Holiday Parade, the staff resources for the event were
tremendous. Town staff values this longstanding holiday tradition and takes an active
partnership role with the Los Gatos-Saratoga Recreation (LGS) and the Los Gatos Lions Club in
its planning and implementation. LGS and the Lions provide a large volunteer contingency and
work diligently to remain in open communication with Town staff throughout the planning
process to ensure event logistics are considered and managed.
PAGE 8 OF 11 SUBJECT: Special Events Discussion DATE: January 31, 2023
DISCUSSION (continued):
Multiple Town staff attend the preplanning meetings and meet one-on-one with the event
organizers to ensure a proper road closure and traffic management. The planning for these
event elements is quite involved. For the first time in 2022, the Town engineering staff took on
the work to develop a traffic control plan that can be implemented to meet current traffic
safety standards. With this plan, the need for engagement with a traffic management company
increased significantly, a cost and effort the event organizers were not expecting. Thus, the
Town also took on this additional work and cost to keep the event moving forward.
When it comes to the day of the Parade, this is considered an “all hands-on deck” day for the
Police Department and Parks and Public Works Team, with most, if not all field staff, working at
the event, as well as the Police Department’s volunteer teams of the Disaster Assistance
Response Team (DART) and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). These staff
resources were offered in kind, as they have been in the past, at the direction of the Town
Council through the adopted annual budget. The amount noted in the budget is in-kind for
staff resources and does not account for the hard costs required to hire a traffic management
company for proper implementation of the event scope. In addition, with the lean staffing
levels at the Town, absorbing this staff work in each Department’s budget is challenging, and
does not account for the impacts on the individuals doing the work in addition to the core
services that must be completed. If it is the desire of the Town Council to continue to provide
this support, Town staff is asking the Council to consider allocating additional funding to
support the Parade. With the allocation of additional dollars, Town staff could hire a traffic
management company to oversee more of the traffic closures and closure attendant roles.
Halloween
Some events take place without a permit as either a free speech event or as an organic
gathering of the public without a single entity that will take on the role as the organizer. The
latter is unique to holidays such as Halloween where the greater community tradition is for
children and families to gather in the local neighborhoods for trick or treating. This is
welcomed by many and particularly embraced by a couple of neighborhoods in Los Gatos, the
Almond Grove and Johnson Avenue. For years, thousands of people will gather in these
locations of Los Gatos to trick or treat and enjoy the Halloween festivities. With the absence of
a special event permit, or adopted Town event, road closures have not been planned; however,
are repeatedly necessary given the grand size of the crowd that is unable to remain on
sidewalks.
Moving forward, Town staff recommends that the Town Council acknowledge the need for road
closures in these locations and allocate resources for a traffic control company to be hired by
the Town to close these neighborhoods and staff the closure points. With this resource in
place, Town staff will be able to be most effective working within their roles to support the core
Town services including public safety.
PAGE 9 OF 11 SUBJECT: Special Events Discussion DATE: January 31, 2023
DISCUSSION (continued):
Facilities Use Policy
When providing guidance for event stakeholders, Town staff uses the Town Code to set the
high-level framework and rules for governing events, then refers to the Town Facilities Use
Policy (Policy) to provide more detailed and specific guidance for specific Town facilities. There
is a balance that is necessary to maintain when keeping public facilities open, welcoming, and
available for the public and business of the Town, while also supporting and welcoming special
events.
Attachment 1 contains a redline version of the Policy. Staff is recommending the changes
noted to provide better clarity on use of public facilities for events and limit the number of
street closures for events to ensure there is a balance of the impacts associated with the road
closures. The most notable changes to the Policy are outlined below:
Insurance Requirements - The Towns has recently updated the Certificate of Insurance
requirements and staff believes that keeping this language more general will allow for this
Policy to remain up to date as the requirements may change based on activities or general
Town updates.
Civic Center and Town Meeting Room Facilities - Modification to these sections of the Town’s
Facility Use Policy are minimal and recommended with the intent to clean up and clarify the
language for the end user.
Town Plaza Park - In the previous iterations of the Policy, Oak Meadow Park and Town Plaza
Park were grouped together with the same provisions in place. We now know these two Town
facilities are quite different and serve the community as such. Thus, they have been separated
in the attached draft of the Policy. The intent remains that Plaza Park shall be a facility that
supports special events while always have some portion that remains open to the public.
Road Closures in General - Sections have been added to the Policy to provide guidance and
structure to using the Town’s public roadways for events. Notably, Town staff recommends
that the Policy require that special event organizers involved a professional traffic control
company that is in contact with the Town staff, with sufficient lead time to ensure that all
stakeholders are moving in the same direction and operating under the same understanding.
Road Closure and use of Montebello Way and Broadway for Special Events - There has been an
increase in the public’s interest to use the roadways adjacent to Plaza Park to support special
events. This section has been added to provide framework for such events.
The staff is recommending that outside of the weekly Farmers Market closures, that this
roadway may not be closed and used for special events more than eight times per year. This
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DISCUSSION (continued):
would allow for community vitality events periodically throughout the year, averaging less than
once a month. Staff believes this is a manageable number to support through the events
process.
There is one application currently in the process for March 17, 2023 that is proposing use of
Plaza Park and Montebello Way. Town staff is working with the applicant to firm up the details
and provide a conditional letter of approval. The outcome of the Town Council discussion and
any changes to the Policy will be included in the special event permit.
Road Closure and use of N. Santa Cruz Avenue and Main Street for Special Events - The closure
of these two major streets in the downtown is quite impactful to the surrounding stakeholders.
Staff is recommending that these be limited to no more than three times per year, with an
increased application timeline of 90 days to allow for more sufficient review time. Currently,
the 2023 Children’s Holiday Parade is the only application in process for a N. Santa Cruz Ave.
closure.
Oak Meadow Park - As noted above, this facility has been separated out and remains in the
Policy with the same intent and similar provisions as previous drafts. Language was modified to
increase clarity and come into alignment with how the special event permits and special park
use permits are applied here.
CONCLUSION:
This report provides an overview of the events that took place in Los Gatos during 2022. With
this context, staff is seeking specific direction on resource allocation and a modification of the
Town’s Facilities Use Policy 1-04.
To help guide the conversation, staff has outlined the specific points in which direction is
sought:
• Allocation of Town resources to support the Children’s Holiday Parade, including the
possibility of funding to support the expanded use of a professional traffic
management vendor for the street closure and traffic management of the event.
• Allocation of funding to support the use of a professional traffic management vendor
to implement road closures on Halloween in the Almond Grove and Johnson
neighborhoods.
• Adoption of the modified, redline draft of the Facilities Use Policy (Attachment 1),
including any direction on the proposed parameters for road closures for events.
PAGE 11 OF 11 SUBJECT: Special Events Discussion DATE: January 31, 2023
CONCLUSION (continued):
Should the Town Council wish to allocate resources, including funding, to support special
events, including Halloween road closures and/or the Children’s Holiday Parade, staff can come
back with the specific budget recommendations through the budget process.
COORDINATION:
This report has been a collaboration between the Town Manager’s Office, and the Police and
Parks and Public Works Departments.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The fiscal impacts are dependent upon the actions of the Council as described in this report.
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT:
This is not a project defined under CEQA, and no further action is required.
Attachments:
1. Redlined Draft of 1-04 Town Facilities Use Policy