Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
Council tables Rugaroo Fest parking-fee waiver request for two weeks after debate over civic-center revenue
Loading...
Summary
Organizers asked the council to waive an estimated $7,000 Civic Center parking-lot fee for Rugaroo Fest; councilors cited civic-center budget shortfalls and precedent concerns and voted 7-2 to table the request for two weeks pending a budget-impact report.
The Terrebonne Parish Council on Sept. 24 voted to table for two weeks a request from Rugaroo Fest organizers to waive the Houma Civic Center parking-lot fee, after council members debated the festivals economic benefits and the potential revenue loss to the Civic Center.
Jonathan Foray, identified in the meeting record as chairperson for Rugaroo Fest and executive director of the South Louisiana Center for the Arts, told the council the event generates an estimated $4.4 million in economic impact for Terrebonne Parish and asked that the typical Civic Center parking-lot fee (historically about $7,000 for the festival) be waived to help cover the festivals remaining production costs. "We have an economic impact on Terrebonne Parish of 4,400,000," Foray told the council. "We ask that you consider waiving the fee because we still have all the other expenses that we have to pay."
Several council members questioned whether waiving the fee would be fair to the Civic Center and to other event organizers. One councilmember noted that the Civic Center had been asked to cut its budget by roughly $40,000 this year and said repeated fee waivers could undermine the facility's ability to meet obligations. The councilmember contrasted Rugaroo Fest with another event, HeroFest, which the councilman said produced substantial on-site alcohol revenue that benefited the Civic Center and, in his view, offset that event's waived fees. "If we keep giving their funding away, well, then they'll never be able to operate the Civic Center," the councilmember said.
Foray said some festival revenue had supported other parish facilities: after the Wetlands Discovery Center assumed management of the Bayou Terrebonne Water Life Museum, organizers invested about $183,000 in repairs and reactivation of exhibits. "Some of the money that we're bringing in is actually going back into parish facilities," Foray said.
Council members repeatedly asked for consistent policy and for an accounting of net revenue impacts before approving ad-hoc waivers. After extended discussion a substitute motion to table the item for two weeks carried 7-2, with the council requesting that administration provide a clear budget-impact analysis and recommendations for a consistent fee-waiver policy.
Action recorded: substitute motion to table the fee-waiver request for two weeks (motion passed 7-2). The council asked staff to return the item with detailed figures showing how the Civic Center would be affected and alternatives for handling security and parade costs associated with festivals.
The council did not decide on the fee waiver itself; the item will return to the next agenda with requested analysis.
