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Finance committee recommends fee waiver up to $2,500 for film festival amid questions about city sponsorship
Summary
The committee gave a favorable recommendation for a fee waiver (R 10) allowing up to $2,500 in waived fees for the film festival. Members questioned the festival’s total city funding (noted as $15,000) and asked organizers to confirm compliance with noise and other event rules before final approval.
The Annapolis Finance Committee on Feb. 26 voted to favorably recommend R 10, a fee waiver request for the city's film festival, described to the committee as a waiver of up to $2,500 in municipal fees.
Committee members raised questions about the festival’s existing city support. Several members noted the city already provides a $15,000 sponsorship line item for the film festival in the planning and zoning budget and said the event likely also receives support from the Art in Public Places program. “The film festival is an organization that gets money from the city,” Alderman Finlayson said, urging the committee to consider the total city support provided to the festival before routinely granting fee waivers.
Finlayson said she supports the festival and has urged increasing city sponsorship in the past, adding, “a $15,000 sponsorship is a mere pittance to what it costs to run the festival.” She encouraged that the city receive fuller accounting of the festival’s expenditures and suggested the city consider whether fee waivers duplicate existing financial support.
Other members voiced support for the waiver but asked for assurance the festival will follow city rules — including noise ordinances — or will pursue exceptions through the proper process. The committee’s discussion included a request that organizers provide documentation or in-person assurances about compliance with permitting, noise and public-safety requirements prior to final approval.
A motion to give a favorable recommendation for R 10 carried on a voice vote. The committee did not record individual roll-call vote counts in the transcript.
