West Hollywood staff explain RFPs, budgets and security plans for major city events
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Summary
Event Services staff told Civic Leadership Academy participants that the city uses multiyear RFPs to hire full‑service production firms for large events, that security arrangements vary by event and that the 2025 WeHo Pride event budget exceeded $5 million.
City staff on the Civic Leadership Academy stage laid out how West Hollywood plans and pays for major events, explaining the procurement process, security arrangements and budgetary oversight.
Megan Reith, event services supervisor, told participants the city’s municipal code defines a major event as “a temporary activity that has a full street closure and or generates impacts in multiple areas of traffic, noise, or safety,” and said those events require coordination across many city divisions. Reith said that for city‑produced events the department typically seeks a single full‑service production firm under a multiyear contract to handle design, marketing, staging and artist booking.
Why it matters: West Hollywood hosts some of the region’s largest gatherings — including WeHo Bridal, the Halloween Carnival and WeHo Pride — that attract tens of thousands of people and require months or years of planning, public‑safety coordination and contracts that can total millions of dollars.
Reith said the city manages procurement by issuing event‑specific RFPs and awarding single vendors for substantial scopes of work. “We seek to contract with a full service event production firm, and award a single contract,” she said. She declined to give exact recent contract amounts on the spot but said the overall budget for WeHo Pride in 2025 was “over $5,000,000,” and that production accounts for a significant portion of that sum.
On security and sheriff services, a participant asked why some events have magnetometer screening and contract directly with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department while others (notably large street festivals) operate with an open footprint. Reith said security arrangements and sheriff contracts differ by event and are negotiated with each organizer; some external producers contract directly with LASD and LAFD, while the city’s permitting and on‑site coordination remain part of the planning process.
A city coordinator described how event fees and waivers work: the council can waive fees through co‑sponsorship but does not automatically waive fees for every external event; fee and permit terms are negotiated case by case. An attendee who asked whether the city audits contractor spending was told contracts are “prescriptive,” that staff approve spending in advance and that the city may request proof of payment or conduct audits where needed.
Reith also said many external events supported by the city have a public‑benefit rationale. She cited the Elton John AIDS Foundation’s Oscar viewing party, which city staff said has raised more than $80 million for AIDS research through its time in West Hollywood Park. Reith noted that events like CicLAvia and the LA Marathon provide community and fundraising opportunities in partnership with producers.
Next steps: Staff encouraged participants to watch for forthcoming RFP notices and announced that planning for FIFA fan zones and LA28 is underway; the council has committed funding toward a Pride House during LA28. The city did not announce new vendor selections or contract awards at the session.
