Investigation into special event planning in Stillwater, Oklahoma

Abstract

The City of Stillwater hosts a number of special events each year, including parades, public gatherings, and fun runs. These events require services from the City of Stillwater, including traffic control, staffing, police security, and emergency management. The costs associated with providing these services are paid from by the City of Stillwater's General Operating Budget, rather than a Special Event Budget. In addition, the special event application process is complicated and has not been clearly documented. Applications are frequently submitted incorrectly and must be revised several times, or are submitted late.

To understand these problems better, the team conducted interviews with the departments involved in approving and reviewing special event applications. These departments included the Office of the City Manager, Parks and Recreation, the Department of Transportation, Stillwater Emergency Management, the Police Department, the Fire Department, and Marking and Public Relations. As a result of these interviews, the team learned of the current situation and were provided with historical data of costs and events for 2013, 2014, and 2015. The team also benchmarked similar municipalities and surveyed past applicants to understand their perspective of the process.

Through the departmental interviews and surveys of past applicants, several issues were identified within the special event application process. To begin, there was no central point of contact for special events. This resulted in errors in the special event application forms and frustration for the applicant. Forms frequently had to be reviewed and adapted before being sent to the involved departments for review. If there were any concerns about the proposed event, the application was returned to the applicant with suggestions or requested modifications.

The team recommends designating a special event coordinator, who will handle questions and concerns throughout the process, as well as working to ensure that the application is completed without errors prior to submittal to the other departments for review. In order to make things more convenient for the applicant and the special event coordinator, the team also recommends that the City of Stillwater implement an online application form, rather than the paper form that is currently in place. This will allow for easier editing of the application throughout the process, and also easier tracking of what changes have been made.

Communication between departments was conducted via email, often creating difficulty in clear communication and increasing the time spent reviewing an application. Departments would begin working on preparation for the event as soon as the application was submitted for review, since most applications are submitted less than thirty days prior to the event. This proved to be inefficient, since in some cases the event would not get all of the necessary approvals and would not take place. This resulted in frustration on the departmental side of the application process, as well as lost time and effort.

To address these issues, the team recommends changing the process flow to where the application is sent from the special event coordinator to the Office of the City Manager for approval first, and then to the involved departments. This will result in the departments only working on applications that have already been approved. To improve communication between departments during the review process, the team recommends implementing scheduled meetings where all departments may gather on a periodic basis to discuss applications and any concerns they may have.

It was also found that 5K events were a growing concern within the City of Stillwater. With the applicant submitting the desired route to be run, which often requires street closure, there were multiple iterations of negotiation taking place between the applicant and the involved departments, to ensure the safety of participants and the general public. By creating two potential 5K routes for applicants to choose from, the City of Stillwater will be able to better plan for and standardize the cost of 5K events, which have historically been an issue for the city.

Another issue identified during the data collection stage of the project was a lack of accountability in terms of expenditures. The City covered special event support costs through funds allocated to the City's General Operating Budget, rather than a budget set aside specifically for special events. Between 2013 and 2014, the overall costs spent supporting special events increased by more than $50,000. Without a budget for special events, there is no way to understand exactly where money was spend and determine how much support the City could feasibly offer.

The team also analyzed the historical data provided. It was found that the beginning and end of the school year were peak seasons for special events, while the more costly events typically took place in the middle of the year. Costs incurred through special events came from staffing, police and fire support, equipment, traffic control, etc. Since these items are directly related to public safety and, in many cases, bound by governmental regulations, significantly reducing these costs proved not to be a feasible option. Instead, the team worked to find ways to better share and offset the costs, improve process flow, and reduce inefficiencies.

In terms of cost, the team has determined various ways for the City of Stillwater to both anticipate and manage costs through an annual special event budget of $150,000, and also share costs with the applicant through the use of a tiered cost recovery system. The proposed total for the Special Event Budget is greater than what was spent in 2013, less than what was spent in 2014, and within $1,500 of what was spent in 2015.

In addition to these recommendations, the team has also recommended implementing both an application fee and a late fee, which should serve to discourage late applications and provide the appropriate amount of time for all preparation and planning processes to take place. These costs and fee recommendations are anticipated to generate $28,350 in the 2016-2017 fiscal year, which the City of Stillwater could either use to support additional special events, or use to reduce the amount of funds set aside for the special event budget.