Algonac to consider late fees for special event permits

Too many instances of permits coming in last minute

By Barb Pert Templeton

At a May 5 city council meeting Algonac officials discussed event applications and the fact that at times many are submitted to the city well after the 90-day deadline.

Councilman Michael Bembas said he’d like a fee structure set for those permits turned in after the deadline along with data showing how many hours the city works on an event permits in those limited windows of time. He asked for the council’s support in asking City Manager Artie Bryson to put the issue with the information requested on the next meeting agenda.

“I know some permits are hours upon hours and there should be a charge for that,” Bembas said. “We shouldn’t be dealing with a city permit within two weeks of the event.”

“I agree because it sits out on the building department counter and someone has to go through that an approve it and we don’t have office staff that is there every day that would need to look at that” Councilwoman Cathy Harris said.

Mayor Pro Tem Dawn Davey said she also agreed with the request but felt giving the city manager more time, perhaps having it on an agenda several meetings away would be more appropriate.

“We want to be sure we are looking at everything; to do the due diligence to make sure we’re doing this right,” Davey said.

Bembas agreed that they could wait for a couple weeks to have it on the agenda but the city shouldn’t be paying the city manager 20 extra hours to complete event permit applications.

“We shouldn’t be paying a city manager at least 20 hours, from what I’ve counted, to do other people’s paper work,” Bembas said. “The people pay the city money to do the city’s work not to do the private corporation’s work and that needs to be differentiated.”

Bryson said he’d put something together, a rough draft, over the next two weeks and email the council members for feedback.

Harris said doesn’t the ordinance say it has to be 90-days prior to the event. Bryson replied that yes that’s the way it’s supposed to be but he just got one that very day for a cornhole tournament on June 6.

“That’s 20-some-odd days away,” Bembas said.

“It’s no big deal and we don’t want to say no, it’s for a cornhole tournament,” Bryson said.

“So, at that point there should be some kind of fee because now you have to tell your employees stop doing what you’re doing because time’s coming up,” Bembas said.

He added that Bryson is a city employee not a working for a non-profit so it shouldn’t be his job.

Councilman Jake Skarbek said he would like to see how the city is scheduling for events and how other cities, like Marine City and New Baltimore, are handling the scheduling of their events in terms of costs.

Looking at adding a fee schedule

Councilwoman Wendy Meldrum asked if someone pulls a special event permit is there a check list of what is required that they have to follow and if so, does it say 45 days or 90 days?

“It’s 90 days by city ordinance,” Harris said.

“I don’t want to be a stickler but I follow policy and procedure if it says it’s got to be 45 and you bring it in at 20 days sorry it’s not going to happen,” Meldrum said. “I know some people say well we really want to make it happen but again it’s a structured plan and sorry but if we do it for one then we have to do it for all so we just have to buckle down and stick to it.”

“That or they are going to have pay more money,” Bryson said.

Skarbek said he is probably the worst offender because he’ll say oh a month from now let’s do it. So, he agrees it has to be more money if it’s going to take the city more time to process the paperwork.

Mayor Rocky Gillis said they also have to look at the events individually because they have yet to get a permit request for the VFW’s annual Memorial Day Parade but they know they are going to get that and they aren’t ever going to turn that event down.

“I’m not going to tell the VFW they can’t do it,” Bryson said.

Davey and Bembas said there’s nothing wrong with the city manager sending these groups a reminder letter well in advance of their annual events that land on the calendar year after year.

Skarbek said he has the process down to a science now so it anyone needs help filing their event permit paperwork he’d help out, no problem.

Bembas agreed that several members of the council are well versed in running events and applying for permits and they’d also be happy to help but the group has to take the initiative to get it done.

“Like Wendy will say, your procrastination isn’t my emergency,” Bembas said.

Meldrum said she likes the idea of taking a list of annual events and sending those groups reminders that they have only 90 days to file their paperwork.

Gillis said the flip side of all that is he doesn’t want to deny the residents something good just because someone missed a deadline.

“If all of a sudden somebody decides that they need to have a fundraiser real quick Mr. Bryson should have the ability to say we had this happen in our community, this person wants to use the Lions Field for a large fundraise but it has to happen quickly. then we should have some flexibility,” Gillis said.

At that point Bembas said the council could waive any additional fees in that special case.