Travis County Commissioners Court
December 8, 2009,
Item 17
17 is consider and take appropriate action regarding license agreement with the quarter horse association for use of the Travis County exposition center.
this one came to me, ms.
ornet, right?
>> right.
>> this is one that we've been dealing with historically also and the deal they've had historically has been for half the rent.
but they pay for horse stalls based on the number that they use, and this started out, I think, as much smaller and it's kind of grown.
what I did was indicate invoice from the most recent one as well as I think the '09 they had three.
and the backup basically indicates what came to Travis County as a result of that.
this has been a $450 rental discount, but when you add up all that they use, they have been paying Travis County from 1,000 to $1,900.
and in '09, the three shows brought us 4500 bucks.
4595.
>> Commissioner, roger el khoury.
this is -- in the past, this show is very small.
it used to be like 20 horses and they use only small portion of the -- of the show barn.
based on that old policy right there, we gave them the 50% discount on the rental.
and I believe they want to carry with that 50%, which is $450, for -- you know, for -- currently and for the future.
the other things, what happened today is that they have more horses than 20 at that time.
now I believe they have more than 50 horses.
that was back into the regular show.
so that's why the
>> [indiscernible] we are requesting to -- for the rental of the facility and then we bring it back to the court for any discount on that $900.
the other amenities they have, it's -- it's normal to have the bleachers.
we'll have to -- we'll have to
>> [indiscernible] for the bleachers and they want to use like 50 stalls.
and also for one day show event for the custodial.
and about stall cleaning, all of them, any fee schedules approved, and the last one we have, we have to do one track for the sand and the arena for $25 an hour.
and basically that's all it is.
it's just a normal one.
and in the past they had 50% discount on the rental of the facility.
>> but they have paid custodial --
>> yes.
>> -- for custodial services?
and stalls over 20 they pay $20 per stall?
>> we were paying a sliding scale.
for each 20 stalls we used we added another $200 to the basic fee.
based on the usage, we are actually paying I think the full rate.
and we don't disagree with that.
we would like to address the -- the facility rental.
we would like to have the discount, being a nonprofit, for the facility, half price.
i would ask that we waive the drag.
i think that that really should be something offered by the facility based on the nature of the event.
and we're not asking for multiple drags, but just, you know, one drag during the event.
also, I think that it's -- the bleachers should be provided by the county.
if an exhibiter is at that facility, we're paying for the rental of the barn, I think it's the county's responsibility to provide bleachers for the participants to have their family and friends come and view them, you know, showing their horse.
i mean --
>> so that's different from the facilities management recommendation.
>> right.
we have never paid for a drag.
we've never paid for bleachers at any of our events.
we've been having shows in this facility since 1985.
>> part of this is due to the fact on the rate schedule -- it's been on the rate schedule for some time and only in the recent past since I'm relatively new, I've seen usage of this is arbitrary.
all I'm trying to do is --
>> consistency?
no way.
>> but I'd like to add ms.
arnett has been a pleasure to deal with and when she refers to the nature of her show, her show has historically only required one drag, which is really not a huge deal.
but for purposes of clarification and transparency, this is on her costing schedule, unlike some other shows where they want to you drag four and five times whenever they want us which means you are on call, you have qualified staff ready and waiting to drag.
in her case she can easily identify when that's going to be so you don't have staff sitting there waiting doing very little until it's time to do that and many times particularly when there's outdoor arenas being used.
all of this is an effort to
>> [inaudible] since it had not been done.
>> some ms.
arnett cantelupo t, are we onthe same page?
>> based on the schedule michael sent to me yesterday just outlining what the charges would be if it was in line with your fee schedule, those two things were listed that were different from what we had generally done in the past.
so I would like to make note that we would like for those two fees to be waived and we would also like to have the nonprofit discount on the facility.
>> what do those fees come to?
>> in other words, the bleachers for two bleachers is about like $40 and one track it's total of about $65.
and the 450 would be for the discount on the rental.
>> so 450 plus 65?
>> 65.
it's 515.
>> which represents a half price rental on the facility and waiving those other amenities.
>> that by the same token, if we have a larger show, we bring in more horses, you are also making more income off the stalls.
we base this fee on 50 horses.
we do not know when we set up a show how many participants.
there's no pre-entry.
it's whoever shows up on that particular day.
typically we started with a very small show.
we've developed a very good rapport with the horse industry in the area and we've had very good participation.
so hopefully it will be of benefit to both of us to have more exhibitors.
you make more money off the stalls, we make more income off the entries.
>> how strongly do we feel about that $65?
>> considering the good relationship we have, I think we're good to waive it.
we recommend to waive it this time.
>> if we do this, we basically keep in place the same thing we've had in the past.
you heard us discuss reviewing these.
>> yes, sir.
>> and next year trying to -- trying to land on a policy that includes a multi-year understanding.
>> and I think it's very prudent on your part.
it's very discon certaining to try to plan events and not have a fee schedule.
we've not been able to advertise we have a show scheduled for January 23rd.
we have been on hold for months waiting for some resolution on this, but we felt like it wasn't prudent on our part to advertise an event and find out that the fee schedule was so high we can't make a profit of the we are a nonprofit, but we still have to pay for our awards, our judges, our show secretary staff.
we're just like any other business, we have to look at the bottom line.
>> and proceeds beyond that scholarships for --
>> we do offer scholarships.
it's on our website.
we welcome anyone to review that.
>> I included the scholarship as part of the general information.
mr.
davis.
>> I would just say with that I would like to move approval of the $450 and also waive the $65 for the --
>> and also if we can offer any assistance when you start looking at your fee schedule as far as a horse show event.
>> thank you so much for that.
>> multi purposes.
and some things don't apply to some organizations that apply --
>> to others.
that probably will come up with that new policy, whatever policy the court is embracing in the future.
>> we would like to help in any way we can.
>> thank you so much for that.
>> citizen input on that.
any more discussion?
that's for $515, 450 plus 656789 all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
thank you all, roger and mr.
norton and also ms.
arnett.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, December 8, 2009 2:30 PM
