Fiscal Note
No significant fiscal impacts are antcipated.
Title
Creating Section 8.175 and amending Section 1.08(3)(a) of the Madison General Ordinances to establish a parks facility catering permit.
Body
DRAFTER'S ANALYSIS: This ordinance creates a parks facility catering permit. Currently, it is a longstanding Parks Division practice that a limited amount of caterers have been allowed to provide food and drink catering services at the Warner Park Community Recreational Center and Olbrich Gardens facilities. This policy was meant to protect the City's facilities and the City's customers by limiting access to catering opportunities to those caterers with an established track record of working with the City and the City's customers. Under this policy, caterers were required to remit 12% of their net catering sales to the City. However, it has been discovered that the existing arrangements have not been specifically authorized by the Council nor are they expressly permitted by ordinance. As such, it has proven to be challenging to approve new caterers at these locations. There also does not appear to be a mechanism to approve caterers at other City parks facilities. This ordinance will codify the existing practices into a permit system, while opening up catering opportunities at City parks facilities to any caterer able to meet the City's standards. This will make City parks facilities more competitive with private rental spaces by providing greater catering options for the City's customers. In addition, there are currently no minority-owned caterers on the approved caterer lists. This ordinance will open up catering opportunities at parks facilities to minority-owned caterers who otherwise are unable to offer those services under existing practice, and is therefore in line with the City's equity goals. Furthermore, by charging a permit fee to recover the City's administrative costs of overseeing the catering program, the City is able to reduce the facility usage fee to 10% of net catering sales. Finally, if the Parks Division wishes to limit catering opportunities at a particular facility, it may do so by conducting an RFP process for catering services that is approved by the Common Council, at which point the parks facility catering permit will no longer apply to that facility and specific agreements will then be entered into with approved caterers. This ordinance shall be effective July 1, 2015.
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The Common Council of the City of Madison do hereby ordain as follows:
Please see "Body" in Attachments.